Biting Critters

I'm itching and scratching and it won't stop!

And I'm sitting here with stinging palms from trying to catch a THING which may or may not be a gnat, the latest icky bug creature I have to be horrified about, after what happened to Vicky today.

It's most probably mosquitoes, our annual nemesis and scourge of summer. For two nights this week, we had one in our bedroom. You hear it buzzing by your ear, but you just know that if you turn on the light to try to find it, it won't make an appearance. So you try to get back to sleep, hoping there's still some juice in the 'earth no mat' (does anyone have any idea why the heck electric/potion mozzie repellant thingies are called that in Japan? Apart from 'electric/potion mozzie repellant thingie being a really dumb name?), and hoping that not being able to currently hear it means it has actually gone. Which it never has, of course, it's always just before you drift off that you hear that bzzzzz again.

So we spent two sleepless, ITCHY nights, making me wonder just how much blood one mother mozzie needs - does she just keep topping up with fresh blood until she finds somewhere to lay her eggs? Or were there more? There probably were on the second night, when we found the balcony door open in the morning.

It could also be dani, bedbugs, but I don't think so. They leave a particular kind of small red bite, and don't attack for only two nights. Nevertheless, the mattress and bedding has all been changed and 'aired' (if you can call it that on a rainy damp day, and inside!). I will have to vacuum them too, I suppose.

Kanji's theory was that it was a flea. Apparently he caught a flea on himself. Instantly rang me to report it, and I supposed I was supposed to react with great interest and panic and DO something... all I did was sigh, swear under my breath at why I always have to 'do something' and vaguely tell him I didn't think animal fleas bit humans. He calls me later to tell me some site on the internet says they do. He also found out that if you place a basin of water with a splash of sake in it in the room, it'll attract the fleas. So he rushes home to put the plan into action. I must say I was VERY relieved when the plan turned up no fleas after an hour (and did not DARE suggest that you probably have to leave it a bit longer).

And then there's lice... are head lice really more prevalent in summer, or do I just think about them more, because of all the bugs and itchiness around anyway? My head just seems to be itchy, so I checked Amy's head - nothing. Maybe it's just sweat rash, or prickly heat. Prickly heat is a better term as it sums up perfectly the feeling you get of your skin just prickling all over, usually around the face, neck and arms. 

At least it's not a mukade. That's a centipede, but that word in English is almost cute, I much prefer the Japanese word, it seems to sum up the true evil of the creature better with those hard consonants. Lena had the bad luck to the be the first to sight one this year, behind the cabinet in the kitchen, near the laundry pile in the corner there that is supposed to be in a basket only I can't find it. I was in the shower at the time, and when I got out, I found all the laundry piled in the hall, and Amy telling me that the mukade definitely isn't in the laundry. She had gone through it to check! I can only imagine how you would do that, picking up each bit in one finger and one thumb, shaking it out a bit while taking a big step backwards and shuddering... what a sweetie, to do that for poor Lena, who was freaking out so much that I had to actually tell her off for being such a wet blanket. We are ALL horrified by mukade, Lena, not just you, and you know what? That mukade is terrified of us and hiding right now, so we are NOT going to be able to find it!

Usually I blame my old house, but this week I heard the mukade horror story from hell from a woman whose house is only 5 or 10 years old - one bit her on her face in bed!  I've only seen one upstairs - crawling across Erica's bed when she was three months old. I had her in my arms, feeding her at the time when I saw it, which was better of course than seeing it crawl ON her, but I still set off the Daddy alarm, and escaped downstairs while he hunted and murdered it.

ugh enough about bugs