BUZZZZZZ

It was such a long, cold, snowy winter this past year. I couldn't wait for spring! I read gardening magazines, on-line articles, and books. I imagined the type of vegetable garden we would like and what plants we could take out or put in. And now we're right in the thick of it, and time is just flying. Spring was so exciting! We bought our plants and seeds and got our garden plot ready. The weather was finally warmer and comfortable. And there were no bugs yet...more specifically...no mosquitoes. Ah, the dreaded mosquito. We have our share of bugs in Florida, but mosquitoes are ridiculous up here. I've heard it joked as the state bird. Because we've had so much flooding, they are swarming and they are mean and tough. I heard on the news last night, that a typical mosquito trap that usually catches 5o bugs a night is catching 4,000 a night.

I'm not a big fan of putting toxic chemicals all over my kids, myself or my husband. So I bought a chemical free bug repellent called Buzz Away. I think I actually heard a mosquito laugh at me...It worked okay, but it was still unbearable. After many days of this, and many more mosquito bites, I caved in and put on the OFF repellent, with the dreaded DEET. I felt so guilty while slathering it on my sons, but at least they could play comfortably. We were out there about 5 minutes and I hear Manny say, "Ow!" and slap his neck. I go back to gardening, he starts screaming and crying! I run over and the dang skeeters had swarmed him and were biting his shoulders and neck. I could NOT believe it. I had even put that toxic stuff all over his neck! In researching an organic garden, I read that a brown bat could eat 1,000 mosquitoes in one hour. And that preying mantis are also fast enough to catch them and help control their population. And since the beneficial ladybugs are apparently not native to my region, they won't be killing off too many good bugs. (Mantis are NOT picky--they'll eat each other too!) The good news is that flood mosquitoes do not carry the West Nile Virus, but they are still obnoxious. I've missed being outside the last few days. My father always used to say that I had sweet blood, because I was ALWAYS a mosquito target...apparently so are my kids. It's hard being so sweet. ;-)