Summer is great for spending time outdoors and enjoying your local environment. It pays to be aware that your little slice of paradise may have the odd unwanted visitor like mosquitoes or wasps. Bites and stings are a natural hazard and most of the time are a relatively rare nuisance and itchy inconvenience. Insects that bite and sting include mosquitoes, ants, wasps, bees, sandflies and fleas.

Mosquitoes breed in swamps, ponds and anything else that holds water. Only female mosquitoes bite and they need the protein found in blood to help develop their eggs. They’re most active at dusk and dawn and are attracted to people by skin odours and carbon dioxide from breath. To minimise the number of mosquitoes around your home:

• Empty children’s pools and store them away when they’re not in use.
• Check for any areas of stagnant standing water and eradicate them.
• Clean out your rain gutters regularly.
• Keep your lawn and hedges well trimmed to reduce shady areas where mosquitoes can rest.
• Change into long sleeved clothing and trousers at dusk.
• investigate mosquito lamps or misting sprays. These use a variety of natural and synthetic repellents to deter flying and crawling insects.

If you decide to use a personal insect repellent (ones you spray on your skin) carefully read and follow the directions and warnings on the product label. Insect repellents can reduce the efficacy of some sunscreens so read the product labels carefully.

Repellents generally contain an active ingredient and solvents. When the product is applied the solvents evaporate leaving the active repellent in a layer over the skin. This barrier blocks the biting insect’s ability to locate you. Repellents don’t kill mosquitoes and are effective only at short distances from the treated surface. The most common active ingredients are:

• DEET (N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide)
• Picaridin (KBR 3023, also known as Icaridin)

Bites and stings inject venom into our skin, triggering a mild allergic response of localised swelling and itching that usually passes in a matter of minutes or hours. Ants, mosquitoes, sandflies and fleas leave a temporary maddening itch but wasp and bee stings are usually extremely painful and in some rare cases life threatening if an anaphylactic reaction occurs.

Wasps can sting repeatedly but bees leave their stinger embedded in the skin so can only sting once. Don’t pull the stinger out with your fingers as this could compress the venom sac and inject more poison. Instead use a straight-edged object such as a credit card or a blunt knife to brush the stinger off.  Wash the area and apply an ice pack to ease pain and swelling.

Check homeopathic and antihistamine remedies with your pharmacist or family doctor.  If the stung area is swollen, bruised and painful try arnica or ledum may be an option. Manuka or tea tree oil can be applied to the affected area to soothe the pain and the itching. Wasp stings can be helped by the traditional remedy of applying lemon juice, vinegar or a cut onion to the area, while bee stings may be soothed by a solution of baking soda and water.

If you’re at the beach and stung by a jellyfish treat the area with warm water – it’s more effective than cold water or ice. Avoid using vinegar as it can actually aggravate the sting of some New Zealand jellyfish species. More importantly, if there are any signs of distress such as breathing difficulty, seek medical assistance immediately.

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