L OCAL LIVING
District a cook’s garden
Dodge, slap, itch. Repeat. What makes me such a bug magnet?
by Barbara Damrosch
My friend Aubrey and I are weeding the carrot beds, and the Deerfly Air Force has found us. By now, the tiny black flies of spring are on the wane. Big, noisy horseflies are yet to arrive. Meanwhile, the deerflies are doing their best to ruin our day. A deerfly, slightly smaller than
a housefly, inflicts a sharp, painful bite. As if to torture you, it circles above, buzzing loudly, before it strikes. Its one saving grace is its slow speed, and if your timing is perfect you can swat one on your arm or shoulder just before it sinks that cruel little mouthpart into your flesh. As we work on our technique, Aubrey offers a tip: “They hate beige,” she says. I hate beige, too, but I’d wear a hideous safari suit if it would help.
Some gardeners fret about
insects eating their plants. I fret about them eating me. Roam the scientific literature, and you’ll find numerous studies that show some people are more bothered than others by biting insects. You
don’t need a grant to prove that, professor. Just stand next to me at dusk and we’ll see who has any blood left by 9 o’clock. Theories abound as to what
makes some of us so tasty. Most studies have been done with mosquitoes, since they are vectors for diseases that cause millions of deaths each year in parts of the world. (That puts my summers of mere itching, scratching and bleeding in perspective.)
According to the current
Internet pseudo-consensus, you are more attractive to mosquitoes if you are tall, stout, lazy, pregnant, sweaty and drinking a lot of beer. That profile, linked to greater body heat and carbon dioxide emissions, is not one I typically fit. A Spanish article I once read made more sense. Bug magnets such as I, it proposed, have sangre dulce (sweet blood), and the lucky unbitten ones have sangre amargo (bitter blood), thanks to substances they secrete that ward off insects, either by repelling them or by masking human odors. That sounds plausible.
After all, plants practice chemical strategies against insects all the time.
Another theory, though controversial, is that mosquitoes prefer people with type O blood. I am type O, and so is Aubrey. On the plus side, if the theory is true, we are less likely to die from malaria or bubonic plague. The best you can do, if you too
are “type yummy,” is avoid the crepuscular hours (dawn and twilight), make the most of windy days when light-bodied fliers are buffeted about, and, when all else fails, apply your repellent of choice. For me, natural repellents last 20 minutes at best, so until something better comes along I’m the girl wearing eau de DEET and a beige hat.
localliving@washpost.com
Damrosch is a freelance writer and the author of “The Garden Primer.”
ON WASHINGTONPOST.COM
washingtonpost.com/vegetable gardens.
6
Read more about growing your own food at www.
tip of the week
Make sure that trees, shrubs and perennials planted in the past 18 months are adequately watered before they show signs of wilting. Soak their root zones using a watering can, five-gallon bucket or wand attachment to a hose. Don’t rely on lawn sprinklers to deliver enough water. Soak the plants once a week in the absence of adequate rainfall. A light mulch will conserve soil moisture. — Adrian Higgins
9 DC
BIGSTOCKPHOTO
Higgins’s gardening column will return next week. Follow @posthiggins on Twitter, and read him on the All We Can Eat blog Mondays at www.
washingtonpost.com/allwecaneat.
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