A piece of genius

It's a girl thing in our family, for the most part, anyway. We are hardly out of the plane and the mosquitoes are queuing up to welcome us to whatever sunny destination we have chosen. Bites are many and not just itchy, they swell and they pus and eventually become infected. I have even had two over the years that have calcified and had to be operated away, not that this would ever stop me from seeking out the sun and the south, of course. But still, they are annoying.

Charlotte is one step behind me, with the odd permanent scar but no ops as yet and this year Anna joined us in number of bites, if not yet in severity. Give the buggers time...

So we arrived in Tuscany this year and within one night I looked like a pin cushion. I try not to scratch, I'd go as far as to say I've almost mastered that, but it is still unsightly enough to draw questions.

One evening I was talking to Thomas's German cousin Antje when she noticed the state of me. She went into her bag and pulled out this little tool. I'm not fully sure what the concept is. It has a flat top and a couple of buttons. You hold it to your bite (as soon after it happens as possible). A little ceramic plate on the end heats up to between 50 and 60 degrees burning into your wound. It is quite unpleasant but strangely for a number of hours afterwards the itch is no longer present. And if it comes back later, another 6 second blast is usually enough to kill it off completely. Over and above the missing itch, they no longer swell or become infected.

It truly is a magic mosquito wand. I've since come home and bought one for myself off Amazon.de and it will never be far from my travel bag going forward. Anna tried it too and agreed it was quite a relief. So far the wuss that is her older sister is yet to brave it, but I'll work on her again next year😂

In the meantime, I would highly recommend it to anyone with a mosquito issue. Here's a link to one supplier.