I never wear shorts when I’m hiking, no matter how hot the day is. I always have long trousers to minimise the amount of skin on offer for the mosquitoes and other blood suckers. But guess what. For the past week, I’ve been wearing shorts when hiking. No mosquitoes yet!
Until today. Got my first bite. But it’s not an invasion yet, I only got bothered by them when I stopped for fika. So there’s still some time to do hikes wearing shorts. By the time this hot weather spell is over, the mosquitoes will be out in force. Better enjoy it while it lasts!
And those winter moths (or the larvae) are still wreaking havoc on the birches. The leaves have barely developed, and now they’re already eaten. It’s impossible to walk in the forest without getting those larvae all over you. I was kind of hoping that after two years, this attack would be over. The winter would’ve been cold enough to kill them, but then of course we had so much snow that they were all warm and snug under the thick cover. I can only hope that they have not spread over a larger area because last year it was still possible to find relatively unaffected forests for nice autumn colours.
