This would be one fine summer if not for one thing. Bugs! The insect world seems to have gone crazy during this extremely hot weather.

Around home, the most oppressive of the critters has to be the gnats. It is not possible to enjoy five minutes outside without those pesky gnats flying into your eyes, your ears or up your nose. The gnats were terrible last summer, but the ones that were not killed by our mild winter must have reproduced with a passion this spring.

We have tried just about every kind of repellent on the market. Most of them work for about three minutes, then the gnats are right back as if they have suddenly grown immune to the active ingredients.

The most effective way to combat the gnats is to swat them with a baseball cap. That usually works for about 20 seconds. Moving about the yard at a fast pace works well. It usually takes the gnats about a minute to zone in on the new location.

Just about everywhere we have been this summer, the gnats have tortured us. They do seem to be mostly confined to our area of the coastal plain, manifesting their astounding numbers around Rocky Mount and Wilson. We live in between the two cities, near the metropolis of Elm City, so we get gnats from both counties.

For some reason, the gnats do not like the coast. We were bothered very little by them at Emerald Isle in June, and we have not seen any while fishing on the northern shores of the Pamlico Sound.

On a trip to the sound last Saturday, there were other bugs to take the place of the gnats. The mosquitoes and biting flies have taken over the low ground. They bite with their landing gears still down.

Most of the mosquitoes are tiny brown creatures, and one would not think there would be much harm in them at all. On the contrary, after a good bite and a whole lot of scratching, a bump forms as big as a quarter.

The mosquitoes attack in droves. Like a NASCAR pit stop, we have learned to launch the boat as rapidly as possible. Now we are trying to shave seconds off of each launch to save valuable blood.

Once we leave the launch, we put the boat motor in high gear. At 35 mph, we scoot all the mosquitoes we can find to the wind. We hope they will drown on the wide open waters of the sound.

Out on the big water, rarely do we encounter any more mosquitoes. What takes their place to torment us is a bit worse. When the wind blows off the marshes, biting flies that look like regular house flies swarm to the boat. They feed without mercy.

Insect repellent helps for only a few minutes, then the flies are back in action, and they are relentless. Most regular flies have spongy mouths for sucking up their food. These flies down east have fangs and teeth, and frequently bite right through clothing.

This summer, there seems no way to get away from all the bugs, wherever we venture. A girl from down east told us she ate a lot of fresh garlic to ward off insects. She has not had a boyfriend since college.