- The ARC - California Edition -

Keeping the Bugs Away

1. Know your enemy: For a mosquito, tick or flea to become a disease-carrier, it must previously have bitten and drawn blood from a mammal which already was afflicted with a disease.

Statistically, it is only a minority of the bugs out there in the human environment which has had any contact with some source of bacteria related to disease, and therefore, most are "disease-free" — at least from diseases important to humans.

2. Civilize your surroundings: A lot of these disease-carriers live in tall grass, bushes, and wooded areas. So keep grassy and weedy areas trimmed away from near where you live in order to reduce the number of places where those mosquito, tick, and flea hosts of disease might lay their eggs and thrive.

To reduce the numbers of mosquitoes, it clearly makes sense to eliminate any standing water where mosquito eggs might be laid and hatched.

3. Avoid threatening locations: The three types of bugs which we are discussing in this issue of The Prevention News most commonly are hanging around in grassy pastures, prairies, swamps, and wooded areas. These areas can be found in downtown Los Angeles.

It makes sense that if you have to invade their territory, wherever their territory is, then you should stick to the center of YOUR trails and avoid any direct contact with the surrounding plant growth as much as you possibly can.

It also makes good sense to keep your dog (or cat or parrot) away from such areas because our domestic pets often become the receptor of a disease-carrying bug, and if that happens, they can pass it on to you.

4. Cover yourself up: Wear light-colored clothing with long trousers and long-sleeved shirts. Protect your feet with socks, use closed-toed shoes, and definitely wear a hat. Close your shirt cuffs and your shirt collar buttons. Tuck your shirt into your pants and then stuff your pants into your socks.

"Coomme ooonnn", I hear. Well, okay if you don’t choose to close up, then tell the little buggers to come on!

The reason for the light-colored clothing is that it will make the mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas more visible on your clothing so that you will know when you are being threatened or not. The reason for the long sleeves and long legged trousers should also be obvious. How about your neck, your head?

5. Use a bug repellent. There are a number of bug repellents, which sprayed on clothing, or on the skin of the person, works to keep these disease carriers at bay. Some of them do a pretty good job of it. The more effective repellents contain the active ingredient diethyl toluamide, commonly called DEET.

DEET is one of the older ones, having been sold in the US as a repellent for over 40 years. It comes in all types of forms — sprays, aerosols, gels, liquids, sticks and treated towels. But over these years some issues have arisen — children versus adult doses, concentrations on the skin versus concentrations on the clothing, natural versus "chemical" repellents. In this issue, there is not time to answer them all, but consider the following.

For adults, use a repellent containing 20-30% DEET for clothing. Never use any compound that is more concentrated than 35% DEET. Avoid eyes and mouth area. DEET-containing products must be used sparingly on children under the age of ten, and should never be used on children under two.

6. Finally, after an outing in an area where these critters are common, make sure you do a full body check. Don’t forget the hairy regions.