Ah, the (Asian) tiger mosquito, or forest mosquito, Aedes albopictus, one of 3600 species of the family Culicidae - the mosquitos, houseflies, and gnats, don't you know. Tiger mosquitoes by the millions breed in the marshes, streams, and rivers along the Chesapeake Bay. This tiger is especially pesky, because unlike other mosquitoes who like wetlands, this mosquito prefers close association with humans. Tigers terrorized 24/7, feeding in the daytime in addition to at dusk and dawn. Summers on the Chesapeake Bay meant you consciously tried to avoid mosquitoes, but against your best efforts the mosquitoes still hunted you - relentlessly.
Many-a-young girl and boy spent long days in June, July, and August shooing and swatting mosquitos. Girls especially suffered Summer's torment, unsuccessfully trying to devise all manner of ways to remain cool in the Bay's often hot, humid, damp weather. Against everyone, mothers, sons and daughters, the dreaded winged creators just kept on biting. Especially after a quick Summertime downpour, the tiger mosquito could be merciless, swarming overhead like gray clouds. DDT, the 'miracle insecticide', invented during WWII, promised some relief, but the reality was more in the promise than in the relief. Frustratingly, no amount of spraying could rid the Bay area of it, the 'tiger' - that God forsaking insect.
Not only did they bite but mosquitoes added insult to abrupt reaction by leaving behind itchy little bumps - and that's not all. As if adolescent acne were not enough, being a young girl on the Eastern Shore meant you probably got little black bumps all over your legs and arms. Against all warnings, the poor tormented victim would scratch the little bumps, in a vain effort at relief. Adding scars to vanity, the little bumps often become dark permanent spots. Credit Bible admonitions and the threat of momma's switch - for keeping many-a-kid from cursing the very Summer that brought the striped menace.
Sometime, especially after a downpour, the damned things would swarm so thickly you'd think they were a storm cloud hovering overhead, they brought to mind something one might witness in the tropics. This wasn't the jungles of Central or South America, not even a Summer in Florida. This was the Chesapeake Bay.
Summertime on the Chesapeake Bay meant mosquitoes for everyone. City folks just visiting the Bay in Summer could be heard wondering, 'what in the world ever made me want to come to this weed infested buggy place'. The Bay, though, was and remains God's country. The place defines all that is renewing. It is calming, soothing, but also warning.
For years the mosquito (more, perhaps, than any other pest - insect or not) posed major problems on the Shore. They impacted everything, the personal health, population growth, economic development and general wellbeing of the entire region.
Around the 50's and early 60's Maryland got serious about insect abatement, beginning serious efforts to reduce mosquito counts along the Bay. Before then, shore residents joked that many political leaders, especially those from the Western shore, didn't even know where the Eastern Shore was. It was business interest, especially those promoting Ocean City's beaches, and the Bay's avid fishermen, who've long seen the area as heaven (mosquito or not), who started the push to get Maryland politicians to take Bay area concerns, especially mosquito control, seriously.
After landlubbers from the Western shore 'discovered' the Eastern Shore, many of those westerners rediscovered their Bibles. There is something about the Chesapeake Bay that has the 'pull' to bring those who've strayed away, back to the Lord.
With the dreaded sheeters still causing little girls to scratch, curse, then scratch some more, the Chesapeake Bay still remains God's country.
God loves all of His creation; yes, even the tiger mosquito. How much more, then, must He love you.?
Come on down to the Bay. Bring your Bible. 'Bible by the Bay'.
Let us hear from you.
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