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:

1. First, don’t listen to the lifeguard’s advice. He knows nothing about it, I later found out.
2. Scrape off the wound with a plastic card in order to remove the invisible particles of jellyfish that are still stuck on your skin.
3. Rinse off your skin with sea water, no soft water.
4. 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.