Here's a question for you longterm Southern gardeners.

I was born and raised along the Gulf Coast, and as such have always dealt with mosquito bites. My mother, who is now in her 60s, has likewise gardened in the South nearly all her life. Last summer, she was talking with me about how in the last couple of years, mosquito bites raise large, hard welts that take days to clear. Well, I had noticed the same thing exactly.

To be fair, I have lived in Atlanta for the last 8 years or so, and have not been around mosquitoes nearly so much as I used to be on the Gulf Coast; same for my mother. But a few days ago, I was talking to a friend of mine who was raised in the Piedmont area of Alabama, and he said that he has recently (last couple of years) become sensitive to insect bites and now has the same problem with big welts forming that take days to go away.

I was curious if anyone might have some idea if I'm missing something here. Has a new mosquito come into the Deep South within the last 2 years? (Asian tiger mosquitoes have been here for longer than that, as I recall.) Or do some people suffer a kind of blood change as they grow older, that increases sensitivity? Do any of my fellow Georgia gardeners notice that mosquito bites are more virulent these days? If it were West Nile virus or something like that, you'd be bitten, get sick (or not), and then develop immunity; this is an ongoing problem, so immunity doesn't seem to be the answer.

Thanks for reading.