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Holiday lesson: mosquitos are evil, jellyfish are worse
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My Worst Ennemy © Alberto Garcia Quesada
I’m a mosquito magnet. As a child, while I was spending holidays in Camargue, in the South East of France, I once counted the mosquito bites on my body. I had 56 of them. Yes, 56… and in spite of my extensive use of all kinds of anti-mosquito products. This summer on the French Riviera, I got devoured as usual. But this time, I discovered a far worse nuisance.
I had been dreaming for months of putting on my bathing suit, diving mask and snorkel and going to observe the magnificent fish of the azure-blue water. First day, first beach, first swim. One breast stroke, two breast strokes, and then Ouch! Electrical choc on my arm, a nasty little jellyfish had bitten me. The jellyfish is a tiny defenceless looking creature, almost transparent, that likes to squat the warm waters of sea shores… I later learned.
The Culprit © Emmanuel Froissant
The burn is not very painful but the problem is what comes later on. Itching that keeps you awake at night and a persisting burn mark two weeks later. A burn mark that’s probably going to stay on my skin for a much longer time.
Advice if one day you get stroke by this sea scum:
- First, don’t listen to the lifeguard’s advice. He knows nothing about it, I later found out.
- Scrape off the wound with a plastic card in order to remove the invisible particles of jellyfish that are still stuck on your skin.
- Rinse off your skin with sea water, no soft water.
- Against the itching that starts a week later, apply lavender essential oil every 5 minutes until the itching calms down. Twice or three times a day after that.
A few days later, as I was scanning my whole submarine environment through my mask before every breast stroke, I got electroshocked again. Right on my forehead. It was the only place where I didn’t have visibility. Fortunately, this burn is not visible anymore. It seems I had just head-butted the nasty little creature without touching its tentacles. Damn it.
This post is also available in: French
Tags: Holiday, Jellyfish, Mosquitos
5 responses to “Holiday lesson: mosquitos are evil, jellyfish are worse” 
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Haha – glad you enjoyed yourself! Now you need another holiday to recover from your holiday!
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I heard you are supposed to pee on the wound or shave the spot!
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Whaouh !! Very nice holidays !! Thank you for the advice, I will remember it the next time !!!
Big kisses
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Europasionaria September 3rd, 2010 at 00:03
During the two weeks I carried my wound around on the beach I heard all sorts of advice on how to heal jellyfish burn. The ones I listed are the most sensible I believe.
Talking with friends who come from the Mediterranean I found out that it seems jellyfish have been multiplicating on the Riviera in the past 5 years. Global warming?
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I think I heard that there are big waves of jellyfish every so often, so I’m not sure it’s global warming – but maybe there’s an impact on the frequency if there is an impact.
I’ve been fortunate with mosquitos so far; maybe I don’t look that tasty though I’ve probably just jinxed my luck…).
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Eurogoblin September 2nd, 2010 at 15:23