Mosquitos

[Edwin]

As I walk with doggies I see more and more mosquitos all the time. One nice thing is that in this area of the country, in North Central Washington, USA the mosquitos don't carry disease that I am aware of. I have noticed just a few of them, and they take me by surprise when they are sucking my blood because usually I don't even feel them. I have very little reaction to them, and they normally are not bad to bite me. The last couple of mornings they have been thick while walking. I think there were actually more of them last year, so I don't know if there actaully were more of them or not, and they may get thicker yet. I have noticed that when I am walking early in the morning they are worse than later in the morning, so when I am first walking there appears to be more of them. They seem to disappear as the day gets hotter. This morning it felt hot even very early as I started my walk, but then a cloud cover came over, and the heat went away. We had a little wind come up which may have blown the mosquitos away. I think there were one or two days last summer that they were mor numerous than they are now. I would slap the back of my neck, and I kill several mosquitos with one slap!

[Chas]

Mosquitos seem to love biting me Unfortunately I react to the bites and need to use antihistamine cream to stop the itching. If mosquitos are about I wear long shirt sleeves, long trousers and apply plenty of Deet. Thankfully I usually manage to limit the bites on my Philippine trips. Dengue fever is always a worry.

[Edwin]

Yes, Chas, Dengue Fever is a worry in the Philippines! When I was there in year 2010 in Manila and Southern Negros Oriental, October 15th through the 31st, I didn't see one single mosquito! It is a funny thing because my Mom and Dad would be right with each other, and Dad would get eaten alive by the mosquitos while Mom would not get one single bite! She had some Indian blood in her, and maybe the mosquitos didn't like Indian blood! I somewhat take after my mother in that they don't bite me much, I usually don't itch or have any reaction much at all. I don't like them, and I keep busy killing them when they are thick, but they don't bother me much actually. Our youngerst daughter and her 2 kids are the worst affected in our family with multiple bites and each bite swells and looks terrible! They spray the deet on them too. When I walk at the time that there are the most mosquitos, it keeps me busy swatting them all the time! I get bit more when there are fewer of them, because I am not aware that they are there, and they can be biting me for a long time before I notice, then there is blood everywhere when I swat one of them!

[Edwin]

I read recently how to tick proof your home, for your house and your pets. What you do is that you put a walkway of gravel and rocks, which keep hot and dry, and the ticks do not like to cross a border like that, so you are tick free if you keep a border of hot dry rocks. The ticks like vegetation and moisture. My doggie Rand goes crazy if he thinks I am going to look for ticks! He has been getting few ticks lately, probably because of an increase in temperature, and dryer weather. Scooby has had more ticks on him than Rand, but Scooby doesn't mind of you search his body for ticks! He just thinks you are loving him, and he loves that, as he is a very loving doggie, but this morning for the first time I did not find one single tick on him. I also found very few mosquitos, as I think the mosquitos think it is too hot for them to be out! They have been bad lately to come into our house. When there are that many mosquitos they are bound to get into the car and the house. As I have said before they bother me very little, but they do disturb Carol and our kids more than they do me. I guess it is my Indian blood! I don't have much, just 1/16th! But I am as proud of my Indian heritage as if I were a full blood, which my great great grandmother was!