How To Protect Yourself In The Garden During The Summer The summer is the time for barbecues, garden parties, lounging in the backyard or bathing in the pool. It is also the time for insects, usually of the flying variety. Flies and mosquitoes can become everything from mildly annoying to downright perilous. So what can you do to protect yourself in the garden during the summer? The first thing to do is start clearing up your garden before the summer begins. Mosquitoes breed in stagnant water and it only has to be a half-inch deep. This means that you ought to keep the gutters free from fallen leaves and other blockages. Blocked gutters and drains are major breeding grounds, but so are all things that can hold rainwater. Flower pots, buckets, old tyres and folds in sheets are others. Drill holes in pots, containers and old tyres; pull tarpaulins tight, upturn boats and canoes and if you have water features, make certain that there are either guppies or goldfish in there as well, because they are famous for eating mosquito larvae. Making a pre-emptive strike on mosquito breeding grounds will drastically lessen the number of mosquitoes in your garden and thus reduce your liklihood of being given West Nile virus (in the USA). It will also safeguard you against E.coli. However, your neighbours might not be as fastidious as yourself, so mosquitoes will still come into your garden. To protect yourself from these spray insect repellent containing DEET (>25%) on your clothing and bare skin to avoid mosquito bites. In the twilight, hang a bug zapper with a blue light and an electrified coil in the locality of where you are sitting. The best ones also use pheromones to lure mosquitoes, especially octenol. Some species of mosquitoes hang around animals, so put some natural mosquito repellent on your dogs or do not allow them to lie at your feet. Do not use DEET on them because they will lick it off and get sick. Use citronella oil, lemon oil or garlic. There are lots of others too, but they are not as effective or as long-lasting as DEET. If you are cooking, and who would not be, be wary of meat, particularly chicken and pork. If the meat is frozen, thaw it gradually and store it in the fridge until minutes before you are going to cook it. The danger zone is between 40-140F, when bacteria will grow very quickly and flies will lay eggs in it. If you have to keep the meat out of the fridge, store it 'under water', that is, in a marinade, so that flies can not get at it and it is out of direct sunlight. Keep food and drinks separately, so that the fridge is not opened so often as to allow the temperature to increase over 40F. Use two sets of kitchen utensils, one to deal with uncooked meat and fish and one to take cooked meat and fish off the fire otherwise you will contaminate the cooked food.
Use a meat thermometer to ensure that the food is cooked: 160F for meat and 165F for chicken. Throw away cooked food not consumed after two hours or after one hour if the ambient temperature is above 90F. If you would like to use marinade up on cooked food, boil it first. Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on a number of topics, but is at present concerned with the anopheles mosquito. If you would like to know more just go to our website at Mosquito Bite Swellings.