Repelling

This summer for some reason I'm a mosquito magnet! If I go outside to pick a few tomatoes--I have a bite. Five minutes deadheading flowers--four bites. Although the itch subsides quickly when I use After Bite treatment on the welts, it's annoying to have to go through the process again and again.

I keep a bottle of repellent in the pantry so that when we want to eat dinner outside I can spray myself before I go out on the deck, but it makes me feel sticky, and I don't want to use it if I'm just spending a couple of minutes in the garden.

Other than bug spray, I've heard of a lot of alternate ideas for keeping yourself bite-free. A friend swears by fabric softener sheets. She ties one to the belt loop of her shorts and says that keeps the mosquitoes away. Even though Snopes pooh-poohs the idea, today I used a dryer sheet to try to keep mosquitoes away.

My project was a perennial bed in the back yard. It's been neglected for the last month and there was quite a bit of misplaced grass, dandelions, and other weeds to remove. I grabbed my trowel and bucket, accessorized my outfit with a Bounce sheet, and walked out to the offending area.

I was outside for about 20 minutes, and was pleased to find out the dryer sheet worked pretty well. Based on my recent track record, I should have been covered in bites, but I only had one on my leg. I suspect this technique wouldn't work for an extended period of time, but I'm certainly using it again tomorrow when I tackle the bird seed that's sprouted under the deck.