indiana territory

MOSQUITOES

I have noticed after all the rain and greenhouse humidity outside that a lot of mosquitoes have shown up. I saw the fogger go by on Riley Street a couple of days ago but still had to fight a couple of the insects this morning. At my mother's in LaGrange County, they are as thick as they were back in the summer of 1986, when my dad had to brush off the dog before bringing her into the house after walks. I remember standing on the deck and counting mosquitoes in the double digits on my legs. It was yucky and I hope to hear the fogger again.

Mark Twain said this about them:

MOSQUITOES
He said that two of them could whip a dog, and that four of them could hold a man down; and except help come, they would kill him--"butcher him," as he expressed it. Referred in a sort of casual way--and yet significant way-- to "the fact that the life policy in its simplest form is unknown in Lake Providence--they take out a mosquito policy besides." He told many remarkable things about those lawless insects. Among others, said he had seen them try to vote. Noticing that this statement seemed to be a good deal of a strain on us, he modified it a little: said he might have been mistaken, as to that particular, but knew he had seen them around the polls "canvassing."
- Life on the Mississippi

The quote is from this site.

posted by Jody @ 2:52 PM