Ways to deal with summer itchies

As summer reaches its zenith, sun and heat can sometimes wear a bit thin. In particular, it can lead to some itchy conditions and encourage some creepy-crawlies to multiply at alarming rates.

At one time or another, it seems, I’ve dealt with all of summer’s nastier elements, and I’ve picked up a few tricks to deal with the more stubborn situations.

One of the most common of summer ailments is poison ivy rash. Often, this is just an itchy minor nuisance. But add near-triple digit temperatures, or get a lot of exposure, or be in a situation where sticky sweat is inevitable, and you’ve got the makings of real misery, if you’ve had the luck of not experiencing that misfortune firsthand.
I know first hand (and foot and leg and arm and just about anyother body part one can name) about this. I was one of the few lucky people not allergic to poison ivy for years (poison ivy rash is the world’s most common allergy). As a child, I could practically roll in the stuff, and I never once got a rash. One day, that all changed. The first time I got poison ivy, I was nearly hospitalized. I remained ultra-sensitive to that noxious weed for several years, but the allergy has faded in severity over the years. Still, the last time I got the rash, just last year, I managed to get rid of it in just a couple of days, though it was well on its way to becoming severe.

I found a liquid soap called Tec-nu some years ago (available at most drugstores). It is specially formulated to break up the specific oils in poison ivy, sumac and oak—and it works! It’s best used just after exposure, before the rash happens, but even if you’re too late for that, wash the affected area well, but gently with this soap, allowing it to remain on your skin for a few minutes before rinsing it off, and the rash will immediately begin to stop itching and recede. I’ve never had to use it more than a couple of times, and those cases were particularly stubborn. Usually one treatment is enough to clear up the rash.
Forget calamine lotion, this is the stuff.

Sunburn? Aloe will do wonders. But don’t go for the green goo in the chain drugstore. The difference between fresh aloe from the plant, or cold-pressed aloe you can buy in the health food store (ask for the good stuff, it has to be refrigerated) is monumental and definitely worth the price difference.

Real, fresh, unadulterated aloe does amazing things to heal burns, and sunburn is no exception. The quicker you can get it on your skin, the better it works, so don’t delay seeking out this remedy at the first sign of sunburn.

Of course, if you really don’t have access to the good stuff, seek out an aloe gel that is as close to the real thing as possible.
Real aloe gel is not bright green, so skip the dyed stuff if you can, and look for one that lists aloe as the first ingredient. The label should not list many ingredients afterwards, either, though if the list does happen to include vitamin E, that is a nice bonus.

Creepy-crawlies, when they decide to, can add another form of itch and misery to sticky summer days. Fleas, in particular, are their own form of nightmare when temperatures climb. And not having a pet doesn’t necessarily spare one, nor is living in the city any form of protection. The last house I lived in in the West Ward came with resident fleas in the basement, a fact I didn’t realize when I rented the house in December. By late spring, I definitely knew all about it, and war was waged.

Sometime around the sixth bombing campaign (after each of which, the fleas would reappear within a few hours, and I swear I could hear a tiny chorus of “Nanah-nanah-nan-yah!”), I started to research why repeated applications of poison were completely ineffective. Turns out that the most common pesticides used for flea control, pyrethrins, are becoming less effective on many flea populations, particularly in urban areas.

So if you live in the West Ward, and you can’t seem to get rid of the pesky critters, try this. I can vouch it worked for me, when nothing else would.

Go old school on them, and get out the Borax. (It’s found near the laundry detergents in most grocery stores, and costs about $3 a box.)

Sprinkle it everywhere, and make sure it gets into the cracks in the floors and baseboard edging as well. Leave it down for a day or two, and then sweep and/or vacuum it up. For best results, repeat.

I know this sounds messy, and it is. But it’s a lot less toxic, not to mention less expensive, than bombing your house with chemicals, and it really, really works. The residual Borax helps discourage future six-legged pests, too.

The mess? Not really that bad, it’s just powder, after all. And if you squint a bit, it can even look a bit like snow, which is a welcome thought during these hottest dog days of summer.

Stay cool, un-itchy and bug-free. And enjoy the rest of a great summer.

(Originally published in The Easton News, August 3, 2006)