Give My Regards to N,N-Diethyl Toluamide

"West Nile Virus Season Starts In New York City"

This message is published not just as a service to the fine residents of New York, not just because your narrator made it out of LaGuardia today without making any involuntary blood donations to Culex pipiens, not just as a reminder to all the ScienceBloggers headed there this weekend to keep a sharp ear out for calls of "Bring out your dead!" while strolling around the sidewalks of New York.

This message is a thank you to the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA, which developed DEET as an insect repellent after World War II. There are other mosquito repellents available, but nothing as easy to find as products containing DEET. Even the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (now there's an oxymoron if there ever was one) has specific guidelines for the use of DEET in children and adults.

Actually, as regards to West Nile virus, the news out of New York is important, but not alarming at this point:

The most active season for the culex pipiens variety of mosquito most likely to carry the virus is right now. Last week, as if on cue, the city Department of Health announced that a pool of mosquitoes collected had tested positive for the disease. They were found in Flushing.

As the mosquitoes become more active, the health department urges residents to take steps to protect themselves. They include: Use insect repellent, especially in the early morning hours and at dusk when the mosquitoes are most active. When possible, wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants.

I know it sometimes is a pain in the keister to do it, but if you're going to be out of doors in August, please apply the repellent of your choice. Especially if you happen to find yourself in a city under a red alert, standing by a stage door late at night (for us Midwesterners at least), program in hand, waiting to get Jerry Mathers' autograph.

Which I did, by the way. Am I meshuga to risk death for such a tchotchke? No - just a big fan.