[CESpeed]

I was hoping no one would say that. (whimper)

[TN-rox]

You CANT escape the skeeters in the Delta. No way around them. However there are more around large areas of standing water like lakes/swamps. But the skeeters aint anything compared to the other problems in the Delta. (Poverty, crime, economic decline, etc.) The skeeters would be the LAST thing on my mind in some towns around the Delta...

[rackensack]

Originally Posted by TN-rox

You CANT escape the skeeters in the Delta. No way around them. However there are more around large areas of standing water like lakes/swamps.

Actually, lakes and swamps aren't really an issue. There aren't that many natural swamp areas left (most were drained over a century ago, and even areas like the Big Woods are really river bottomlands that spend most of the winter flooded, but are drier during the warm part of the year -- they're not really swamps), and most mosquito species don't do well with permanent water bodies of any depth, where bird/fish populations help keep them in check. They do thrive in shallow, transient, standing water, however. The vast majority of the land in eastern/northeastern Arkansas is planted in either rice or soybeans during the spring/summer. For rice, the fields are deliberately flooded with irrigation water in the spring, and the water is maintained on the fields for the next couple of months by systems of levees tilled into the fields. Let that sink in (you should pardon the pun) for a moment -- for two or three months, at the time of year when mosquitos are most active, at any place in eastern Arkansas you'll be surrounded by thousands of acres of mosquito heaven -- shallow standing water with no fish population (other than a few ricefield slicks that may happen to get in), with hot humid weather, and a decent number of human meal providers nearby.

When I lived in Harrisburg, between Forrest City and Jonesboro, we would wait until 8 pm or so to go to the city park and play tennis in the summer, because it was just too hot and humid any other time of day. However, that was also the most active time of day for mosquitos. Mosquito repellent sprays do work reasonably well to keep the mosquitos from actually lighting on your skin and biting, but they don't keep them from swarming around you. And once you started breathing hard from running up and down the court, you had to be really careful not to suck in a mouthful of Anopheles quadrimaculatus or of its Culex cousins.

But the skeeters aint anything compared to the other problems in the Delta. (Poverty, crime, economic decline, etc.) The skeeters would be the LAST thing on my mind in some towns around the Delta...

I'm not sure they're ever the LAST thing on anyone's mind -- they have their way of imposing themselves on you. But I'd agree they're far from the biggest or most important problem. Poverty? Check. Crime? Check (mostly drug-related property crime, domestic violence, etc.) Economic decline -- not so much, since a decline implies some sort of elevation to decline from, and there's never been much economic activity in eastern Arkansas beyond agriculture. I'd call it economic stagnation. Add in a long-standing tradition of anti-intellectualism, fierce pride in being contrary for its own sake, xenophobia, and relative isolation until the last couple of generations, and you get the hellbrew that is the Arkansas portion of the Mississippi River alluvial plain.

Good fishin' and duck huntin', though.

Seriously, I retain a fascination with and affection for that portion of Arkansas that remains strong even after over two decades of living elsewhere. But I was born and grew up there, so I have an excuse. I can't imagine there being enough positives about it to win over someone who doesn't have that tie.

[julie_shannon]

I can comment on Helena and Phillips County. It's not a nice place to live. And the Helena-West Helena School District is a joke. And the mosquitos are bad there, but in Helena they spray nightly for them. In the outlying areas like Barton, Marvell, Poplar Grove, etc. (the area I'm from and went to school) the mosquitos will eat you alive--not really though. They will cause you to have to clean your car every other day to remove the dead ones.

[A few good people]

From Palestine and proud of it. We have a small community where everyone knows everyone. Our school has less than 800 total students, so small classes. The community is made up of farmers or children of farmers that know what work is and how to live off the land. Unlike some of the surrounding areas that are more welfare or drug related. Most of the people that are here have been raised here and have some ties either family or land or both. However culturally it is a different way of life it is what we know and someone has to committ to make a difference. Most have a strong committment to the land their family worked for and community to help build character in their children.