“No animal on earth has touched so directly and profoundly the lives of so many human beings.

For all of history and all over the globe she has
been a nuisance, a pain, and an angel of death.
Mosquitoes have felled great leaders, decimated armies, and decided the fates of nations. All this, and she is roughly the size and weight of a grape seed.”

—Andrew Spielman[1]

“Mosquitoes troublesome.  Mosquitoes quite troublesome.  Mosquitoes extremely troublesome.” A few quotes from Meriweather Lewis, in his journal when co-leading the Corps of Discovery to the Pacific Ocean.

At White Bear Islands, Montana on 15 July 1806, Lewis groaned that:

“The mosquetoes continue to infest us in such manner that we can scarcely exist; for my own part I am confined by them to my bier at least 3/4ths of my time.     My dog even howls with the torture he experiences from them.    They are almost insupportable, they are so numerous that we frequently get them in our throats as we breath.”

We try as hard as we can, by quickly dashing into or out of the Airstream, but they still get inside.  Karen’s combat weapon of choice is the fly swatter; I prefer the small hand held vacuum.

Outside, you need thick clothes, a hat, and a spritz or two, or three, or four of 100% DEET,  to help keep the pesky little critters at bay.  Most of them at bay, that is.  There are still some ambitious ones that will get ya.

They seem especially fond of the insteps of our  feet, somehow finding a way to find me THROUGH my socks.  My insteps have about 30 welts.

They come in small, medium and large sizes, but the most prevalent so far seem to be the little ones.

Karen asked “What are all of them eating, if they are not eating us?”  One of many ponderous questions that  will require further research.