I am the kind of person that bugs find delicious.
I've spent a lot of time researching this because it's been a characteristic of mine that I find less than enjoyable. I read that it has something to do with my particular skin chemistry, and the chemistry of similarly-afflicted individuals. In the magical cross-section that is my epidermis, the makeup of proteins and cholesterol molecules is arranged just so, to be highly attractive to insects that enjoy feasting on flesh. Yum.
When I was in India in the wintertime, I remember standing in a huddle of girls at the Theotokos Girls' Orphanage, and just watching the little clouds of mosquitoes float over the heads of the other girls and then land gently on me. I would be doused in bug repellent of all kinds to the point where the little children just assumed it was my "scent," my anti-mosquito perfume.
Stateside, if you're lucky enough to be sitting next to me at an outdoor event, you will probably suffer less bug bites because they will bypass you to eat me. And when the weather gets cooler or even when it's blistering hot and normal people aren't bothered by the biting insects, I can still be seen slapping at invisible uninvited pests and scratching at a new puncture site.
So... now on to what started our farmhouse upgrade:
Did you know that chiggers and dirt fleas can make their way inside of the house and carpet even if you don't have indoor/outdoor pets? I did not know this. Or perhaps more accurately, this was not a concern that I had in the forefront of my mind while living in the city. However having lived on our lovely little farm for two summers now, I've discovered the wonderful invisible chigger friends, and less invisible, but still annoying dirt flea encounter--an experience that leaves me missing mosquitoes, and thinking back on them with nostalgia.
These little pests somehow manage to attach themselves to me, but because they're so small.... you can't really see them, and they just bite away at you all night and day. Have you ever just felt your skin crawling while you're sleeping, pulled back the sheets and see nothing? And then the next day your legs and feet are covered in tiny little INFURIATINGLY ITCHY bites? No? I'm thankful for you, but that was me almost every day for the past two summers.
At the height of my misery, I counted 80 bites. On one leg. ONE LEG. My doctor thought I had a bad case of eczema when I went in for a physical. Imagine their expression when I told them, "No. It's just chiggers." I was sent home with many a pamphlet on insect bites and how to prevent them, and other things like Zika and Malaria and even one on dengue fever.
Changed the sheets at least once a week. Kept shoes and clothes that went outside away from the bed. Vacuumed once a week at least but without much improvement. No one else seemed to mind because no one else was being eaten, but a grumpy, itchy momma was no picnic for anyone.... and because fleas, at least, were visible and occasionally seen hopping in the carpet, we deduced that was a lovely haven for all the arthropodic inhabitants of our house. It had to go.
This was fine for me. We have a dirt road, kids that spill all sorts of things on the carpet, on top of fleas and chiggers.... plus I'm Asian, and the thought of smooth floors is a happy one. So over the course of three weekends with the help of our good neighborhood friends at Jennings Carpentry, we took out the old carpet and put in new, flea-less, beautiful wooden floors....
And wouldn't you know it? The minute the floors were in, I stopped having new bites. In fact, I haven't had a new bug bite in ages---aside from the random mosquito that decided to eat my face while I was outside. My battle scars are healing and slowly fading away, and I am so happy that nothing can hide to attack me in our house ... in the floors at least. Don't get me started on the creepers that crawl out of the light fixtures (the wonders of country life continue to astound me---but that's for another story :D)
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