Was Our Warm Winter My Fault?

The FUN stuff of summer.

I don't like the cold weather. I don't like the darkness. In fact, there is very little that I do like about winter, except, perhaps, that the grass doesn't need to be mowed and most of the bugs are inactive. I do, however, realize the value of winter in terms of slowing down germs and viruses as well as holding down the population of those previously mentioned bugs.

Yesterday, I basked in the sun on an unusually warm March day, remembering that in June I couldn't even sit on my deck without gallons of bug repellent. Yes, the warm days of winter were truly wonderful bug-less treats.

My reverie was interrupted by something buzzing around my head. I opened my eyes to see a lone fly circling me. Well, flies can be found any time of year, I told myself. Then I noticed that all around my yew tree was a thick mist of gnats - pests I don't normally see until late spring.

It was then that the horrible realization came to me. A warm winter surely means a bumper crop of pests in the yard, all of them trying to get into the house. It means daylight mosquito bites and wasp nests inside screen doors. It means swatting gnats in March.

New Jersey is surely going to pay for this past mild winter. What we saved in rocksalt we are going to spend on bug repellent. And I think it may be my fault. It is quite possible that the nuclear-reactor type hot flashes I have been having on a daily basis this winter actually raised the average temperature of the entire state. If we have record-breaking heat this summer, you'll know why. I apologize in advance.