Insect Shield?

On the advice of my friend Ronn, I am now wearing Ex Officio Insect Shield pants when out shooting pictures. Soaked with poison to ward off mosquitoes, chiggers, and ticks, the pants are lightweight, if not stylish, and breathe even in 90-degree weather.

Today, at Lake Cheston, a teenage fisherman asked, "Ma'am, are you not hot?"

"Why no," I said and added to myself, "and I am not bothered by bugs either!"

Within a hundred steps, I was bugged, however: a large Tawny Emperor butterfly alit on my leg and probed through the fabric with his proboscis, hunting, I think, my salty sweat. I took a step and still he clung to my "insect shields." I shook and still he clung. Finally, I gently brushed him away.

If this were the only encounter of this kind, I wouldn't think much of it. But Blue Corporals have also been attracted to my poisonous pants. Now I wonder just what kind of shield I've bought.

More importantly, how many insects am I unintentionally poisoning?