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A hobbity question
Jun. 7th, 2005 09:28 pmFirst off, before I forget, Happy Birthday,
I hope you've had a wonderful day full of all the things you love most.
And also,Happy Birthday,
Welcome to your tweens! I hope they will be filled with fun and new experiences.
As you know, I've been doing some gardening this week. Today went much better than yesterday, probably due in part to the lack of running and then taking the dog for a walk before doing heavy work with the weed-whacker, etc. Today there was no run and no weed-whacker. Just lots of kneeling in the dirt pulling weeds, and being swarmed with biting black flies.
Which leads to the hobbity question. How do you think Sam Gamgee and the Gaffer managed to not get eaten alive, without Deet and other terribly toxic and environmentally unfriendly but seriously bug-deterrant sprays? Did they just get used to having itchy bumps all over their skin during the season for various bugs, or did they have more natural solutions to the problem? Are there foods they might have eaten which would have caused them to smell bad to bugs, or plant oils they might have rubbed into their clothing? I'm curious about this, because even with all the bug spray I had on yesterday (admittedly not strong enough and only sprayed on my skin, not my clothes) I got bit three times by the black flies, through my clothing. Let me tell you, sooooooo itchy right now. Even today, with stronger bug spray, all over me and my clothes and my hat, there was still a swarm around me, making it uncomfortable.
I know that when the hobbits went through the Midgewater Marsh, they were greatly bothered by the kneeker-breekers, but was that because those were an unfamiliar type of bug that they weren't prepared for, because they simply couldn't do anything about bugs in general, or because they didn't have time to be fussing around with creating bug repellant concoctions?
Discuss.
Happy Birthday, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nickeyb!
I hope you've had a wonderful day full of all the things you love most.And also,
Happy Birthday, fellbeast02!
Welcome to your tweens! I hope they will be filled with fun and new experiences.As you know, I've been doing some gardening this week. Today went much better than yesterday, probably due in part to the lack of running and then taking the dog for a walk before doing heavy work with the weed-whacker, etc. Today there was no run and no weed-whacker. Just lots of kneeling in the dirt pulling weeds, and being swarmed with biting black flies.
Which leads to the hobbity question. How do you think Sam Gamgee and the Gaffer managed to not get eaten alive, without Deet and other terribly toxic and environmentally unfriendly but seriously bug-deterrant sprays? Did they just get used to having itchy bumps all over their skin during the season for various bugs, or did they have more natural solutions to the problem? Are there foods they might have eaten which would have caused them to smell bad to bugs, or plant oils they might have rubbed into their clothing? I'm curious about this, because even with all the bug spray I had on yesterday (admittedly not strong enough and only sprayed on my skin, not my clothes) I got bit three times by the black flies, through my clothing. Let me tell you, sooooooo itchy right now. Even today, with stronger bug spray, all over me and my clothes and my hat, there was still a swarm around me, making it uncomfortable.
I know that when the hobbits went through the Midgewater Marsh, they were greatly bothered by the kneeker-breekers, but was that because those were an unfamiliar type of bug that they weren't prepared for, because they simply couldn't do anything about bugs in general, or because they didn't have time to be fussing around with creating bug repellant concoctions?
Discuss.
