11 July 2023
If you attend a summer outdoor wedding and they supply bug repellent at the door, take the hint! The bugs will be bad and you’ll wish you’d used that bug spray.
At home in western Pennsylvania I know how our mosquitoes behave. A dab of bug repellent cream on each hotspot is enough to keep them at bay, even in dress up clothes at a wedding. We don’t have no-see-ums so I was totally unprepared for what happened at dusk on Cape Cod.
In dress up clothes and sandals I enjoyed the party and didn’t notice that I was bug bait until it was too late. I had never experienced biting gnats so when they flew around my head I just shooed them away. Hah! They bit my scalp, my arms and legs, my neck. I didn’t feel them biting me.
About an hour later the bites started itching. Aaarrg!
Biting gnats? Lesson learned. At last night’s family picnic — with no bug repellent available — I wore hiking clothes and my rain jacket with the hood over my head. Yes, I looked odd but I was only bitten once — on my hand.
I can hardly wait for the itching to stop.
(credits are in the photo captions, click on the links to see the originals)
We had our first encounter with them camping in the Florida Keys. Thankfully, we still had left our snow brush in the car and used it to scratch our legs. Guess they saw fresh meat and went for it. Can’t really blame them. Who can resist USDA prime?
I hope those no-see-ums don’t ever move into Pittsburgh. FYI, the cicadas started tonight here. (first I have heard them, at least)