WanderingWilbo: The Mosquitoes Keep Thwarting My Hope to Go Forest Bathing at Spring Lake Park on the Prairie, Streator Illinois

Wednesday, May 27, 2020 at 7:34 AM

Rainbow Acres

Streator Illinois

Mosquitoes have returned to the woods, which has messed up my walks out at Spring Lake Park. Since it is early in the season, the bloodsuckers only bother me when I stop to film a video or sit down on a bench. I am visiting the park in the evening because I need the exercise. I am filming the videos for TikTok, and I can’t hold the cellphone steady and swat. How do I watch the birds quietly when I have to ignore bird calls to listen for the whine of mosquito wings that announce, “Incoming!”

I hate to spend money these days, but I broke down and bought an unproven bottle of insect repellent. The repellent has a displeasing smell, probably a smell that doesn’t smell human to cover up the scent of my flesh and blood. I’ll have to take a shower and wash my clothing after I come back from a walk in the woods.

I found a wide variety of solutions when I visited the Stock and Field Store, a farm supply store that sells hunting and fishing equipment. I laughed at the arm bracelets that promised to work like a magic amulet. I bought one on the way up north to the Camp Tapico Farewell Weekend in 2016. I put it on my right wrist and hoped for the best.

I was dubious. The camp no longer saw campers that summer and the mosquitoes were ravenous. I walked to the campfire ring and I had enough mosquitoes on my body to carry me off into the woods. I worried that the flying vampires were going to drain my veins dry. When a fire was lit in the ring, the mosquitoes vanished. I’m tempted to walk around the woods with a lit torch, even in daylight. The bracelet failed.

The old joke goes, “Insect repellent? Insect repellent doesn’t work. I saw a mosquito sucking on a can of OFF! So when I visit the park in a few hours, I am worried that I’ll be let down by the repellent I purchased.

Stock and Field had more advanced options, including a device with a repellent packet and a heating unit. Load a packet. Load a heating packet. The unit produces a bubble of protection around the wearer. It struck me as expensive, but I am fascinated. Now can I buy a device that keeps out all the floating COVIDS?

Mosquitoes are intensely attracted to me. Why can’t a device emit an even more alluring fragrance and attract every mosquito for a mile around into a jar. I would empty the jar into the stream and feed the fish. Which is the point of mosquitoes as far as I can tell.

It’s my own fault. I have chosen to enjoy a park that has been allowed to turn back to the wild. Fallen trees are allowed to rot on the ground. Poison Ivy awaits on either side of the trail mown down a few times each season. Mosquitoes gone wild and hungry are only part of that process of going back to nature.

Only a park that has been allowed to go wild truly satisfies me when I go forest bathing. We all need to feel the positive vibes of a real forest, to let it bathe our skin in a way water cannot.

Maybe I’ll have to dress myself in mosquito netting to get any bird watching done?