We’ve all been there, you’re getting ready to fall asleep and suddenly you here a buzzzz from all sides of your head. No! A mosquito got in your tent! Here are some tips and tricks to keeping pests at bay this summer.

A good trick for the annoying mosquito is citronella oil, you can get bug spray from any of the local stores before coming to camp and spraying that on before going into a buggy area. Another trick, burn some sage in your campfire for the night. Not only does it smell good, but it keeps the mosquitoes from sticking around. Finally, don’t scratch! If you leave mosquito bites alone for the first 24 hours the bites will go away much faster and won’t itch as much the next day.

Ticks will be bad this year so you need to make sure to check your clothes after every hike and before going to bed. Ticks are easy to spot because they are big and black. If you see one crawling on you flick it away or kill it. To kill a tick, you need to break their hard shell with either your finger nail or a knife. I hear fire works too. If one does bite you, take a tick blade and carefully use that to pull the tick off. Be careful not to pull it off to forcefully or its mouth will stay stuck to you and could get infected. I would report the tick bite to your Scout leader so they can keep an eye on the bite. Another trick, draw a circle around the bite, if the redness starts to expand or if you get swelling in the area you should go to the first aid station.

Finally, the curious and chaotic raccoons that plague every camp. The number one thing you can do, is not keep snacks in your tent. All food should go into food bags or locking containers and put up so that animals can’t get to them easily. In places with bears you may even need to hang your food bag up in the trees.