I hate sand flies

Last week, I attended my company's annual sales meeting on a lovely island on the Gulf side of Florida. There were palm trees, and thankfully no hurricanes. Despite the warning signs posted all over the place we were staying, I did not encounter any alligators. And they have lizards the way we have squirrels here in the upper Midwest, which was kind of a fun change. I like lizards.

But they have sand flies, also called no-see-ums, also called by me the Most Evil Insects on the Planet, and that's coming from someone who is allergic to mosquito bites and has often said that the question of their existence would be the most important question I could ask God.

I have now had dozens and dozens of sand fly bites for more than a week. They have not changed at all in this time. They look the same as they did when I got them. They are as itchy as they were when I got them. And I'm starting to worry about the effect of what I feel is probably an unreasonable amount of Benadryl accumulating in my system. Benadryl is the only thing that makes them bearable, so I have been taking two to three pills every single day for a week (I didn't have any Benadryl with me on the trip and no way to get any, or I would have started popping antihistamines even sooner).

So...if anybody has any ideas for what to do to make these horrible things go away - or any convenient excuses I can give the next time someone tells me I have to travel anywhere near a beach - please let me know. Itchy legs make me really cranky. And I have enough other stuff going on in my life to make me cranky (like the homework I am not doing while I write this post), so eliminating even one source of crankiness would be most welcome.