Pesty Insects

Mosquitoes
Just like every other place in the world, there are lots of mosquitoes in the high country. Except, these mosquitoes don’t have as much opportunity to draw blood as other mosquitoes that live near more warm blooded creatures. So when I hike in the mountains many times I am swarmed by mosquitoes. Sometimes I have layers of dead mosquitoes on my arms.


Now if you were a mosquito and you saw layers of dead mosquitoes on my arms, wouldn’t you stop and think? “Whoa. Maybe I shouldn’t bite this guy. Look what happened to all of those other mosquitoes.” It doesn’t work that way for a mosquito. Their instinct to draw blood in order the breed overwhelms any logical rational thinking, even if it means sudden and certain death. They are all like kamikaze pilots. It won’t hurt long.


Ear Bugs
What’s up with these big noisy bugs flying into my ears? Do they just like small cavities? Do they like the smell of ear wax, or are they just really bad drivers. That’s not right!


The Bee Fly
As I was hiking through a meadow, I heard what sounded like a thousand little micro chain saws.  After closer inspection, I realized it was many little Bee Flies. They were everywhere gathering pollen from the little flowers in the meadow. In the high country, flowers are too small for the hummingbirds so God made a smaller version of the hummingbird, the Bee Fly. They have a very long proboscis, a large body for counter balance and wings that move like a hummingbirds wings. Up in the high country, the life is small…small flowers and small insects.