Mosquitoes...Can't Live With Them, Can't Get Rid of Them

Day 207

The weather here has been ideal over the past couple of weeks. A pleasant mix of warm temps and occasional rain (usually overnight) to help green things up. The wind has been too high for me to go out in my 2 man boat.

The only drawback to this current "utopia" is the mosquitoes. I'm sure they serve some purpose, although for the life of me I didn't know what that was, except to bite me and make me itch. If it was just a matter of donating to their blood drive I would be willing to give a drop or two. But in exchange for the gift of life giving red liquid, we get itching at best and diseases at the worst.

I went online and looked up mosquitoes and found out that they are food for other creatures and they breed in still, stagnant water. Armed with repellent, I went in search of the fertile mosquito farm.

At first, I was mystified. I traveled around my property. Then the neighbors property. I discovered that they too have noticed more than the usual numbers of the little darlings. I went to my pickup truck.

I keep my boat in the back of my truck all summer, ready to hit the lake at a moments notice.

Let me explain that I have a ten foot boat in a truck with an eight foot bed, so two feet are sticking out from under the cap, unprotected from sun and rain.

Anyway. As I was walking past my truck, I was suddenly swarmed by the tiny invaders. While waving my arms like a mad man, I noticed the several inches of rain that had collected in the boat. And the warm temperatures had caused the dead vegetation to infuse the water and stagnate.

I have seen the enemy and he is me. I was the unknowing breeder of the mosquito army.

I grabbed the Raid Backyard Fogger and gave the back of my truck a blast. Then I made a beeline for the woods and dumped the water from my boat. Miles away. I didn't want any survivors to follow me home.

I have learned my lesson and plan to periodically empty the boat during the summer after it rains. It was my good fortune to figure this out.

Thank God.

I was beginning to think the mosquitoes were coming from the protected marshlands at the back of my property.

Until tomorrow,

Ken