Tondeleo: One thing that is immediately noticeable about being in the warmer rural areas of the US during the Summer is the amount of insects. I am fair skinned, and they seem to love English blood. (Think, "Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman.") Whenever I am in the US, I have to cover myself with insect repellent, and even then, they feast on me, and I end up being an itchy mound of insects bites and scabs.
I was eating on the porch at Doc and Marilyn's with Big Dave. They were happily playing music and singing. I was scratching like a madman. I was covered in welts from mosquitoes, and gnats and flies were buzzing around my head.
There were several homemade fly strips hanging from the eaves of the porch, and they were covered with flies. Still the flies and mosquitoes were landing on me as though I was a living and breathing fly strip.
Between songs, Marilyn told me how they make their fly strips by cutting a brow
n paper bag into 2" wide strips, and then soaking it in mixture of sugar and thick treacle (pancake syrup). She said molasses works good, too. She mixes sugar, water and the treacle in a pan and boils it, then puts the strips of brown paper (which she has already fastened the string to, for hanging it up) into the mixture. After it soaks a while, she pulls them out and hangs them from the eaves of the porch and inside, and in Doc's garage.
Noting my lack of knowledge in this field caused Doc and Big Dave to join in and tell me their other solutions for dealing with insects.
Doc: Fly strips is one way to keep bugs away. When we play at barbecues an' pig pickin's or other outdoor parties in the summer or if we is playin' in the streets, mosquitoes, gnats, an' flies can really get on your last nerve. Makes you sing like you's mad rather than like you got the blues or is broken hearted. People ain't like it when you sing like you're mad, and I don't, too.
I ain't never liked coverin' myself with bug spray, but mouthwash works good for keepin' the bugs away. I use the Wal Mart copycat of Listerine 'causin' it's cheaper. We put it in a spray bottle and put a few squirts on us and on the mics. We use it at home the same way. Buy it by the quart up to the General Dollar, if you ain't got a Wal Mart. Use it for mouthwash, bug spray and shampoo if you're runnin' short.
Fly strips ain't the only way to keep bugs away in the house, neither. Marilyn ain't like no fly strips in her bedroom, Tondy. She don't want flies hangin' over her head when she sleeps! She uses them little cloths what you get at the laundry mat for puttin' in the dryer. I think she gets hers at Dollar General or the Wal Mart...
Marilyn: They's called dryer sheets, Tondy. I clothes pin 'em to my curtains so I can have my windows open at night and the bugs'll stay out. My mama used to do that down to Tennessee when I was a little girl.
Mama used them Bounce dryer sheets for keepin' her bedroom smellin' nice, an' to keep bugs out. She hung 'em on the celilin' fan and kept it on the slow speed all the time in the Summer. She put them in her boyfriend's truck to keep it smellin' nice.
Big Dave: Yeah, and if you got a bee sting or spider bite, you can put deodorant on it. That's what I do. Most everyone over here in the USA does that, I reckon. Stops the itching.
Doc: Sometimes you need to stop the itching if you've been bug bit an' then you got to go somewhere an' play an' sing. You can't be up there scratchin'. Deodorant does work good for that.
Doc picked his guitar back up to start playing, Dave started playing, and Marilyn picked up a harp, and looked at me and squinched up her face:
Marilyn: Tondy, you better get inside to the bathroom and use some deodorant on your face and arms! Your head looks like a bowl full of raspberries. You won't be able to get your hat on tomorrow with your head swolled up!
