Summer in bug country makes remorseless killers of us all.Steve Krug
Summer in bug country makes remorseless killers of us all. We resort, without moral qualm, to chemical warfare against the buzzing fiends that bear down on exposed flesh. The nuclear option in this annual battle is Muskol, born of the Nova Scotia fishing grounds frequented by Charles Coll, a New Glasgow entrepreneur and outdoorsman. Legend has it that Coll came up with the formulation in 1951 after mixing some paint in his basement workshop. News of the repellent's properties spread by word of mouth, and eight years later he registered the name Muskol with the Nova Scotia government. By 1978, he was a millionaire woodsman whose fishing adventures made the pages of The Globe and Mail. The business slipped out of family hands in 1982, the same year Coll died. Bayer Inc. has since swallowed up the bug-dope company, but still formulates the repellent in Canada, at a factory near Toronto. Just as importantly, the brand maintains a sense of heritage: To this day, every bottle or can of Muskol bears the face and signature of Charles Coll.
Patrick White