Biting "things" in lawn. How to kill?

[HungoverLikeaSpunMoorhenChick]

So we cut the grass, DS went out an played there yesterday and today is covered in bites.

There's obviously something out there (I know we had ant colonies last year) that I want to kill - how dare it eat my child!

So, can anyone recommend a good insecticide that will kill a wide variety of biting things?

Hopeful bump?

When I was a kid the front lawn bit, it turned out to be red ants.

insect repellant cream?

I really think you need to be sure what the cause is. What type of ants did you see in your lawn last year - red, black or yellow? Red ants are the only stingy ones and are tricky to get rid of. If it is red ants you could try an ant bait station (The Home Defence Ant Stop! ones are good) - I would recommend the Home Defence Ant Stop! powder that you can make into a solution (I think) but that's only good if you know where the nests are. If your DS is a bit prone to allergies or has sensitive skin could it be a grass rash?

Black ants, so ruled them out.

Dh has googled and (based on a couple of them we've found on the ground), he thinks we have an infestation of flower bugs. Apparently the adults don't bite so much, but the youth do, and they're just maturing now.

The grown ups are good for the garden, but still think we'll have to spray the grass - I've counted over 30 bites on DS. We've ruled out an indoor issue as due to bad sleep, we've been sleeping with him and we're not bitten - and he was rolling on the grass just before they appeared!

Please don't spray the grass, Hungover. Pesticides, no matter what they profess to do, kill everything. You've said they mature and bite less. The lifecycle of an insect isn't that long. Can't you wait it out?

Not really possible to wait when I have a 5yr old in tears in the middle of the night because he's so itchy and now doesn't want to play in our garden so he doesn't get bitten. He's scared of the outside now.

I don't want to use a pesticide either, but equally when I have ants all over the garden so I can't sit outside, and bugs biting my DS, I think there has to come a point where I bite back.

Provado ultimate bug killer will kill off most things. But this includes all the nice insects like bees so if you are going to use a spray on your lawn, try to do it on a cool, cloudy day with little breeze so that the bees won't be around. An alternative is to use an insect repellent like funnyperson said. Though I understand why you want to kill them. Your poor DS.

Flamethrower?

Use insect repellant on your child - antihistamine and cram for the itch -

I use it all summer on the kids -

With bites you may have been bitten but haven't reacted to it - so it's no guarantee of not being bitten

Yes, I'm not reacting anywhere near as badly as DS - he looks like join the dots.

We'd be doing in the twilight for safety with DS and only at ground level so hopefully that would work.