Last Wednesday night the greenhouse blew down, and as of Monday afternoon the plants were moved back in! We owe many thanks Larry Smith and Bruce, Mary and Sophia from Lazy Dog Farm for coming out on Sunday and helping us rebuild. On Monday Randy and I covered it with the leftover plastic and shade cloth, and we were back in business. The new plastic has arrived and soon we’ll be finishing up loose ends and the greenhouse will be better than ever.
By Wednesday evening the field had dried enough from last week’s six inches of rain to start disking in the lush, thick stand of cowpeas that we are growing to build the soil for next year’s crop. After about an hour of dragging the disk, I made a rough calculation. I was looking at 15 hours of my butt on that hard seat, jostling along at three miles an hour to the rumble of the engine and the smell of gasoline fumes. Three miles an hour does not generate enough wind to fend off mosquitoes. Following all that rain, the mosquito population has exploded.
We have been lucky to have been relatively mosquito free all year, but since Wednesday evening they’ve been making up for it. I have been dousing my clothing in Deep Woods OFF. I don’t care if it’s toxic, I’d drink that stuff if it would help. By the end of the day my hair is full of dead mosquito carcasses and squished ones are plastic all over our clothing.
How long does it take a mosquito to starve to death? Apparently the females eat nectar as well as sucking the blood of poor unsuspecting farmers. Mosquito-control.com tells me that “the average life span of a female mosquito is 3 to 100 days.” I sure hope they die off sooner so we can enjoy being outside.
You’ll be happy to know that our suffering is not all in vain. The male mosquito is the only pollinator of the bog orchid. See, mosquitoes do have an ecological purpose other than feeding birds and bugs. At least that is what I heard on Mississippi Public Broadcasting. However, when I looked it up on the internet I found a Nature article suggesting they just steal the nectar and don’t pollinate at all. To read the whole article I was going to have to pay $18, so I guess the jury is still out on the benefits of mosquitoes.