Bugged

Vero Beach
No LL

Thinking back on the last 3 years, it is remarkable how few the times have been that we have been bothered by insects while on board.

In the everglades we had mosquitoes at night. In Georgia, in May, we were plagued by horse flies. In New York, mosquitoes come out at dawn and dusk only. On Lake Champlain, one gets biting Adirondack black flies at certain times. Overall though, we seldom use the screens we have for portholes and hatchways.

In Florida, they spray for mosquitoes. Indeed, I suspect that such spraying is the only thing that makes Florida habitable at all. Near Vero, we see a Piper Pawnee airplane behaving like a crop duster every month or so. The protection is not perfect however.

In recent weeks we have been bothered at night by the tiny mosquitoes we call no-see-ems. Libby is apparently sweeter than I (I knew that before.) She gets bit and I don't. The other day poor Libby woke up to find big patches of her body covered by linear trails of bites. These bugs bit you, move a quarter inch and bite again. The bites are very itchy. Poor Libby was very uncomfortable.

The experience revealed a flax in Tarwathie's provisioning plan. We didn't have any DEET insect repellent on board. Libby was well motivated and she rushed right out to buy some.