Camping in a tent with my kids in many of the fifty states taught us how versatile we could be.Sometime it was hot , sometimes it snowed, sometimes we hiked, or swam. But every place we found to camp had its own type of bugs. Some were just gnats and sometimes we were swatting flies the size of a small frog!
Many times we resorted to bug spray, especially if there were mosquitoes. What a nuisance.
My arms and legs today look like I was camping in a swamp. For a week. Without repellent. Nude.
I don't mind that a mosquito gets high on removing some of my blood. Heck, I have lots; they can have some since that is the natural way of life for them. But the little mothersuckers leave something to share with me. It hurts. It stings. It swells.
The last two days I donned long straight tight pants that cover socks, my long sleeve light weight hoodie with the hoodie up and string pulled tight so my forehead is covered. I spray my face with repellent. I wear safety glasses. And my gardening gloves. Get the picture? Pretty sexy, right? I am sure all the neighbors and people driving by appreciate the charming picture I present to them.
All this just so I can water the plants. We just planted baby trees: Weeping Willow, Japanese Red Maple, Redwood Dawn, two Crape Myrtle, Crabapple, and many shrubs and flowers.
The soil is a rich black earth here. Maybe it's mosquito droppings that makes it so fertile.
39 comments:
We are having problems, too. Not sure how, we haven't had rain in three months, but it hasn't seemed to stifle them, one bit.
Careful with that bug spray, lots of chemicals.
Now that doesn't sound like much fun, or that sexy either. :D
Bugs love to drink my blood, but hate my wife's blood. We can sit or sleep side by side - I get eaten alive and she is left alone. She has a theory that it is related to blood type.
We have been almost totally bug free this year - maybe because it has been so dry. Now it has rained I am expecting the bugs to start appearing and the mosquito nets will come into use again.
Ms.A, We have had quite a lot of rain so I am grateful for that. We weren't expecting the mosquitos. Fooled us!
LL Cool Joe, Seriously, I have large welts on one fourth of my arms and legs and they h-u-r-t.
Rock Chef, I should do some research about why the mosquitos go after one type and not another. Let me know if you do have mosquitos after the rain. I should buy some netting and make a full body outfit.
Yeah... we have a bumper crop of bugs this year, lots of rain, just warm enough. Not too many mosquitos as yet. But he gnats swarm in vast hordes every evening, and the friggin' ants! My God, we sure have ants this year.
Usually, my policy is if you are in the house or actively biting me... death. Otherwise, live and let live. But this year I had to put out the ant baits. I can't figure where they are getting in, or why I find them not in the kitchen or dining room, where I'd think they'd want to be, but in seemingly random, crumb-free places. Who knows?
p.s. - when my wife wears an especially attractiveget-up, we have a custom where I start to sing... I believe in miracles... since you came along... you sexy thing, you...
yikes. they have been really rough here this year as well...gnats and skeats all over.and though i found your description amusing somehow i have bites in places that should not be.
i know i know....ours end up being large enough to actually fly off with me i'm not careful....i really can't stand those biting mothersuckers :)
I read on somebody's blog about putting Listerine in a spray bottle and using that instead of bug spray. Maybe you could try it and let me know if it works for you. We haven't had any yet, but it's barely gotten warm here.
I hear you!!I could sing that song too. I am such a bug magnet but I know people who never get bitten. I can't imagine what makes the difference. I've read that HRT attracts them so I'll just have to keep spraying the deet.
Very sexy!! I can just see that outfit! Hate them skeeters.
The weather here has made it mosquito heaven - they are loving all the dampness. I am smiling at your get-up - but at least it deters the little suckers! :) Funny, the mosquitos rarely bother my hubby at all. Which is sooooo annoying as it seems I'm likely to get twice the bites!
"mothersuckers" - good one Technobabe!!! And the image of you watering the plants has the Diva Halle all jealous-like... xo
Ick, mosquitos! I am getting itchy just thinking about them.
And here I am in central PA, waiting, not so patiently at this point in time, for the seeds I planted in my little garden to poke through the ground! Actually, this is the second round of seeds I've planted that I'm waiting to pop up as apparently the first group were duds or knew I was an imbecile at gardening and planted them too deeply or not deep enough or some such thing because only the lettuce I planted then came up! I transplanted 18 cucumber plants (that were quite high when I moved them to the garden) and the very next morning every single plant was gone -nary a trace of any of them! Hope some bunny had a good feast and got the runs from eating all those cucumber plants, ya know. And meanwhile, there you are, planting all kinds of trees and shrubs and such and having -apparently -some pretty good luck in the garden department. Send a little of that luck my way, will ya?
One thing I love about living out west is the reduced number of bugs and critters and the lie. Growing up in VA I never realized there were places you could live where you didn't have to wear armor whenever you were outside in the summer.
They really can swell up to be huge knots, can't they?
I hate when you swat them and they splatter blood, but then again...that's kinda satisfying.
One got in my patients room the other day. I went ballistic trying to squish me a mosquito!
Mosquitos love me, so you have my sympathy. I used to work nights at a chemical plant on the ship channel and sprayed three layers of Deep Woods Off all over my body (including wiping it on my face) and so they would hover for hours, searching for a tiny clear spot. Ugh. Anyway, a friend swears by the new Off Clip-Ons. I haven't tried them yet, but maybe you should!
oh how horrible, no!
Ouch! That sounds awful!
I have been avoiding the local mountains myself as I've heard they are really bad this year. Have you tried any of the organic skin repellents or maybe citronella candles for your yard?
I have the solution...and it works! Take B Complex vitamins a week before camping along with some odorless garlic capsules...those bugs will LEAVE YOU ALONE!
Believe me, before I found out about this, I was the mosquitoes favorite buffet!!!
They are little horrors, aren't they and can make me look like I'm covered in Plague and can also make me feel quite ill.
I hate them.
Maggie X
Nuts in May
Sorry for you!
No mosquitoes here!
LOL. I hear they are the size of Texas as well. Ugh. Hate those pesky things.
I feel for you. I've already had some nasty bites this year. All the rain makes for aggressive skitters. I'll bet you look marvelous in your getup. ;)
So true, so true. Here in Michigan, where the mosquito is the state bird, I've bought super-petunias instead of normal ones because they blossom prolifically so I don't need to plant and water so many (less time to get bitten).
Also bought patio plants that I can grow in my sunroom. No mosquitoes in there . . . yet.
With all the rain we have had, I am surprised the mosquito population does not block out the sun here.
Way to go with all the new plants! As for the mosquitoes, well, they are pretty much in season year round in Georgia. Hope your bites feel better!
I try to stay close to someone mosquitoes find more attractive than me. It used to be my ex-husband, now it's my younger son.
Really, can't you post a photo of yourself in that get-up?
Ugh! Mosquitos! I hate 'em! And none of the repellents really work, do they?
I've had those little suckers drill right through my shirt to get to my succulent blood.
When I was little mosquitoes used to bite my eyelids. They would get so swollen, I basically couldn't open my eyes.
Yes, bugs are a fact of life, like it or not. Chiggers are probably the worst I've encountered, but ticks are awful and mosquitoes really consider me a delicacy. In the South, there were "noseeums." I don't know what they look like, nor does anyone else, hence their name, but they can destroy flesh like a horrible contagion from outer space. Which they may actually be. And wasps, to which I am severely allergic, can ruin a day. So keep wearing your protective gear and good luck.
You paint a nice picture! Great writing!
And your trees sound wonderful!
So sorry about the mosquitoes though! What a nuisance!
I can commiserate, I got stung by a hornet while sitting out back last week. Ouch!
All the best,
Eileen
Seems like the sort of climate that lends itself to lush plant life also nurtures mosquitoes.
(word verification: blighter)
Oh Techno, I feel your pain but I only have 3 monster bites at the moment. It's a nasty problem with little solutions that really, truly work. Hang in there and keep covered up.
xo jj
I think that the mosquito needs to be the state insect here. But then there are also the gnats and the palmetto bugs. Insects will rule the world and still be here when we humans are gone.
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