When Bugs Attack…

~ Shara

So, on Friday, I vaguely remember getting ready that morning and noticing a big red welt underneath my right armpit. I paid closer attention Friday afternoon, after my walk, and realized it was some kind of bug bite from hell. On Saturday, there was an addition red circle above the welt, and then, when I went to the graduation party for my boss’ son, I got bitten in the stomach by an ant.

Yes. I got bitten, ON THE STOMACH, by an ANT. While I was STANDING on deck that was two stories high. I can’t make this stuff up.

At any rate, I’ve officially reached that paranoid feeling, where every creepy-crawly feeling I get is something biting me. I’m itchy for no reason, convinced that some new welt has popped up.

It’s super-annoying.

In the recent years, I’ve been pretty lucky in regards to bugs: I don’t go outside, so I don’t get bitten. Because of that, I forgot that I was a bug magnet, and now that I’m taking daily walks, nature is reminding me that bugs love me to bits. And I’ve always said that I’m proof vampires don’t exist: if they did, I’d be dead by now. That’s how much bugs like my blood.

So that’s my current realm of woes, which is rather minimal compared to what I’ve been complaining about. But what about you: are you a bug magnet?

11 thoughts on “When Bugs Attack…”

  1. I’m the same way (I, too, have always insisted that, were vampires real, I would have been the first to be drained!). My parents’ house, for example, one time had fleas thanks to Outdoor Cat. But Outdoor Cat disappeared ages ago and they’d been flea-free since. HOWEVER, for a long time (this has only recently stopped, maybe two-three years since Outdoor Cat left), whenever I showed up, fleas would miraculously appear and leave ugly swollen welts all over me. They would come out of nowhere and find their way to my apparently irresistible skin: no one else would be bitten; no one else would have been bitten since my last visit. For awhile, my dad thought I was making it up because it only ever happened a) when I was there, and b) to me, but the bites spoke for themselves. Plus I managed to point out a few in action before desperately trying to kill them and keep my blood in my body, thanks very much.

    I’m kind of running with the theory that these fleas may very well have been inter-dimensional and just popped over when I was around.

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  2. There is some species of mosquito or fly around here that gets me every summer – I must have an allergic reaction, because I always get a blister that swells up to the size of a quarter and then leaves this nasty oozing wound. 😦

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    1. Eeek. That’s what the ant bite on my stomach tried to do. But instead of oozing, it ended up looking like a zit. Weird and gross.

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  3. I was in Hawai’i for six days earlier this month. I used bug spray for the second half of those six days. I left Hawai’i with 27 mosquito bites.

    You have all my sympathy! I *hate* that itchy crawly feeling when you’re paranoid every stirring hair or brush of clothing is a bug attack!

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  4. I’m not a bug magnet, but my brother is. Years ago he came back from a trip to Texas with his legs absolutely covered with red welts from mosquito bites. One of these welts, on his ankle, swelled to the size of a silver dollar before we realized it wasn’t a mosquito bite. The doctor determined it was a spider bite, which is kind of ironic considering my brother is absolutely phobic about spiders.

    Whether it has to do with growing up with a bug magnet or not, I’m now one of those people who passionately HATES bugs in any form. Also, last June I had to move out of my bedroom and into the guest room for nearly a month because it had been invaded by some kind of small flying ant we were never able to identify. Seriously, they were EVERYWHERE, but only in my bedroom–the rest of the house was entirely ant-free.

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