The Rains Came

Yesterday we had a slow, all day rain that finished up around a 1/2 inch, boy did we need it.  But with the rain comes the mosquitoes and this year with the mosquitoes comes West Nile Virus a form of encephalitis.
Everyone is being warned that if they have to be outside to spray themselves with some product containing DEED, to avoid the outdoors at dawn and dusk, and wear long sleeves and long pants if you have to be outdoors.
We use insect repellant  routinely, are seldomly outside at dawn or dusk, but haven't had long sleeves or long pants on in months.  We do  make sure that pots don't fill up with water and become a breeding ground for mosquitoes though.   Mac says they don't breed in our lagoon because the fish will eat their larva, they prefer puddles, pots of water and any other standing water.
 I read that there is a tie-in between mosquitoes, birds and humans in the transmission of the disease.    The mosquitoes bite the birds, (who knew mosquitoes bit birds?)  the birds become infected, they're bit by other mosquitoes and an even stronger version  of the virus is created and this can be transmitted to mammals.  The most common bird involved in this process is the crow, another reason to dislike them, I've always known they were minions of the dark.
The people most at risk  of infection are the elderly, of course, because we're just falling apart anyway.  A mild case can be rather like the flu leaving you tired and achy, a bad case can cause severe neurologoical problems.
So we'll keep on being careful because if you go outside right now you walk through clouds of mosquitoes and I have no energy to spare.