We are headed home from our Florida vacation early. We weren’t chased off by the tropical storm that hit the gulf-side of the state, we were okay with scattered storms throughout the days – pretty typical for Florida even without a tropical storm.
Nope, we tossed in the beach towels after losing what seemed like pints of blood to the mosquitos. I’m not exaggerating, the second you walked outside you were attacked – I think they had a coordinated battle plan and were just lying in wait. They were merciless and immune to all chemical warfare. They just laughed in the face of everything from Deep Woods Off, To Skin so Soft, to my homemade ‘organic’ mosquito repellent, a combination of mint mouthwash, Epson salt, and beer. yeah, I may have gotten that recipe off of Youtube.
It’s almost always mosquito season in Florida but something just was not right about this trip. Everyone was complaining, and not just the tourists, it was not uncommon to see people running, doing an odd slapping dance on their way to cover. Walking your dog twice a day was pure torture – for both you and Fido. And the typical dog walking schedule of sun up and dusk also coincided with the height of mosquito battles.
Some said it had to do with the extreme rainfall in the area over the past weeks, some 13 inches of rain but I did not verify that. Some said the state had been spraying for mosquitos in previous years due to the Zika scares and had since stopped – I did not verify that either.
What I do know is that it was miserable and my research shows that unless you vigilantly fight the buggers starting ahead of the season, well before it is consistently above 50 degrees, you might be fighting a losing battle. So, not much hope for us visitors.
That’s why we are headed home early, sporting hints of early tans that can be seen among the large red welts all over our bodies. I’ll be working on my battle plan before we head back to the beach in July! I’m open to ideas and suggestions for my mosquito counter-attack plans.
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