mosquito

The longest day of the year. Yes, today is the longest day of the year. Each day shall be several minutes shorter from this point onward. It will not be noticable untill late July when it once again will start to become dark at night. Right now, we get about 22 hours of day light interrupted only by twilight. The midnight sun allows for me to play golf at any hour of the day or night. I anticipate the July 1st "Canada Day" holiday. We always have a tournament along with a picnic. I shall bring the tent down to the Sylvia Grinnel River along with plenty of food and fishing gear. The day will be full of fishing, eating and of course, golfing.
Along with the midnight sun, the summer brings on the hordes of arctic mosquitos. Skeeters, little vampires or call them what you will, will descend down upon us by the billions. I saw a mosquito this morning. It is +3C and the biting bugs are starting to come out.
Baffin Island has large mosquitos and each little critter has a fur coat. You can buy a souvenier mosquito "pelt" mounted on a tongue depressor at the local gift shop. Some T-shirts claim that the mosquito is our national bird. There is also a tiny leg trap sold as a mosquito trap. Catch a bug without ruining the pelt.
These biting bugs will be with us for most of the summer. In July, they can be a plague. I have seen dogs completely covered in mosquitos. The bugs will swarm around the animals' nostills and make it difficult to breathe. I have seen groups of caribou running about trying to rid themselves of the torment of the bug. Many caribou will look for persistant patches of snow that they can stand on. Less mosquitos above the cooler snow patch. Even polar bears can be pestered by these little creatures. The bears will just jump into the freezing waters of Frobisher Bay in order to rid themselves of the bugs. As much as we all hate the mosquito, they are an important part of the arctic food chain. Fish will be jumping out of the water to eat them. Birds will feast upon the little vampires. Spiders will take thier fair share. For us humans, we will just have to tolerate them.
I think I have an itch.....
Where is that after bite lotion?