The Bugs Like Myshel........

And Vance.......and McKaylie.......and Noah......and ME!
This is a picture of Myshel's leg. She got all of these walking home from school, which is about a 10 minute walk at most. Her other leg looked the exact same. I think she said that she counted 53 bug bites on her legs. They definitely seem to like her! When Vance came home from scout camp, his legs looked a whole lot like this, too, and he was using bug spray!

At least these are just mosquitoes or no-see-ums (yes, there are actually bugs that are called that!!!!). The black flies like Myshel too. I'm afraid she must get that from me, because they seem to like me, too. Unfortunately, Myshel also inherited my bad reaction to them. The bite swells up, to about a 4 inch diameter, sticks out about an inch, turns red, is very warm to the touch, and basically looks and feels horrible. The school nurse called me one day to say that Myshel had two black fly bites right next to each other and her whole arm was just a big swollen mess. I ended up talking to the nurse 3 more times that day while we decided whether Myshel needed to go to the doctor.

The black fly season is pretty much over now, but McKaylie came to me just the other night showing me the back of her leg. It must have been a black fly, because it was swollen, red, warm to touch, all the "black fly bite" symptoms. Her bite didn't react as quickly to the Benadryl as Myshel's did, but by the next morning it was looking much better.

In my head, I keep a little mental list of all the pros and cons on moving to Maine. The bugs are definitely a con!