Now that it’s warmer, the return of insects is a sure sign of spring. To E’s chagrin, moths are hanging around the back door causing her anxiety every time she wants to come and go. Flies are starting to buzz about and one unlucky house fly came in through a vent hole in our storm window the other day, getting trapped inside. “If it was a bee” my husband said, “it would have escaped, because bees are a lot smarter than flies.” Ticks are out and about too, which you know I’m a bit nutty about if you’ve read M & E’s adventure Ticks, Elk, Buffalo and More! These blood thirsty little parasites have been known to hide in all sorts of unmentionable places and I don’t intend to have any of us become their host. Not to mention the diseases they carry. Eeww! But, I’ll try not to overreact, as they are part of recreating outdoors and we use repellent anyway.
I didn’t insist anyone use DEET the other day (because I don’t like using the stuff unless absolutely necessary). It’s still snowy up in the mountains and inaccessible, so we were out to find Hidden Lakes, a canyon area with a nice waterfall, where we could spend some time exploring. I thought it still a bit cool for ticks, but I was wrong. They start coming out in April, and one was found on E’s shirt after we got home. M & E tried to smash it, but the little bugger had a very hard abdomen. I finally crushed it with my boot.
It was perfect weather and we saw lots of elk scat and M even saw a bear track in a snowfield. We lunched by the waterfall and the girls did some boulder scrambling. What a great day to be outdoors!
Do you have a tick story? Let us hear from you!
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| Cool waterfall |
