Alaska is notorious for its flying buggers. In Juneau, the no see-ums are what drive me buggy. Mosquitoes are a small nuisance compared with them.

In my experience, a no see-um bite doesn't really itch until the next day and then it will fair drive you crazy until you have scratched the bite open and drained the venom. I have scars on my arms and ankles using this method.

We also have blackfly and deer flies (once I was playing at an outdoor wedding standing to the left of the fiddle player. The FP had his white shirt sleeve rolled up. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a big blob of blood drop from his arm and splatter on the ground. The deer fly.) and sand fleas and white sox (Are they different from the blackfly?); we try to always keep a baseball bat handy.

Speaking of Alaska's skeeters, they're different from Oregon's mosquitoes. In Oregon, a mosquito will sneak up behind you and the first indication is the high whine in your ear. Swat at it and it will go away for a few minutes and then you'll hear it in the other ear.

An Alaskan mosquito, on the other hand, will galumph directly up to you, in your face. It is big and slow and dumb and doesn't mind dyin'. However, if you don't do something about it, it calls for the cavalry and the first thing you know your head is surrounded by the black eqivalent of a dandelion gone to seed and through the crowd you see more of them come zinging at you. All is not lost, however: If you duck down and run a few feet away, they stay back there, still circling where you were. It takes them a moment or two to realize that you have left.

I just came back from farther north and was amazed at the sheer numbers of mosquitoes I ran into. MUCH worse than anywhere I have been in Juneau and I got many, many bites. At a book store, I bought a 'new' product- later I'll go hunt up the name - that I carried in my backpack. It's a spray, smelling strongly of citrus, that is supposed to act like Avon's Soft Skin- the skeeter supposedly will hover but not land or bite. You spray your exposed skin and your clothes alike. It is true that the first time I used it, the one place I didn't spray (my left elbow( was the only place I became aware of a bite.

Last year, Alaska supposedly had a winter that encouraged the breeding of many insects.