This morning I flicked eleven slugs off my tent, two off my hiking poles and several off my backpack. So, in the bug category, I would like to add a subsection: slugs.
Reader: Slugs are not bugs, they are invertebrates.
Ok, in the category of creepy, crawly, stingy, biting things in the woods, I would like to add the subsection: slugs.
Unlike mosquitos, I do not intentionally kill slugs. It is really not a pleasant experience for either of us. Here is one example: I wake up in the rain, hurriedly putting on my boots, and oh, little squishy, sluggy death by my feet. Or, I begin packing up my tent quickly, too quickly, and miss one little guy that has attached himself to one of the walls. That night, unfolding everything, I discover that, in his last act of defiance before his death, the slug flattened himself into a sheet of plastic that will not come off my tent. Ever.
I do not want slug goo on my tent, but gnats are another matter. I cannot clap fast enough to kill them, so I must squish them against things. They leave a little black smudge and I do not remove it. I want it to say, See how I have defiled the remains of your family, incessant bitey gnats, this could be you.
The mosquitoes do seem to be getting better, which is to say that there are still a lot of them, but they are no longer in plague proportions. Tortoise gave me a little box which emits a sound that supposedly repels mosquitoes. I hold it in front of myself as if it is a cross to repel vampires. I was concerned when a mosquito landed directly on it, but I remained optimistic. Tortoise and I decided that that one must have been hard of hearing.
