LOXAHATCHEE, Fla. — Kelley Higney, owner of "Bug Bite Thing" is excited her company is growing.
"Bug Bite Thing is launching into 25-thousand retail locations this year," Kelley said.
It all started with one of her daughters' reactions to mosquito bites.
"She was suffering from mosquito bites, and there was nothing over the counter that was working."
Friends like Brooke Stanton also wanted a solution.
"Just walking from my back door to my car, literally I would get a bug bite or one of my girls would get a bug bite," she said.
Kelley set out on a mission to find relief from mosquito bites.
"By around 2015 is when I started really trying to research and figure out what we can do because we were miserable. My daughter was getting infections from every bug bite."
That's when Kelley started her business.
"The Bug Bite Thing is a suction tool," said kelley. "It removes insect saliva and venom from bug bites with suction."
When we first met Kelley in 2019, she was running her business out of her Loxahatchee garage. The product was already for sale in certain CVS Pharmacy stores. She needed more space and moved the company to Port Saint Lucie. Then, the pandemic started.
"When COVID hit, we were terrified just like every other small business. We didn't know where this was going to go. We had at the beginning a lot of big-box retailers in our 2020 launch back out at the last minute," she explained.
But Kelley and her employees did not give up.
"We pivoted and really focused on our online strategy and what we found with that is a lot of customers were spending more time outdoors to get fresh air to clear their head," she added.
Sales increased online. Now, Kelley is looking forward to the next chapter.
"We are also launching into 25 countries this year so we are really trying to spread my mom on a mission. I want the world to know that there is a better way to get bug bite relief and from bee stings and ant bites," Kelley said.
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