Summer is in full swing, and that means lots of adventures outside! One of the things I love most about living here in Canada is all our natural splendour – our streams, lakes, beaches, forests, prairies, glaciers, national parks, and everything in between! We love to spend as much time outside as we can, whether that’s in the back yard, exploring local green spaces, heading to the beach, camping, or taking a road trip to further fields.
We bring sunscreen on all our summer outings because we’re familiar with the danger of sunburns, but we also need to be careful of insect bites. Ticks and mosquitoes can transmit all sorts of nasty diseases like West Nile virus, Zika virus, Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and various forms of viral encephalitis.
Whether you’re hiking, camping, at the beach, at the cottage, vacationing abroad, or barbecuing in the back yard, it’s essential to protect yourself and your family from tick and mosquito bites. Keep these tips in mind:
- Whenever possible, avoid areas near standing water. Empty any standing water receptacles around your home to remove mosquito breeding sites.
- If you can, stay inside during mosquito feeding frenzy time – around dawn and dusk.
- Mosquitoes hunt by looking for carbon dioxide and higher body temperature, so avoid strenuous exercise in mosquito areas.
- Mosquitoes can’t land on you when it’s windy, so stick to breezy areas or use a floor fan to blow the bloodsuckers away.
- Wear long, loose sleeves and pants. Tightly-woven synthetic fabrics (polyester, nylon, rayon) help block mosquito bites better than looser weaves like cotton and linen. Tuck pants into socks to stop ticks from biting.
- When hiking, stay on the trail and out of the high grass or woody areas where ticks like to hang out.
- Do tick checks. Examine gear, pets, and children too. Check under the arms, in and around the ears, behind the knees, between the legs, around the waist, inside the belly button, and especially in their hair.
- Wear light-coloured clothing. Mosquitoes are less attracted to light colours, and lighter coloured clothing makes it easier to see ticks crawling around before they bite you.
- Wear permethrin-treated clothing to repel mosquitoes and ticks, but remember permethrin isn’t safe when applied to skin!
- The most important thing you can do to protect you and your family is to use an insect repellant that’s safe, effective, and long-lasting. Look for active ingredients with proven effectiveness like DEET and Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus.
Be sure to include effective insect repellents as part of your First Aid/outdoor safety essentials kit this summer!
Did you know that pregnant women breathe out more carbon dioxide and have a higher resting body temperature than non-pregnant women? As many of these diseases are especially problematic when you’re pregnant, effective protection is even more important when you’re expecting. DEET is considered generally safe for pregnant women.
Ben’s® 30 Tick & Insect Repellent uses a 30% concentration of DEET to provide up to 8 hours of protection from mosquitoes, black flies, stable flies, deer flies, biting midges, ticks, and chiggers. Its unique formula is water-based instead of alcohol-based, so it absorbs less into the skin and evaporates more slowly to provide all day protection. The water-based formula also reduces the likelihood of skin or eye irritation and is much less flammable.
If you’re looking for an all-natural product that’s still effective, I recommend Natrapel Lemon Eucalyptus Spray. It contains an active ingredient derived from a natural plant base (oil of lemon eucalyptus) which provides a cool refreshing scent. Natrapel Lemon Eucalyptus protects from mosquitoes for 4-6 hours, and the 74 ml travel size bottle is airplane friendly so you can pack it in your carry on for wherever your adventures take you.
If you do get a bug bite, don’t let the itch and pain ruin your family fun. Treat it! After Bite has been our go-to remedy for bug bites for as long as I can remember. The gel contains baking soda, tea tree oil, and ammonia to help soothe your skin and stop the itch. I like to keep a tube in the medicine cabinet at home, in the car, and in my purse.
You can find Ben’s® 30 Tick & Insect Repellent, Natrapel Lemon Eucalyptus Spray, and After Bite at a number of retailers including Walmart, Shoppers Drug Mart, Loblaws, Rexall, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Canadian Tire, SAIL, and Sobeys.
Oh, and when you’re heading out on your summer adventures, don’t forget to bring along a first aid kit. My local Costco has a great deal going on right now for this Priority EZ Care First Aid System® valued at $90 for only $29.99.
Each First Aid kit includes:
- After Bite – Instant relief from mosquitoes, biting flies, bees, wasps and other insects. Pharmacist preferred and Canada’s #1 bite treatment!
- Easy Access Bandages – Patented easy open technology and grip/pull/stick for fast application.
- BurnShield – Hydrogel for emergency use on burns and scalds. Cools and soothes, minimizes trauma and skin damage with added pain relief.
- C-Splint – Large flexible finger splint for improved injury comfort.
- EMT Shears – Hospital quality EMT shears can cut through medical tape, trousers, or even boots.
- Canadian Red Cross First Aid Guide – Fast reference during an first aid emergency.
- Plus a Bonus Auto Kit perfect for road trips!
Win an Outdoor Safety Prize Pack
One of my Canadian readers will win a basket full of items to keep you safe from bites and stings all summer and year round!
This prize pack includes a generous supply of After Bite, Ben’s® 30 Tick & Insect Repellent, Natrapel Lemon Eucalyptus Spray, and a Ben’s UltraNet insect head net, RV $75. Enter in the giveaway widget below. This giveaway is open to residents of Canada, 18+. All the winner’s entries will be verified.
Click here to check out my other open giveaways and be sure to follow me on Facebook!
Disclosure: This is a sponsored conversation. Nevertheless, all opinions expressed are completely honest and my own, based on my personal experience. Your experience may differ.
Outdoor activities me and my family enjoy in the summer is camping and fishing !
My family loves to fish, and there are for sure a lot of bugs! We love to walk on trails in the woods as well. Volleyball is one sport my daughter loves to play outdoors, so at times we like to watch her!!
Thanks
We like to go for walks around our neighbourhood or anyplace we are visiting.
We enjoy family picnics & walks in the local parks, splash pads, beach, bike rides, watching my grandson’s t-ball games, & soccer.
We love going to the park, attending outdoor events, hiking, walking on our beautiful city trail.
We love being outdoors in the summer enjoying swimming, gardening,biking and picnics.
We love hiking
My family’s favourite outdoor activities are hiking, camping and fishing.
We do the usual stuff; swimming, walks, picnics, etc. But we’re also rabid wild berry pickers, out for hours picking blueberries in the midday sun. So sun protection and bug spray are absolute necessities.
In the summer I like to sit out on my swing and catch some rays and hubby likes fixing lawnmowers and tinkering out in the garage
We love biking and swimming. Swimming is probably our favorite activity.
We love hiking, swimming, riding bikes and fishing in the summer.
We like to go out in the canoe and peddle boat. We also like to go camping. Thanks for hosting this giveaway. I could use all of the insect repellents and the After Bite.
We like to go to the park, the splash pad and the beach as well as for hikes in the local provincial parks.
We go for walks with our dog all over my area because we’ve got trails and paths that are near water for the dog to go swimming too.
We love camping,biking and swimming during the summer.We do lots of backyard camping too just for fun and although my family and I love walking together and a multitude of other fun summer activities,I also love to garden and enjoy planting flowers and lots of veggies. 🙂
My family enjoys hiking and camping in the summer.
My family and I enjoy softball and water sports during the summer.
Our family enjoys hiking, swimming, and camping in the summer! We also live right near a body of water so bugs are definitely present!
My family enjoys camping and going for walks. We enjoy swimming also.
We’ve done lots of gardening and have visited the splashpad.
we enjoy a lot of cycling in the summer
We love cycling, swimming, camping and hiking during the dog days of summer especially if we discover something new.
We love going to the beach, having picnics, going to the pool, going for walks, blowing bubbles, and just enjoying the sunshine and outdoors
We love hiking, biking and camping during the summer!
We enjoy trail walking, bike riding, backyard bonfires and trips to the beach for the day.
We spend a lot of time at the family cottage with lots of black flies, mosquitoes, deer flies and horse flies!
We love hitting the beach, the pool, various parks and the drive in!
PIcnic, and walking along the beach
I enjoy taking walks outdoors in the summer, but don’t enjoy the mosquitos that come along!
I love going for a walk and just enjoying nature.
My family really enjoys hiking and fishing , we do as much camping as we can also .
We enjoy camping, hiking and swimming!
We love going camping at the Lake where we love going swimming and enjoying the beach.
My family loves to kayak together
In the summer our family enjoy going to local swimming spots or a drive to a beach.
we love camping and enjoy the great outdoors, so this bug spray prize pack will come in super handy!
We enjoy going for walks and sometimes a marshmallow roast
We love bbq’s, restaurant patios, walks, sitting outside, getting ice cream, going to the beach, yard sales, etc.
My family and I love the splash pad. Even our 1 year old loves it
We like lazing around the river which is low in the summer. There’s everything there: sun and shade, swimming in the pools or or just lounging.
We enjoy trips to the mountains, walking along the river paths and picnics in local parks.
We love camping and hiking.
We love to go swimming and to the splash pads in the heat. We also like going for walks and to the park.
My husband and myself enjoy a walk everyday, and we also work on getting in a simple bike ride together every couple of days, along the flat roads and trails, as I have a bad back and anything too strenuous, aggravates it.
Wow awesome .we use a lot off spray .The bugs are so bad. In my yard its awful. We camp a lot in the summer .we are out side all summer long.I. work in my vegetable garden.
We have a lakefront cabin so we love swimming, kayaking, tubing etc.
our outdoor activity we love the most is going on our Quads and feeling the breeze on our face and exploring.
I like going for walks and checking out the flowers and gardens round about. I also love simply sitting in the sunshine and soaking up the heat. 🙂