Friday, June 1, 2018

Homebound Activities: Catching Insects

Every year our library hosts a great program done through the entomology department at the UMaine. Our children loved catching insects so much we got the bug houses and butterfly nets to use on their own. When we can't find any bugs in the air/in the grass we start turning over large stones.


Both kiddos just love creepy crawly critters. I realize as adults, we all have phobias. My thoughts on these things are that my phobias do not need to be passed onto my children, nor to my parents phobias need to be passed onto me. When I went to school in one of my teaching classes a professor of mine that I respect greatly said "You may be terrified, but don't let them know". We live in a state of worry over ticks and mosquitos, but forget about how cool and neat bugs can be in their natural environment. Sure, it's not very cool when you have a fly in the house or if a moth finds their way into your laundry. But, in my line of work we call that a "size 1 problem".

 I am not discounting or making light of the bug issues facing us in Maine. I had two very real encounters with both children regarding bugs and I will share what I learned. My first instance was with a tick that was embedded into my four year. About a month ago, I was very sick for a couple of days at home during April vacation with my youngest. My daughter still had school and during the days so Billy would bring her on a day hikes after school to let me and the baby rest/ get better. The next morning, I made my way to her room to aid in dressing and doing her hair. As I was french braiding her hair, behind her left ear was an embedded tick. I  internally panicking, I called to my husband to get the tick removal kit and an empty baby jar.

I was terrified and felt like a wreck, but  my husband said I appeared calm through the removal. I did everything a concerned parent would do right up to saving the blood sucker in the freezer. I called a triage nurse and explained what happened to which my doctor made an appointment. Here is what I doctor told me -- she was not as concerned about Lyme disease as she was a cellulitis infection. She explained while there is a hype about Lyme disease and I may know someone who is infected the probability is 15% that a tick will infect a human with Lyme disease. Furthermore, the treatment on such a small child the benefits would not outweigh the risks. She simply encouraged us to continue doing what we normally do and just make sure we do a better job about making sure we brush down every time they come in from outdoors ( which we do 90% of the time).

As we left the doctors office we did the following, we went to the nearest park and let the kids play. We do not want our kids living in fear of bugs -- they are everywhere. I have a few friends who are entomologists and upon talking to them they share the following -- bugs are everywhere even in the "cleanest" spaces. They are an important part of our ecosystem and provide a great service to us. Sure those select moments were scary for us, we also found there was little to no reason to be scared. I was thinking -- in my lifetime living and playing outdoors every day I have only found one tick on myself. I kept thinking of the probability of this happening again and then the probability of it being a tick with Lyme disease. SMALL. So our conclusion is to not live in fear of tick and make sure we put bug spray on our clothes and check for ticks the best we can.



The second encounter was this week at Eagles Bluff with Liam in a baby carrier. I was not there myself -- but I can tell by the accuracy of the reporting this is a very real issue. Black flies are out early and they are hungry. Both of my kids and my husband came home covered in bites. It used to be only the females were the ones that were really biting, but now the males appear to be on board. We used to only use natural bug repellants alone until I saw what they looked like when they came home this week. If you saw my sons face, arms and neck you would support what I am about to say. We started using deet on our clothes, baby carrier and hats then continued using the natural oils repellant on our skin. We do not make direct skin contact, but we began weighing the risks and benefits. We found DEET has had a 20 year case study of being safe on humans. We are still weary and with children involved we continue to be cautious. I will say we went on a hike to Mt. Kineo this weekend and tested our method. Only one mosquito bite( I got hot with carrier on and took off my sprayed hoody and my arm got bit) was had the entire 9 hour day -- we saw others surrounded by moose flies, mosquitos and "no see ums" and we were relatively unscathed.

So go outside, turn over some rocks and learn from the bugs around you! If you are feeling bored, get out a piece of white paper and sketch what you see. It's a great way to share interest with your children, but not engaging in the touching and mess.


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