Main page Science blog My media blog Media page
Subscribe To My-media-blog RSS Feed 
The Multitude
Aren’t there bugs there?
Well, of course there are. A little careful planning and preparation, though, and they needn’t be a problem.
Yes, we have ticks in the Ozarks. They’re worst between May and September. I commonly find one or two that have made my personal acquaintance each year, but most of the ticks I encounter never get past my clothing defenses.
August is horsefly month in the Ozarks. The females can be a real pest because they bite! They need a blood meal to produce eggs, and any mammal will do, including talking mammals. A few swings of my cap can generally send them away for a while.
Chiggers are the worst. They come in the late spring and last well into August. These beasts are almost microscopic, but if they can get to your skin, they will leave you with an itch that can last for days. They don’t drink your blood. Rather, they liquify your skin and then slurp it up. The best things to do to avoid chigger problems are to keep your pants tucked in your socks, stay out of the scrub, and shower vigorously as soon as you get home from the woods.
Really, the bugs are manageable. That’s what I tell all of my squeamish friends. They don’t generally believe me, and that’s why I don’t share this kind of picture with them:
That’s my pants leg. I found this multitude crawling up my pants on a recent visit to Roundrock. #1 Son and I had just tromped through the forest and were falling into a pre-lunch stupor in the comfy chairs under the tarp. I had sent the boy to the truck to fetch our lunch buckets and happened to look down at my leg. Yikes! I had thought chigger season was about over. We haven’t had any rain down that way in a while, though, and I believe that helps them get out. (I think the rain washes them from the scrub and to the ground.)
Chiggers are fragile critters. The act of brushing them off my pants crushes most of them. If any of them got past my defenses, though, I should know in a couple of days.
Missouri calendar:
- Salamander larvae are transforming into adults.
- Meriwether Lewis was born on this date in 1774. Co-captain of the Voyage of Discovery and governor of the Territory of Louisiana brought him fame, but he died alone under mysterious circumstances. Whether he was murdered or committed suicide in a lonely cabin along the Natchez Trace no one has ever been able to determine.