The Attack of the Mutant Mosquitoes

Well, okay, maybe not mutant--but there sure are a heck of a lot of them!!After a cool and wet Spring, guess what kind of a Summer we have been having?? If you guessed cool and wet, you'd be right!! Add in humid and over run by mosquitoes and you have the whole ugly picture.  And Edmonton now has the dubious distinction of being the mosquito capital of Canada.  We elbowed Winnipeg aside for that honor!! Haha!! The report out today told us the good news that this week there were 569 mosquitoes (exactly???) per trap throughout the city, compared with 30 per trap last week.  And apparently we haven't peaked yet!! ACCKKK! That's expected next week. Yesterday I braved the outdoors to cut the lawn, because if I waited any longer I either would have to hire some sheep (Baaaa) or start baling the grass!  I think I swatted, slapped, smacked, and smeared 569 mosquitoes!!!

The worst attack occurred when I had to pick out all the mushrooms from the lawn before I mowed.  We have tons of mushrooms too.  I was picking them the other day and the mailman asked me if I was going to make a salad?  Haahaha!! I replied, "If I wanted a shortened life." Some of the mushrooms might be edible, but who knows and I'm not taking any chances.  My Polish grandfather knew about mushrooms, but that knowledge has been lost.  I do have puff balls popping up in a couple of places and I know those are edible.

On the brighter side I picked the first basket of raspberries of the season--yay!! They are one of the few things doing really well.  They have adapted to any kind of weather this country can throw at them--all they need is a little water, and they had no shortage of that!! The cherries hardly seem to be ripening or growing at all, the zucchini  and cucumbers are stuck in a no-growth zone, and everything else is later than usual.  My poor corn that was battered down in all the rain and wind last week, is righting itself and sending out their stalks, and the peas and beans have blossoms, so we will get some veggies.

Poor corn!!

Back to the mosquitoes--did you know that the oldest known mosquito with a similar anatomy to modern mosquito species was found in 79 million year old Canadian amber from the Cretaceous period?? Just think, the ones biting us now are the 5000 trillionth generation from that one!!! 

No more of this please!!

Let's hope we get some dry weather, so we can go back to sitting outside in our backyards and enjoying what's left of Summer!!