'Been a while; how 'bout another Sondy Tale? SONDY 'SQUITERS By Wilton Strickland
Contrary to many people's thoughts about mosquitoes in the Arctic, some of the most 'squiter-infested areas of the world are in the Arctic tundra, where the spring melt leaves lots of small breeding ponds. Sondrestrom Air Base, Greenland, in the short summer of 1978, was certainly no exception. 'Squiters were so plentiful that there was occasionally a "cloud" of them in front of my face - 'reminded me of the gnats in middle Georgia in the mid sixties. I kept a can of OFF (appropriately painted in military olive drab) lying in the middle of the front seat in the truck. Before getting into the truck every morning, I'd reach in, get the can and lightly spray around my ankles and up and down my arms, then spray the palm of each hand and lightly rub it over my face, neck and ears, toss the can back onto the seat and I'd be "set" for the day. In spite of the abundance of the pests, I don't remember ever being bitten by one of them while there.
Late one afternoon in mid-to-late summer, I received a call from our major contractor's senior manager inviting me to a "toping out" ceremony at the new jail on the Danish side of the base, where the framing of a building to include a sheriff's apartment, offices and a jail had just been completed, and they were having a picnic with grilled hot dogs, hamburgers, sausages, beer, soft drinks, etc. Approaching the building site, I easily spotted a small fir tree and a Danish flag mounted high atop the highest point of the 2½-story building. I pulled up close to the building, left a window in the truck open so I could hear the radio and went up onto the first floor of the framed, skeletal structure. While I was getting a cheeseburger at the grille and a soft drink at a cooler, a gray swarm of mosquitoes formed around my face thicker than I have ever seen anywhere. Like everybody else, I tried to ignore them, but after a very few minutes of breathing slowly through my nose to avoid ingesting them and hoping the hairs in my nose would filter them out, I could not stand it. I quietly excused myself and went to my truck to renew my OFF application - the only time I ever had to do it twice in the same day. Still, none ever bit me, but I just could not stand such a thick cloud of 'squiters so close in front of my face. If I had inhaled strongly through my mouth, I surely would have ingested many of them. The Danes did not seem to notice them, and I tried to be as brave as they seemed to be, but I felt a little better after renewing my OFF application and even better as I drove away in my truck a little while later.
Wilton
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