Raleigh News & Observer
Saturday, July 5, 2003 Raleigh, North Carolina
Mosquito Magic® Helps Local Artist
Deal With Mosquitos
With Biting Bugs At Bay, Budding Artist Can Come Out.
By CAROL STEIN
Since first seeing Claude Monet's paintings of his incredible garden at Giverny, I've had the romantic notion that one day I would have a such a lovely garden of my very own. Of course, that's never going to happen.
Panther Branch is probably nothing at all like France in terms of climate and soil conditions. But I do have a garden I can be proud of, and my dream has always been to sit outdoors and paint ("en plein air ," as Monet would have said), rendering my impressions of my humble landscape onto canvas, just as the old master impressionist did.
Until recently, I thought that was never going to happen either. Because no matter what methods I've tried to keep the bugs from devouring me, my precautions have always been met with an eventual onslaught of gnats, no-see-ums, flies and mosquitoes. Picture it -- I squirt a rainbow of colors onto my palette, sit there, giddy with creative urges, waiting for inspiration to strike, and before I can apply paint to canvas, I'm swatting at the bugs so vigorously that I end up with all the paint on myself. Some of my work shirts could be mistaken for Jackson Pollock knock-offs.
For all my fellow gardeners, painters and sun worshippers, there might be hope in a product I was introduced to a couple of summers ago.
Forgive me for keeping it a secret for so long, but I wanted to be sure my field tests were conclusive before I shared the news. With our recent abundant rains, the bug population has exploded. Some mosquitoes are carrying very vile viruses, and the time is right to let you in on three great ways to beat the bugs.
The first product is not available in local stores. A friend at The Garden Hut in Fuquay-Varina recommended Mosquito Magic® to me two summers ago. I bought the thing (a green clip-on badge with "magic" crystals inside), clip it on my shirt pocket every time I venture into the garden, and the bugs leave me alone. Really.
Because it works so well for me, I wanted to purchase more clip-ons to give as gifts (mine is still working after two years) and was told that I'd have to contact the manufacturer through the Web site, http://www.mosquitomagic.com I did so, and found that the North Carolina-based company has expanded its product line to include insect repelling glycerin soaps for both humans and pets . The products contain no poisons or harmful or harsh chemicals, and are environmentally friendly.
Mosquito Magic® doesn't kill bugs, it repels them. I promise.
I've mentioned before that I am highly allergic to bug bites. Nothing has changed in that department. I also attract them mightily, as if I were wearing Eau d' Nanny Goat toilet water, when I forget to wear my little green badge filled with Mosquito Magic. Which I stupidly did one morning when I went to the mailbox to post some letters. Noticing some weeds that needed pulling, I lost track of time, and when I finally realized my error, my ankles were ringed with skeeter bites.
That in itself wasn't all that stupid, but when I went inside to raid the onion basket, I found it empty. More on that later. Anyway, I took a shower and applied anti-itch cream from the drugstore, thinking I might be able to delay the swelling long enough to get a dose of onion juice home remedy. On the way, I vowed to buy more Mosquito Magic.
Alas, that was the day that I learned that The Garden Hut had sold out of Mosquito Magic. But my friend and fellow sufferer, Debbie Sauders, recommended a new product. Since she was the one who introduced me to Mosquito Magic, I listened. We spritzed the new product, SkinSkreen (http://www.equuskreen.com/ ), on my bites and within seconds, the itching stopped. The bites did not swell up, turn into blisters or begin oozing goo onto the bedclothes in the night, which is what normally happens to my extremely delicate and annoying skin when I fail to guard it against predators. Debbie said that SkinSkreen is the next best thing she has found to repel mosquitoes and bugs, and she uses it every day when she works in the greenhouse. It's a mixture of botanical oils, with a pleasant lemony fragrance and certainly comes to the rescue even after the fact.
The onion method works almost as well as the SkinSkreen in taking the sting out of bites, but only if you have fresh onions on hand. I've used onion juice on every type of insect bite -- just cut the onion and rub it on the bite. I've even used it on wasp and bee stings, and it somehow neutralizes the venom so well that there's rarely even any swelling. It may not work for everyone, but it has worked for everyone I've ever recommended it to, and I have the thank-you cards and letters to prove it.
Right now, I thank Debbie for suggesting that Eau d' Citronella, with a hint of peppermint and rosemary oils, is several steps above Eau d' Vidalia. The onion method is OK in a pinch, but I'd rather slice those vidalias and eat them on a nice grilled veggie burger, while I sit in my garden preparing to be engulfed by inspiration rather than swarms of mosquitoes.