Janet grew up in Newcastle and spent most of her time outdoors. After going away for college, she and her music teacher husband returned to Newcastle and raised their own family there.She has two grown sons: one a barber in San Francisco; one an attorney in Auburn.She frequently travels by train to the Bay Area to care for her toddling grandson, indoctrinating him to appreciate libraries, classical music, and the outdoor world. Retired from her career in libraries and academic assistance, Janet now lives in Applegate.
When I was a teen, I had a poster my wall that said “Don’t take yourself too seriously.” I’ve found the ability to enjoy personal absurdities has served me well for most of my 65 years. I hope to encourage you, my stranger-friends to find humor in your own undignified situations and lighten your heavy hearts.— Janet Riswold
My friend Sue recently boasted that she hasn’t gotten a mosquito bite in 30 years. This same friend despises frogs, tells questionable jokes, and happily reveals that all she learned in college was how to smoke and play bridge. To be fair, I should also mention that she remembers birthdays and brings cake. I don’t believe her claim about the mosquitoes, but I believe she believes it.
Meanwhile, on the table on my back porch I have a small bucket of outdated mosquito
repellents, none of which have kept me safe from the buzzy little blood suckers. I get bit and develop welts that last for days, if not weeks.
I was reading Google Health News a few weeks ago and stumbled upon an article that said mosquitoes are “most attracted to airborne carboxylic acids, including butyric acid, a compound present in ‘stinky’ cheeses such as Limburger. These carboxylic acids are produced by bacteria on human skin and tend not to be noticeable to us.”**
So, apparently my body is host to the same chemical that makes Limburger cheese stink. I am a stinky cheese woman. Other research has indicated that basic body odor also attracts mosquitoes, but I’m confident (kind of) that the enigmatic cheese effect is at work, not basic BO.
One of the researchers of the new study said that “the correlation between the chemicals present in different people’s body odor and the mosquitoes’ attraction to those scents was ‘very interesting and exciting’”. I’d like to meet this researcher. Just saying.
Earlier this week the guy from the Placer Mosquito and Vector District stopped by for his annual visit. I wasn’t home, but my husband told me he had been here, and I was both sorry and relieved to have missed the mosquito man. This guy knows a lot about the local mosquito population - more than anybody. And if one expresses an interest, he will tell you what’s currently biting, as well as what’s hovering but not biting. The breadth and depth of his knowledge is truly impressive. I wish I’d been home, because I think he might have found me interesting and exciting, you know, in a butyric acid kind of way.
My backyard probably annoys the mosquito man, because I don’t drain our two little water features because they have pollywogs in them. I love pollywogs and the subsequent chorus frogs more than I hate (yes, I know “hate” is a strong word) mosquitoes. My fondness for frogs is a topic for another time.
So for now, during this mild and best outdoor weather, you can find me on the back porch until the first mosquito of the afternoon arrives, whereupon I sorrowfully sequester inside. All too soon, the mosquito season will be over and meat bee season will begin. And I will wistfully recall the days when I was interesting and exciting.
www.cnn.com/2023/05/19/world/mosquito-human-body-odor-malaria-scn/index.html