Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for August 12, 2021

A bad rap for what?

On the other hand, (of Arlo,) flies deserve all the beating that they get.

I’m sure bugs are vital for something like pollinating but they do take the fun out of a picnic.

Ants at a picnic? Eh.

Ants in a kitchen? All Hell breaks loose.

You need those little net igloo’s to keep ’em from wiping their feet on your ’tater salad.

Those ants would prefer your chicken wrap, rather than a bum one.

Arlo should have ANTicipated that the flies are the real problem!

I asked my daughter if she’d seen my newspaper…

She told me that newspapers are old school. She said that people use tablets nowadays and handed me her iPad.

That fly didn’t stand a chance.

Around here it’s yellow jackets that are often the menace, especially in public spaces … and you don’t want to swat ’em with your hand.

In fact swatting them at all can bring their angry cousins.

They’re not everywhere… sometimes you luck out, but other times you feel like giving up and eating in the car.

You keep everything that you can covered, buy the little nets to put over anything open, and watch out for beverage cans, where they can hide.

Some people believe a decoy plate of food on another table works.. I haven’t seen that happen.

The parks often use baits and sprays to control them… but sprays are kind of scary too.

Nonetheless, there’s one local park where I won’t picnic any more because yellow jackets always spoil it.

At home, if you have them, you can use hanging traps, and root out the nests, which sometimes takes professional help.

I don’t usually get any in my yard… I get paper wasps instead, which look just as scary but tend to run away instead of stinging.

Try telling a five year old that.

poor picnic spot if cows were close by you have to have flies. At least they aren’t biting black flies like those found in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

As I once told a radical nature lover, “Always remember this: You may love nature, but all it wants is to have you for lunch.”

She hasn’t spoken to me since.

Yeah, I still chuckle over that.

No. No, they don’t. We don’t like them but there’s a reason for them. Grr.

When I was a teen I worked in a restaurant and in the kitchen there was a series of pictures showing how flies eat their food. They are nasty bugs.

problem is you kill ONE bug and 164 come to the funeral.

It’s not a bum rap when they are crawling up your leg! ;o{

Depends where you find them…..

The eye roll on the requested high five … classic.

When my sister and I found a restaurant in a lush courtyard with waterfalls in Maui, we thought it was great atmosphere. Then the food was served and flies descended out of nowhere on the solid food. I had just experienced seasickness, so all I thought I could down was noodle soup. The flies didn’t bother me.

Arlo will be hearing from PETA soon

I don’t know, a roadside picnic at a rest stop on a concrete picnic table still sounds fun to me.

Some aunts do too…

yeah, it’s the yellow jackets that really mess up picnics

I’d eat in the car.

I was about to order eggs at a diner once, until I saw the grill cook turn aside and smack a fly on the counter with his spatula. Without missing a beat, he went back to flipping the eggs and burgers on the grill. I changed my order to, “Just coffee, thanks.”

Eating outside last week we encountered midges, a/k/a no-see-ums. I’ve heard of them but never experienced them before.

Don’t care to experience them again.

Sheesh! If you’ve got a reasonably healthy immune system most bugs aren’t going to do you any harm, and there’s a lot more of them than there are of you!

Picnics are way overrated. The wind often blows your plate or napkin away.

There’s a reason why mankind spent all that time and energy to get away from nature.

i carry a towel and swat at the gnats and mosquitoes when my dog and i are waking the trails at the park. it has been so hot and humid lately and we go early the morning but the bugs are up and ready to attack as soon as you enter the woods!

With cattle being the attraction for so many flies, if you succeed in squashing one with your hand, give a thought to what that fly has been walking in and feeding on, before you touch your food with that hand…

Flying bugs love me – have done so since I was a girl. I hate dealing with spray on to keep bugs away while also dealing with sun lotion as I am also very fair. First night Out on a trip one summer I had 8 bites on face. I can get 2 or 3 bites walking the less 20 ft from the door to our car on the driveway at home.

I found something called Bug Bands. (There are other brands also.) It looks like the plastic bracelets for causes which were popular a few years back. They are impregnated with something – by the odor I would say citronella – and are even safe for children. Works very well. Since it says it can be worn on the ankle under pants, when we do a reenactment event I put it on a ribbon and hang it from my waistband inside my petticoat (skirt) and it works fine that way also and is unseen by the public.

A diaper is also a bum wrap.