ANDRE BEGIN

When we first visited our country property, imagining ourselves living in this space, I admit that we had grand visions of outdoor living opportunities.
We saw ourselves potentially getting a fire pit to enjoy leisurely summer evenings.

We dreamt of a post-Covid world where we could invite family and friends over to enjoy the peace and calm of our rural surroundings as a soothing antidote to city life.

I had visions of spending time on a comfy hammock, as a relaxing reward after a busy career.

In checking out the charming front porch, I was already envisioning myself seated on our outdoor furniture, notebook computer on my lap, producing my next literary work of art on a steamy summer day.

But thanks to Mother Nature, those dreams still haven’t fully come to fruition.

The reason? Insects.

Outdoor insects of the annoying or biting kind (…or both).

When we checked out the house, it was late February, so insects weren’t really on our radar.

Shortly after we moved in, we received our first taste in the form of flying ants which neither of us had seen before, and strangely, we have only seen on rare occasions since.

We experienced crickets in numbers that would make one wonder if the end of the world was approaching and of a decibel count capable of drowning out even spirited conversations. When they are at their peak, to be able to follow a TV program we either need to close the living room windows or else to use the closed-caption feature.

We have also experienced the usual insects we have seen in the city like flies, wasps, bees and ants. And mosquitos… Oh my!… We have more than our fair share of mosquitos.

Our biggest struggle was with Asian beetles, invading our property and our house through the fall months as they search of a warm place for winter. While Asian beetles are not destructive in nature, it is just the crazy number of them that could drive one batty if one’s house, windows and doors are not perfectly hermetically sealed… and truly, unless one’s house is brand new, those critters will find a way in.

When you combine the waves of different species of bugs on any given late spring, summer or early fall day, it is difficult to fully appreciate outdoor living when most of your time is spent swatting and smacking body parts to the point of feeling one’s blood pressure rising, rather than calmly appreciating the serenity of rural life.

There is a narrow band of days in the spring when the bugs are not a problem, right after the snow has melted and before most insects have had a chance to spawn. Unfortunately, it’s not like you can cram in a season’s worth of barbecues, hammock time, reading and writing in the span of maybe two weeks before you need the Costco-sized case of insect repellant.

In an effort to try to reclaim some semblance of outside living, we have a big zapper, we have citronella candles and we have tried to leverage Mother Nature’s tools by planting flowers that are known to act as natural repellants. However, I fear that our rural bugs are a little more bad-ass than that.

I swear I can hear them laughing at our attempts.

I was most fortunate in picking up on a friend’s suggestion of a line of mosquito repellant apparel from the Mark’s chain of stores (here in Canada) that has become my go-to uniform for gardening and for taking the cat on her leash walks, whenever mosquitos are at their worst. Unfortunately, getting enough for a backyard full of barbecue guests might be a little cost prohibitive.

As much as we accept that outdoor insects are a fact of life, our enjoyment of the great outdoors really depends on timing and which wave of bugs is invading us at a given time.

There are times when we can find ourselves at peace with less need for the swatting dance. But just when we think we have figured out the timing and the pattern, Mother Nature reminds us that she is actually in charge of the matter and switches things up on us.

Either way, as long as we have insect repellant and deterrent measures in place, we’ll enjoy what we can of our outdoor living dreams and just run inside when our plans are full of bugs.

Did you enjoy this post? If you did, your likes and shares are most appreciated.
If you haven’t already, please check out the rest of my blog at andrebegin.blog. From there, you can click on the “Follow” button to receive future posts directly in your inbox.
Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André