Michelle Ostrowski, the creator of Bug Bite Blaster, said her natural interest in creating ground-breaking business ideas started with a lemonade stand she set up in front of the Oak Creek post office as a child.

“It’s innate in me,” Ostrowski said of her keen interest in business. “I remember, many-a-time, setting up the lemonade stand in front of the post office in Oak Creek or developing a play and trying to sell tickets for 10 cents door-to-door to get people to come. A lot of people bought tickets that never came to the show, and I did not understand that when I was 7 — but I do now.”

Ostrowski left Oak Creek for Denver when she was 10. Her father was a railroad man, and when he had an opportunity to take a job with Amtrak, the family packed up and left the Yampa Valley. Still, her desire to return to the mountains and her dream of being successful in business never wavered.

In 2012, Ostrowski developed an oil and gas marketing company called Elk Mountain Energy. She still runs it today. A few years ago, she decided to branch out by starting Venture Outdoor, which does business under the name Bug Bite Blaster.

Bug Bite Blaster produces a bug bite recovery balm that is scientifically formulated with botanic ingredients that relieve and help heal mosquito bites, common bug bites, and other skin irritations and rashes. The product is GMO-free and never tested on animals.

Ostrowski said the balm, which comes in a twist-up stick, is also great for treating burns and moisturizing lips, and is safe to use on children and pets because all the ingredients are natural.

“Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I think I’ll create an all-natural bug-bite recovery balm,” said Ostrowski. “I believed there was a market here for a natural recovery balm because there are things that do work, so we decided to start looking into it.”

After selling their house in Denver in 2019, Ostrowski and her husband, Jerry Padilla, moved to Steamboat Springs — a move that marked her return to the Yampa Valley. In 2022, the business became incorporated with Bug Bite Blaster being introduced to the market a year later.

“It was a missing part of the market,” Ostrowski said. “If you look on the shelves when you walk into your typical grocery store or drugstore, there really aren’t any natural options like this.”

Today, Bug Bite Blaster can be found in more than 245 Meijer supercenters, as well as Dunham’s Sports in the Midwest and Wegmans, a regional grocery chain in the New York area. The product is also being distributed by United Natural Foods Inc., which is a major wholesale distributor of natural and organic foods in North America.

Ostrowski said Bug Bite Blaster will be in approximately 3,000 Walgreens stores sometime next year, and she is currently in the process of setting up as a one-piece seller with Walmart — meaning customers will be able to purchase the product from Walmart online, a step toward offering the product inside Walmart retail stores.

Ostrowski said demand for the product locally has been high, and Bug Bite Blaster is available locally at Ski Haus, Steamboat Ace Hardware, Yampa Valley Foods, Clark Store and Steamboat Lake Outpost.

The bug bite balm also is available at the Main Street Steamboat Farmers Market, which runs from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturdays through Sept. 20.

“It is important to people that they’re not using chemicals, paraffins or petroleums — not only on themselves, but on their kids and their pets,” Ostrowski said.