Stumped by Nature

Welcome to this issue of Stumped by Nature, where we notice nature lurking just beyond our screens, curate a list of outside-y events in Austin, and build community with other folks in the thick of the startup ecosystem.

In this week’s issue:

🦟 Mosquitoes

🌤️ Upcoming outdoors events

🍆 Local Farmers’ Markets

Let’s dig in!

-Nicole

PS. ATX Outsiders is our community where people get to know each other IRL outside each month. Join us!

Upcoming event:

EVENT RECAP

Our first Austin Reading Club meeting was Tuesday evening, and it was downright pleasant. Poorly paraphrasing one pal, it’s finally a way to be in a book-like club without having to read books you’re not interested in.

You can follow my calendar to know when the next Austin Reading Club event drops.

NATURE SPOTLIGHT

It will come as a surprise to exactly no one that mosquitoes suck.

They suck figuratively. They suck literally. They suck locally and globally. They have an overwhelmingly negative approval rating.

Today we’re airing insect grievances.

What to know about mosquitoes

To be clear, understanding mosquitoes doesn’t absolve them of their societal ills.

There are a lot of mosquitoes in the world. They outnumber humans by tens of millions to one, with north of 110 trillion alive at any given time.

In Texas, there are 85 varieties of mosquito, with a range of preferences for time of day to feed. This means you have the chance to be bitten by a different type of mosquito with each passing hour. Novelty!

In mosquitoes’ defense:

They bite humans to survive.

Female mosquitoes suck blood for the protein and iron to develop their burgeoning offspring and perpetuate their mosquito dynasties.

When the mosquito lands, she pierces the skin with a mouthpart called a proboscis, and as she feeds, she gives back: her saliva hits the bloodstream and acts as a mild anesthetic and prevents clotting. Fascinating if you’re studying anesthetic priorities. Less so if you’re the entrée.

Mosquitoes are regarded as the deadliest animal on earth. Mosquito-borne diseases account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases, causing over 700,000 deaths annually. According to folks who study the best economic use of philanthropic dollars for changing quality of life, the ROI on insect treated nets in malaria-prone countries is one of the most cost-effective ways to put money toward preventing human deaths worldwide.

Mosquitoes’ ecological role

I was hoping to find a good ecological reason for our relentless suffering. Beyond pushing humans toward nihilism, there are some real ecological benefits to mosquitoes.

Mosquito larvae are a food source for thousands of fish and amphibians, and adult mosquitos feed birds, bats, and spiders. We’ve gotta feed these pals.

Purple martins and bats are specifically named as being prolific mosquito-gobblers, but they must have a great PR team. Both purple martins and bats eat mosquitoes opportunistically, comprising no more than 2% of their diets.

The scientific community recommends against total mosquito extinction, but is experimenting with targeted extinction. Related: last month, Google’s health-tech leg hopes to release 32 million sterile mosquitoes in the wild for population control. TBD how this all plays out, but surely nothing will go wrong here.

Deterrents

To prevent bites, the main goal is to mask the human features that mosquitoes are attracted to.

Our most attractive features:

- our carbon dioxide output

- our radiating body heat

- our unique blend of sweat and skin microbiota

To flex here, I am wildly attractive to mosquitoes. I serve as bug repellent in groups of people. In addition to my magnetic lure, I am also One of Those People who has extreme local reactions to mosquito bites. Histamine response through the roof, large local swelling, just skin anarchy. For context, earlier this week I beelined from my porch to the chicken coop to negotiate with the rat snake for eggs, and by the time I returned indoors three minutes later, I had eight new mosquito bites.

Rather than stop breathing, we have options:

A: Establishing a perimeter:

Common advice is to use plants as deterrents, with key words like strong and aromatic. But unless you’re rolling around in the middle of your garden beds, leaves covering all exposed skin, I cannot imagine this doing more than getting you dirty and poked and socially isolated.

Citronella, I’m of a similar opinion. Drizzle wax all over yourself if you’re into that sort of thing, but these are illusions of power, and a futile effort.

Thermacell is maybe helpful for a 15ft×15ft reduced mosquito space, but having a pal who’s more mosquito prone than you is the more effective bet.

B. High fashion:

mosquito net outfits are a thing. I bet this would repel a wide variety of things. Not to be confused with fishnet outfits.

C. For gear, not skin: Permethrin. With awareness of my mosquito magnetism, I got very researchy before I traveled to a known-malaria region several years ago. I sprayed my clothes with permethrin. It bonds to fibers for 6 weeks/a handful of machine washes, but doesn’t do anything meaningful for exposed skin.

D. Chemicals: So DEET has been the gold standard, but mosquitoes have started to have a Pavlovian response to the smell of DEET, and associate the smell with a meal. Horrifying.

Enter: Picaridin. It’s the DEET alternative I bathe in religiously.

For the inevitable bite(s)

Prevention is far more fun than crisis management, but:

You know those moments when an offhand conversation changes your life? I had dinner with a couple of very smart, very mosquito-prone pals several years ago, and after feasting and being feasted on, they whipped out this device.

It feels a bit like what I’d imagine intentionally branding yourself would feel like. The device uses a concentrated, direct hit of 122 degree heat for six seconds, and it eliminates my bug bite suffering. What I imagined was magic, but website copy is informing me is science: this thing works by 1. breaking down/deactivating mosquito saliva proteins so the histamine reaction is cut off at the knees 2. triggering the brain with the sensation of pain to override the sensation of the itch.

Whatever the reason, if I use this thing on mosquito bites within 30 minutes of the attack, my body skips the extreme response, and my mosquito bites are not a multi-day misery cycle. It’s truly life-changing, and absolutely essential in my quest for 1000 hours outside every year. Parenting note: I don’t use it on my kids because it is like a soldering iron, and I want their active consent, and they’re both still in Camp Extended-Known-Suffering, not Camp Brief-Unknown-Suffering.

My life-changing tip: sometimes you can just go inside and let the mosquitoes have the evening.

UPCOMING EVENTS

🗓️ July 2: Wound Salve Workshop: Just in time for the 4th

🗓️ July 2: Terrariums at Terrazas: Create your own little world in a jar

🗓️ July 4: Red, White, and Blue Bird Walk: Patriotic ornithology

🗓️ July 4: Ink Your Own Declaration: Fun fact: the Declaration of Independence was written with oak gall ink

🗓️ July 4: Red, White, and Blue Night Hike: seems like a good opportunity for the red headlamp glow

🗓️ July 4: The Board Walks: The holiday version

🗓️ July 4: Star Spangled Skies: You know it’s good when the location is "behind the large barn”

🗓️ July 7: Let's Botanize!: aka observe plants

🗓️ July 7: Beaded Succulents: Plants + crafts. Say less.

🗓️ July 7: Pest ID and Control: Know thine enemy

🗓️ July 8: Work Together Wednesday: A remote working adventure to and from Hill Country

🗓️ July 10: Trail Talks: One of my favorite events. See you there!

🗓️ July 19: Reverse Brain Rot #2: I’m hosting this! It'll be both toasty and intellectually nourishing.

👩‍🌾 Arboretum Food & Artisan Market — Saturdays 11am–3pm

👩‍🌾 Barton Creek Farmers Market — Saturdays 9am–1pm

👩‍🌾 Lakeline Farmers Market — Saturdays 9am–1pm

👩‍🌾 SFC Farmers' Market Downtown — Saturdays 9am–1pm

👩‍🌾 SFC Farmers' Market Sunset Valley — Saturdays 9am–1pm

👩‍🌾 Texas Farmers' Market at Bell — Saturdays 9am–1pm

👩‍🌾 Texas Farmers' Market at Mueller — Sundays 10am–2pm

That’s all for this week! 

In the meantime, I hope you have zero mosquitoes enclosed in your transportation of choice.

-Nicole

OPTIONAL SIDE QUESTS

🪵 Would my perspective be useful to a project you’re working on? Email me to get on my waiting list.

🪵 Are you looking for a community of people in the startup ecosystem who go outside together? I’ve got you.

🪵 Are you sitting on a misogi-esque story? Spill.

🪵 Follow my calendar to know when we’re rallying.

🪵 I also write essays: this one is about witnessing a bison harvest.

🪵 Is this newsletter not your vibe? Forward it to your enemies to make them suffer too.

💰It’s safe to assume there are affiliate links, and I’ll monetarily benefit from any purchases you make. Hooray, capitalism! So far, this newsletter has generated $3.47 of cold hard cash. 💸