Oh boy, fun memory: the local homeschooled-children-and-youth choir that I was in for a while had, as part of the final concert I was in, a medley from Seussical. I ended up with the role of the Gourmet-I-Am (as we nicknamed him anyway). Keep in mind for the story that I was the tallest one there by 3.5 inches (I’m almost 6’6") and had on a 14-inch hat. I was also the loudest one there, i.e. never singing out much (nor should the rest of the male section, as we would have drowned out everyone else if we did). For the part, the director took advantage of my volume, and had me yelling “I do not like them, Sam-I-Am” at Existential Sam [Sam-I-Am, played by Sam, as opposed to The Cat in the Hat, played by a different Sam] at the correct times. Listening to a recording of it afterwards, I discovered that my shouting was noticeably louder than the entire rest of the choir had been just before. I was not yelling at maximum volume…
Let’s not do a real-life debate. You could be a little intimidating. 
LOL
For the end of a road trip, the appropriate line is, “We are here! We are here!”
(For almost the end, like when the destination is almost in sight, a movie line worked: “Al-most there!”)
Even without malaria, large quantities of mosquitos is something that mainly provoke black humor. Or sometimes even mischievous humor as you look how tourists react when they get surrounded by a cloud of blood-sucking beasts. My condolence.
One becomes somewhat numb to the temporary plague (only 2-3 months in the North) and even gets a slight benefit when there are so much mosquitos you cannot avoid getting some in the food while you lift the spoon to your mouth. Some of my most intriguing nature observations have also been made during a year when blood-sucking beasts were very abundant - like a wasp making small meatballs from mosquitos it picked from the back of a tourist (on the jacket, not under the clothes).
Sorry for the hints of dark humor in this comment.
Edit:
I do not know where the limits of acceptable humor goes on this Forum.
Mischievous humor is not nice, I do not feel that it is edifying and try to get rid of it.
Dark humor is another story because dark humor may be a way to deal with unpleasant matters in the life, something that may protect the mind from seriously negative hits. We had some difficult years in our life and we used quite much dark, even very dark humor with my wife to help get over the difficult times. It worked in our case because we had similar kind of attitudes but more sensitive persons might feel that very dark humor is not ok.
A straight-laced Christian might even think that dark humor is not ok because we should focus on the heavenly matters and rejoice in the Lord in all situations and conditions. No need for dark humor if you are rejoicing. That is to some extent true and might be a goal in our personal growth as believers but it forgets that we are just humans with our weaknesses and handicaps
Come to Michigan! (Our old state tourism slogan).
Do not attempt to live here without window screens. Or without DEET. At least from late March until the first frost or two.
Mosquito - our second state bird.
I once visited the border of Canada within US but not in Michigan, it was west of it. I bought from there miniature versions of bear trap, of the size intended for mosquitos (very large ones). Nice invention.
I found a picture of such a trap, it is below. There seemed to be also official upper michigan versions of the trap.
We’ve had an unusual amount of rain this summer, so I think the mosquitoes are even more desperate than usual – I got eaten alive a few days ago in a place that’s normally not too bad, so might have to invest in more DEET – for those and the ticks, which are more subtle.
I agree – I think it can be useful as long as it’s involving a personal experience rather than pointed at someone else, but it’s knowing when and where to share it that can be tricky.
I hiked long portions of the Pacific Crest Trail and didn’t used DEET or any of the others. I used a natural solution: eat plenty of garlic and onions. In stretches where almost everyone was covered up thoroughly and wearing items practically soaked in DEET or an equivalent we were in shorts and tank tops; mosquitos would fly towards us but an inch or two from our skin they’d turn away.
Cinnamon supposedly deters mosquitos as well, but it takes a lot of it to have any effect – well, unless you take finely-ground cinnamon and mix it with hot oil and let it simmer for a while and then use the resulting “potion” as a lotion, or if you can find cinnamon oil at a store. But that’s an expensive fix.
On the other hand, if you smell like cinnamon people will find it humorous, whereas when you smell like garlic and onions . . . not so much.
We’ve had our third cooler and drier summer in a row and one result is I’ve hardly seen any mosquitos except near bodies of standing water. But such weather also results in a lousy survival rate for the native seedlings I plant out in the dunes, so I think I’d rather have a few mosquitos back and more trees survive!
Garlic and onions repels ticks, too, though it’s necessary to eat more of it than for mosquitos. But there’s a catch: along with the garlic and onions foods rich in iron are needed since somehow lots of garlic can lead to anemia.
I’ll stick with DEET. Mosqitos here eat everything, particulay me.
I like the smell of garlic, and I’ve heard it works for Japanese beetles–but I would think it might either make me hungry or keep my family away.
In Alaska on a camping trip to Denali with my sister in '14, we found that DEET is a good fire starter–especially if it’s on your hair–causing it to frizz if you’re too close to the fire.
I have garlic, and I know how to use it – in cooking. It hasn’t done a thing to protect me from vampiric mosquitoes. Maybe one must hang it around one’s neck? I read somewhere that that works.
Do we need to review basic fire safety rules before you go camping again?
Just be sure to spray it on clothing, not on your skin!
I only use the garlic and onion trick when camping or hiking a long ways; it’s too much trouble for regular use. On the other hand, I’ve found that tea tree oil deters the critters fairly well. One summer years back my mom gave me a bottle of sunscreen that had both tea tree oil and eucalyptus oil in it, and when applied as directed that kept the six-legged pests away.
I camped a few summers back with a friend who used a shampoo with tea tree oil and lemon mint and we had some good laughs at the fact that mosquitoes wouldn’t come within eight inches of his hair but landed on his bare arms.
Oh – I remembered another one: an engineering student working on a master’s degree lived downstairs from me for two years and he was really into the hot, hot peppers; he swore that eating them regularly also repelled insects. But then he was popping a jar of two dozen jalapenos plus even hotter peppers every day!
For mosquito protection I was eating four to six cloves before breakfast, again at lunchtime, and again at dinner.
That and wearing long sleeves and thin long pants are what I would do. We don’t have a lot of mosquitos here.
Okay then, Liver and Onions it is. Except that I’m the only one here who might eat that.
Next time I visit the Everglades or visit Green Swamp just after heavy rains, I’ll try that.
I’m thankful dragonflies! Maybe a decade ago, one evening I was cutting up a largish tree that had come down. It was prime mosquito time, but there must have been a thousand dragonflies flying around. It really was pretty amazing and beautiful along with everything else – the lovely temperature, the evening light, the sky… and the mosquitoes were taken care of.
Getting us back on topic,
You don’t need anything on your hair to make it frizz if you’re too close! Forearms and eyebrows testify to that!
The dear PhD in Assyriology that I had for a teacher in my only year in a Christian high school as a senior and whom I consider my mentor in Christianity… he could read that and probably had.