Monday, December 27, 2004

No-See-ums

BITES. No Seeums, (sand fly) 'biting flies' and 'damn little bugs' are all names for the pesky insects that live near the waters edge on Roatan. I read about them prior to my arrival and used everything i could get my hands on to prevent being bitten. I used Avon Skin So Soft daily, religiously, along with a bug spray with the highest level of DEET i could get my hands on.

For the most part i had great success and only had a few limited bites on my legs. However, one day i hung my tee shirt out on the line to dry and later had several bites on my upper torso which i attribute to their having climbed onto my clothes. After this discovery i never left any garment out where it could be 'attacked.'

Don’t let the bugs scare you (there were very few mosquitoes). If you take precaution and apply a deterrent you should only end up with a couple of bites. Mostly the bites are pain free and merely itch a little for a few days. (they look much worse than they feel) JUST DONT SCRATCH THEM.

My last note on bugs, it seems they only bite the first seven days. I stayed for three weeks and noticed that after the first week i was no longer being bitten and begun to relax in all my applications of lotions and poisons. It was a local resident who confirmed my theory that No seeums stop biting after seven days.