“Though the loss of blood is seldom of any importance to the victim, the saliva of the mosquito often causes an irritating rash that is a serious nuisance. Much more serious though, are the roles of many species of mosquitoes as vectorsof diseases. In passing from host to host, some transmit extremely harmful infections such as malaria, yellow fever, Chikungunya, west Nile virus, dengue fever, filariasis, Zika virus and other arboviruses, rendering it the deadliest animal family in the world.” –Wikipedia

The deadliest animal family in the world. Nebraska’s state animal, in my opinion, should be the mosquito. Instead it is the meadowlark (state bird) and the white tailed deer (state mammal). I guess they’d have to create a “state insect”… I’ve seen more mosquitoes here than I have ANYWHERE! Ohio is bad in the summer. Florida is worse. Louisiana is terrible. Nebraska takes the cake! And those little suckers (literally) are relentless!

Walking Charlie is a chore now. I can stand the smell or feel of bugspray, but I’ve been using it anyway. I tried slathering on a layer of Skin-So-Soft but that only kept them at bay until it dried, and did nothing for the tiny gnats that try to get in your nose and mouth and ears and behind your sunglasses! So I got some “dry” Cutter and that worked a little better, but still did nothing for the gnats. Our neighbor told me cocoa butter has been working for him so I picked some up yesterday. Low and behold, the best solution yet! And so simple. Not to mention my skin smells and feels great! Fingers crossed this keeps working for another week until we get out of here!

So that’s the outside part of the Nebraska prairie… We woke up one day last week to a camper FULL of mosquitoes! With no idea how they got in overnight! We didn’t leave a door or window open. There aren’t any holes in the screens. The vents were all closed. I checked for water leaks in all the sinks and toilets and even in the big cubby underneath… Nothing. I smashed probably, no lie, a couple hundred on our windows and ceilings! So gross! I looked up ways to get rid of them and the advice is endless. I cut up some lemons, sprinkled them with cloves and set them in all the windows. I sprayed hairspray around the edges of all the windows trying to make it sticky so they couldn’t move. (Our propane alarm is really sensitive so that’s been going off constantly with all of my futile efforts at bug control!)

The next morning we only woke up to a few. The next day after that a few more. They still haven’t been as bad as that first day, but the wind has picked up some so I think that’s helping. I bought a diffuser yesterday and some peppermint oil because that’s supposed to keep them away. I also polished everything with lemon scented Pledge thinking they won’t want to land anywhere.

I am still covered in bites so I picked up some Witch Hazel, which is supposed to help, and also some more 1% hydrocortisone cream, since we are blowing through that like body lotion!
I will forever remember Nebraska as the land of mosquitoes!