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Barbecue, Beer, Weeds and Bugs

July 2006

July is National Picnic Month. We all like to barbecue, down a couple of beers, go boating, hike in the woods and enjoy the great outdoors before the temperatures hit triple digits. All this outdoor activity greatly increases our exposure to poison ivy and mosquitoes.

My pygmy goats control poison ivy on my property. It’s their favorite food, but they also eat plants other grazers avoid such as ragweed and fallen leaves. I was going to be away for a few days last month, so I pulled down some poison ivy that’s beyond their reach. They’re less than 2 feet tall. Poison ivy usually doesn’t affect me, so I took no precautions. I was in short sleeves and shorts with no gloves.

Two days later I couldn’t get to sleep in my hotel room, because my arm felt like it was on fire. I looked down and found all kinds of blisters. I asked myself “Why me?” I think I was more susceptible than usual because I was stressed out. My wife had been visiting her parents in New Mexico for 2 weeks, business was booming and I was trying to get out of town to see a gardening buddy who propagates interesting plants. Everything was going full speed and I was tired. My immune system just wasn’t in top shape.

I was tired but too uncomfortable to sleep. The last thing I wanted to do was to get dressed and run around a strange town towing my garden center trailer looking for a 24 hour drug store. Plus, I’m not to keen on OTC chemical stuff. And, the pink stuff looks bizarre on my tanned skin.

But, I needed sleep. So, I took a mental inventory . What did I have that might give me some relief. Was there anything in my truck? I knew that something acidic would help. Then it dawned on me - coffee. I had some single serving coffee pods - perfect! So I drank a cup of coffee and I rubbed that pod over all my affected skin. It burned like crazy. But after a little while it settled down and I drifted off to sleep. A few hours later I woke up because one area on my arm was itching like crazy. I grabbed that damp pod and achieved relief.

It could be that stress makes you more attractive to mosquitoes, too. We may give off more scent when stressed. Think about it. People have lived Panama for thousands of years. But, when our workers went to build the Canal the death rate from mosquito borne malaria was horrendous. Those workers had to be in stress.

People think of Dallas as urban, but we have some densely forested areas in the Trinity River Bottom and at White Rock Lake. Every year some people drink too much beer, get ignorant, jump in the water and drown. As a fire fighter, I go out there to recover bodies. And this is usually early in the morning or late in the evening when mosquitoes are most active. They are voracious.

A few years back we were called out to the Trinity River. The mosquitoes were attacking us in swarms. The Fire Department’s standard equipment is OFF!®. I was being bitten, but I didn’t want to use OFF!®. Not only is it hazardous to your health, but my buddies would have razed me something awful. They made fun of me at the fire station when I converted my business to organics. And, they all know about my organic mission.

Looking around, I spotted some ragweed. Pretending like I knew what I was doing, I crushed it up to release the oils. Then I rubbed it all over my exposed skin and around my collar and cuffs - no more mosquito bites. The idea came to me because earlier that year I’d made a spray out of ragweed to use it on some plants to repel grasshoppers.

Last summer we had a rescue at White Rock Lake. It was densely forested, so there wasn’t any ragweed. I walked around and grabbed three or four different weedy plants, crushed them together and rubbed them on my skin. The guys who were spraying OFF!® thought I was crazy. Again, the mosquitoes left me alone - except for one bite right under my belly button. Apparently my shirt had pulled out exposing unprotected skin.

I’m looking forward to testing some other plant products. Recently I read about American beautyberry. For ages people have rubbed the oil from its leaves on farm animals as an insect repellant. It’s an attractive deciduous shrub with clusters of purple berries that attract birds. And, it’s well-adapted here.

My advice: Relax and look to nature to for solutions as you enjoy the outdoors this summer.