Summer trips to nature are overshadowed by annoying insects. If you are near a pond, then you risk getting a horsefly bite. Horseflies attack both in hot sunny weather and on a gloomy day. They can cause infection, so you need to know how to protect yourself and your children from subsequent troubles. These annoying insects are almost never found in the city, as they live near all kinds of water sources.
They see their victim from afar - it can be both an animal and a person. Horseflies have sharp eyesight, despite their name. In addition, they react to movement, feel carbon dioxide and smell coming from a person. Like mosquitoes, only females drink blood. They need it to reproduce offspring and lay eggs.
The sharp jaws cut through the skin. This is why horsefly bites are very painful. The wound immediately begins to be unbearably itchy, sometimes blood continues to ooze from it.
It is advisable to treat it with any alcohol-containing solution or brilliant green as quickly as possible, since a horsefly bite can cause a lot of problems.
How to protect yourself from horseflies
- It was experimentally observed that these blood-sucking parasites respond well to color. They are attracted to dark clothes. Therefore, if you are going on a picnic near a pond, it is better to wear something light. The more spacious the clothes, the better. Even better if it is double, for example, two shirts or a shirt and a jumper.
- A horsefly circles over its victim for a while. It can be identified by the characteristic loud buzz. Be sure that he will not lag behind, so arm yourself with a branch and try to attack first.
- Do not be too lazy to put on an awning as a barrier against insects, especially if you have children with you in nature.
- If you are going to work on a suburban area and are afraid of getting a horsefly bite, then use special tools. All kinds of repellents can be found in the pharmacy. Be careful: some of them should not be applied to the skin (only on clothing)!
Horsefly bite: treatment
Female horsefly behaves extremely carefully. During the day, she eats several dozen times and can carry a huge number of infections and viruses living in the blood of humans and animals.
A horsefly bite causes pain. In addition, these insects are not very clean - they sit on feces and on the corpses of animals.
Pain and redness of the wound is the first reaction. Itching joins in, sometimes an allergy to insect saliva. A necessary treatment for a bite is the treatment of a wound with an antiseptic. In case of allergic edema, an ointment from bites will help. Soda solution helps well. In the event of a temperature jump, fever, vomiting, weakness, diarrhea, self-medication should be stopped and the doctor should see.
How to destroy horseflies at your summer cottage
As a rule, it is summer residents who suffer from these bloodsuckers in the summer. To get rid of horseflies, you need to drain the swampy ditches and pits. Or set up huts-traps. Such a hut can be made of branches and cover it with a dark cloth with a hole. Horseflies love to sit on dark objects, so they will surely fly into such a design. In the worst case, you can resort to chemicals. Usually disinfection is carried out by the appropriate services upon written request of the victim.