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Break out the bug spray This past week left us all soaking — and the National Weather Service is predicting another soggy Thursday, in case you wanted to know.
The sun busted out in full force yesterday, Sunday, though, so my weekly hiking trip was saved.
Sort of.
Sunglasses? Check. Sunscreen for my pasty body? Double check. Bug spray? Yup! Enough bug spray? Er ...
No. It turned out, the answer was no. It didn't take me long to realize it, as I tromped through the woodlands along the Gunnison River. Unfortunately, it took me just long enough to be too far from the car to grab the bottle and refresh. Gnats, midges, mosquitoes — whatever they were, they saw me as a movable feast, and the weakness in my armor is now on full display, in the form of multiple hives all over my upper arms.
I glanced down once during my rambles to a little well of blood, revealing a fresh bite. If the deliverer of that bite was our friend the culex mosquito, and it was infected with West Nile virus, and if it backwashed while biting me, well ... I might now have the virus circulating. It remains to be seen, but I thought it's a good reminder to "fight the bite."
Traditionally, West Nile season is a little later in the summer, but when it is muggy and buggy (and, yeah, miserable), ignore the calendar and take precautions: Long pants, long sleeves if possible; bug spray containing DEET; avoid being out at dusk and dawn; keep standing water on your property drained (even what collects in flower pots), and maybe avoid wandering through damp wooded areas right next to a river on a humid day.
I should have marinated in DEET overnight Saturday, apparently. Find out more about West Nile here at Fight the Bite Colorado.
— Happy Monday from one welt-covered Katharhynn, who reminds you to keep those bugs at bay.
Don't forget the Fourth!
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