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thanks for illustrating one of the lesser known aspects (to us who live in the south) of a northern summer. Maybe our mosquitos (hordes of them and very big) are not so bad after all.
Very interesting Indeed! I would like to know where you could get the netting, tho. The West Nile scares me.
I do know, however, if you have gotten a bite (even a bee sting) that there is a native remedy (learned from my great grandmother). The Common Plantain leaves, if crushed & placed on the bite, will relieve the pain & itch. By the following day there is no trace of a bite.
Dutch lady, I agree! I feel a little better about our heat and humidity. We have plenty o'insects including mosquitoes but it sounds like paradise here compared to this humorous look at a gardener's challenges up north. Thanks for sharing.
Now I'll get back to battling the ticks, chiggers and mosquitoes - not to mention the herbivorous bugs.
From my Real Simple email, I recently learned of a patch at http://www.dontbitemepatch.com which I ordered and put on for the first time recently while gardening. It worked, at least so far, to keep mosquitoes away from my tasty body! We don't have any other biting bugs here in Luzerne County, PA thank goodness! I got a 10-pack for $7.99, so 80 cents a day for gardening is surely worth it!! I'm not outside every day. Good luck!
I live in Northern Illinois now ...30 miles from Chicago ...but grew up in Toronto ...my folks moved to Quebec and we had a cottage up in the Luarentians on a lake ...I can relate to your stories of the black flies!!! Here in Illinois, we have tons of mosquitoes during hot humid summers, especially bad this year because of a very rainy spring; then we get hit with the hordes of wasps in August ...you can't eat anything outdoors as they swarm all over your food and it's easy to get stung! I agree ...as a gardener, I wait all winter for summer, poring over the seed catalogs and my gardening books, and sometimes it is so disappointing ...there are just a few really lovely days and evenings when you can say, "this is the day the Lord has made!" ...the rest of the time you are battling the heat, the weeds and the bugs!! ...also, here in Illinois ...the TORNADOES!!
I know, napergal. It seems here we only had about 3 nice spring days. It went immediately to HOT. I missed that most glorious of gardening weather.
Wow, your weather sounds like ours, just a lot further north. Humidity, heat, mosquitoes and tornadoes not to mention yellow jackets (the ground nesting bee/wasp things that torture us here).
I got stung by a bee friend today while deadheading a gaillardia - I leaned too close to a salvia and zap. I'm surprised it hasn't happened before because we have hundreds of bees of several kinds in the garden. I guess I just invaded his space TOO much.
One lesson learned: I had on a loose fitting man's shirt and I think that is a mistake. The large sleeves made for easy access for winged critters (and crawling!).
Regarding my past comment about the DoNotBiteMe patch, it hasn't worked this year but then I realized that all it contains is B1 vitamin. I called my doctor to make sure taking 100mg. of B1 from our local pharmacy would not hurt me, I now take one every day and have not been bitten by any nasty bug at all!! Hooray!!!!! I recommend B1 highly for those of us who are tasty :-)
