Warming Up Again

[poliphilo]

 We had a little rain on Friday, and Saturday was coolish but today the sun is back in strength- and we're being promised another week of temperatures in the high 20s and low 30s. By English standards this is turning into an extraordinarily summery summer.

It would be inconsistent of me to complain about factory farming and how it's killing off the insects- and then complain about buzzy things getting into the house and having to be warded away from food- but... today's strategy for discouraging them is citronella candles. They smell nice but I don't think they're particularly effective. 

Comments

[oakmouse]

Citronella is great for warding off mosquitos (I think you call them midges?) and biting flies, but bees and wasps not so much. It kind of depends if the scent of a foodstuff they really want is stronger than the scent of the citronella, or at least that's been my experience.

[poliphilo]

No, we call them mosquitos too. They're the one kind of insect I feel less than friendly towards. Midges are tiny little things that hang out together in swarms.

These citronella candles smell nice but aren't particularly pungent.

[oakmouse]

Oh, ok, then what you call midges are probably what we call gnats. The passages in Tolkien about the Midgewater Marshes misled me.