Sometimes when you get going on a project all you can think about is

Gett’er done!

And unfortunately for Bob, gett’er done, got the project accomplished, but at a terrific sacrifice to his personal comfort.

I was minding the massive bonfire in the clearing (the remains of the rotten bathroom floor) when I heard him call to me…

Me, yelling:   WHAT?

Him up on the deck:  Can you just come see I don’t want to yell…

He looked pretty whooped, so I came on back to the house.  By the time I arrived he was in the back bathroom under the light and asking:  What is this?  It’s burning like [heck]!

There on his shoulders and back I saw this.

I stopped counting when I got to 60 on his left shoulder.  The larger wheals are multiple bites from these monsters, and I estimated about 200 bites.

Please click this photo to be taken to Huron-Clinton Metroparks to read more about this beast called the Gallinipper or more technically: Psorophora ciliata!

This image is not photo shopped.  The monster really is that big.  It is also much louder and deeper sounding than those little wimps that whine in the dark in your bedroom.

Now we had worked in this same area the previous Sunday and had no trouble from these fellas.  Not so this Sunday.  The troops were out in full force dive-bombing me and the dogs and leaving Bob alone.  Or so we thought…

Apparently, they were attracted to Bobs dark-colored shirt and upon landing were not noticed, that is until the burn started up.  Since Sunday the burn went away only to be replaced by intense itching.  Thankfully,  as of this morning, he has begun feeling better.

IN THE NEWS – FLORIDA

The news media claim is, that they are only a problem in the wetter portions of Florida.  Not so!  I have been reading reports about them all the way from Michigan to here.  It has been raining A LOT all summer in our neck of the woods.

So, perhaps we need to post a warning sign at the beginning of our trail?

This should do!

Please click photo to be taken to the source:  Dr. Hildegarde Staninger’s,  One Cell One Light Radio

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Apparently, they are everywhere!

• Mega mosquito with painful bite in Windsor/Essex (blogs.windsorstar.com)

NOTES:  There is some good news about these monsters in that they don’t carry disease and they eat the larvae of other mosquitoes!   It is small consolation when they are swarming you in the woods!