Tales of archaeological adventures tend to focus on the amazing artifacts observed or death-defying situations with bears or gun-toting individuals. Rarely do they wax poetically about bugs. But all kinds of creepy crawlies can be found on a survey or excavation, from ticks to biting gnats. It’s not the heat or a fear of rattlesnakes that make me nervous before a field season—it’s bugs. You can’t escape them! And, already, my ears are itchy. No, that isn’t some euphemism for eavesdropping. My ears are literally itchy. It’s that time again: bug time.

I thought I’d have time before I’m eaten alive by gnats, but they’re a bit early this year and that makes me worry for this upcoming season, since they’ll likely get worse. It may be a pessimistic view, but I’d rather be prepared than not. There’s nothing quite like the gnats in the southwest; not only are they tiny, they bite and they love biting ears. Not even a mosquito net can keep them at bay. Imagine if you will, trying to record an archaeological site—which can take hours—and trying to focus on writing up summaries while hundreds of tiny gnats swarm about your head, wriggle their way through the head net, and then bite every inch of exposed skin. It’s so bad that you can’t even stand still long enough to eat lunch—you just have to keep moving, occasionally shoving food under your head net. And, the bugs are already out.

Time to prepare . . .

*Note: there really isn’t much you can do to combat biting gnats, other than completely covering up and using a gnat net (which works ~60% of the time).  Bug spray doesn’t really deter those little jerks, either.  Just walk as fast as you can and hope for a super windy day!