Skeeter Defeaters, part 1

If you've been following the news at all lately - or if you're unlucky enough to live in east-coast America - you're aware of the biblical proportions of the rain and flooding that has literally engulfed the mid-Atlantic and northeast states in the first few weeks of summer...

In case you haven't been following the story (or surviving it), more than 12 people have died in those storms and their aftermath. Many thousands more have been rendered homeless, car-less, jobless, or just plain joyless by the freakish deluge. I call it freakish because it was caused not by a Katrina-esque colossus of nature, but by an extraordinary and unfortunate succession of garden-variety thunderstorms typical of any summer season.

That's right - despite the fact that Al Gore is no doubt preparing a sequel to his global warming movie that blames those Earth-hating Republicans for the weather disaster (he all but points the finger at the GOP for Katrina in his film, a box-office disaster itself), the flood was apparently the result of simple bad luck.

Thankfully, at the time of this writing, these zones have begun to dry out - and in many areas (those that weren't destroyed, of course), life is once again approaching a kind of normalcy, including in the home-office city of my publisher: Baltimore, MD...

But the mortal danger from these floodwaters is not over.

You see, the swelled-up lowlands and wetlands and even the rain-soaked standing water in many people's backyards is now prime breeding ground for mosquitoes. And as I warn every year now - this means an increased risk of deadly West Nile virus.

However, now that the H5N1 avian flu has assumed the mantle of "disease du jour" in the mainstream (totally misguidedly, as I've articulated in recent weeks), people seem to have all but forgotten the REAL viral danger that's flying around them right now. Mark my words: This lack of media attention coupled with the summertime saturation of the mostly densely populated region in America will translate into more cases of West Nile virus than in any two year span since the disease hit these shores just seven years ago!

You read that right: I'm predicting more cases of West Nile in 2006 than the 5,500+ from 2004 and 2005. Last year's total of 3,000 sickened and 119 dead was around 16% higher than the year before, I might add. Keep reading...

Now, once more, I offer you some things you can do to minimize your risks of infection with West Nile while everyone who listens to the mainstream media is in hysteria over H5N1. I'm telling you, this bird flu will never amount to anything - except perhaps as an isolated threat to certain unlucky folks whose job it is to work in close proximity to living and dead birds, like chicken-sexers (a real job, honest) and taxidermists...

But I digress. Back to the flying threat that can really hurt you.

Although it would also be advisable to avoid juggling dead crows you find lying around the neighborhood, controlling your risk of West Nile boils down to basically one thing: Limiting your likelihood of a mosquito bite. Here are some ways you can do that most effectively...

• APPLY REPELLANTS TO YOUR SKIN - I favor 100% DEET, but for those who can't for skin-sensitivity or other reasons, studies show that those with natural oil of eucalyptus or picaridin also work (Daily Dose, 6/14/2005).
• USE AREA REPELLANTS/POISONS - When sitting on your patio or deck, light a citronella candle to repel mosquitoes, or try this trick submitted by a Daily Dose reader: Squirt a few drops of "lemon fresh" Joy dish detergent in a saucer of water near where you're hanging out. Apparently, it draws the little buggers like dogs to antifreeze - with even deadlier results.
• CLEAR YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD OF STANDING WATER - Mosquitoes won't travel more than a few hundred yards for food. If you and your neighbors dump out your birdbaths, empty out rain-barrels, and discard old tires and other things that trap water they can breed in, you'll all be much more bite-free.

There's one more major thing you can do to help reduce your risk, but despite what the mainstream tells you, doing it might INCREASE your risk of other deadly aliments. I'll tell you what it is - and how you can have both optimum protection from West Nile and have the best chance of dodging these downsides in the next Daily Dose.

Dodging the bite, exposing the plight,

William Campbell Douglass II, MD