Got bugs?

[Idaho45guy]

Saw in a thread that someone was bemoaning the fact that in their area, certain bugs will be coming out soon that make life outdoors miserable.

Couple of years ago I was out fishing on a local lake and a man from Wisconsin paddled by and remarked how wonderful it was out here due to the lack of mosquitos. He said you can't go in the woods out there without a ton of bug spray and protection.

However, a couple of Summers ago, we had an incredibly high yellow-jacket population and I got stung a couple of times while in the woods. It was crazy; there was just a constant humming sound in the woods from all of the little wasps...

218480

Growing up in this area, yellow jackets were about the most annoying thing and they typically aren't aggressive. We have mosquitos, but they're not too bad. We have ticks, but again, not too bad. We have bugs, but not to the extent that they make things unbearable in the woods.

I remember when I lived in Iowa that the ticks and chiggers were awful; couldn't go in the "woods" without excessive chemical applications.

Just wondering if your area has a certain insect that you have to prepare for when going into the outdoors.

[chambers]

Here in Wisconsin the mosquitos can just about carry you away( plenty of repellent), horse flies can be awful and must where a hat in the woods as they bite like hell and the buzzing sound is loud. The first good frost is what we look for anybody who loves the outdoors but that is short lived by the cold snowy winters.

[Idaho45guy]

Here in Wisconsin the mosquitos can just about carry you away( plenty of repellent), horse flies can be awful and must where a hat in the woods as they bite like hell and the buzzing sound is loud. The first good frost is what we look for anybody who loves the outdoors but that is short lived by the cold snowy winters.

My grandpa moved out here with my grandma from Peshtigo, WI in the 1940's. He was a boat builder and fur trapper. He had some amazing stories of winters out there.

[Minerat]

Horse flys in the mountains. About take yer hide off sometimes and spiders. I hate spiders worst part about summer.

[xs11jack]

Born and raised in Wi.. In 1971 built a house on 2 1/2 ac., the west fence line was at a farmers woods. The fence line was thick with black raspberries but when the berries were ripe you risked your life going out there to pick them. The mosquitoes would rise up in a giant cloud and head for you at warp speed. You wore long pants and long sleeve shirts and sprayed repellent everywhere. This caused you to sweat like crazy and the repellent to wash off. So you cut your loses and ran for the house. When I lived in the LA area in the 80's there did't seem to be many bugs on the windshield, but now living in Mo. the bugs are back.
Ole Jack

[texasnative46]

To All,

When we were stationed at "Camp Swampy", AKA: Ft Polk, LA it was said that the saltwater skeeters received ATC instructions from the NOLA & Baton Rouge APs.
(Several times, I thought that they would carry my EX & I away for a "late night snack".)

yours, tex

[marlin39a]

About the only things I can think of are moths on nights here when I open the doors by a light. No mosquitos. Gee, I guess I'm lucky.

[Goatwhiskers]

Tex, 'round here we skin those big 'uns for the hide and the tallow. GW

[texasnative46]

Goatwhiskers,

RotflmRao.

yours, tex

[MaryB]

Mosquitoes, black flies, dry falls noseeum hatches(those little suckers HURT when they bite). Lately black flies have been super bad... Find out in 2 months when it is finally warm out...

[richhodg66]

I hate ticks worst of all. Had two bad tick years in a row because of mild Winters. We recently had a couple of spells where it got warm enough for them to be out and then had cold snaps where it froze hard. I hope that killed off a lot of them. Seems like they aren't as bad yet as this time last year.

[GhostHawk]

Long time Minnesota joke about 2 skeeters that got into a resort cabin one night.
One asks the other if they should take them outside or just suck them dry there?

Other skeeter smacks the first one. Take them outside? If we do the big skeeters will take them away from us!Dufus!

Back in the 1800's when this country was being settled some farmers lost cows and horses. Drained dry in a night or 2. Everything had to be locked in the barn and probably a smudge kept going in a bucket.

I've seen em bad, but you can learn to deal with them.

I used to go fishing and you'd have a half a barn load of em on you, in your ears, up your nose. Kick a bare spot, light a little fire of twigs the size of a ball cap. Put some green stuff on it. Sit down and have a smoke. In 5 min they be gone. Then it was time to get lines baited and rod holder sticks located. But don't go far, and don't disturb the long grass. Bare ground is best.

Now days those thermocells are awesome, fire it up and 15 min later you can turn it off.

Those skeeters just plain don't like that stuff. We have 3 I think and I need to get another refill kit or 2 again.

[Beagle333]

We have skeeters ( at least 3 varieties), deer flies, chiggers and lots of deer ticks (carrying Lyme disease).
You have to practically be the Toxic Avenger when you go outside here. I carry a sidearm in one holster and a can of DEEP WOODS OFF in the other.

[brassrat]

I remember fishing nights on the CT. River. I had my Coleman, Two Mantle, gas lantern and the No-See-Ums or whatever loved going in and getting roasted. Every pump- up I held my breath and got away quick. The bodies would be haif inch stacked or so inside.

[lightman]

We get mosquitoes in the late spring that are pretty bad. In the spring and summer, your going to be going it the house about 8:00. I have a commercial quality "air curtain" over my back door. Right now the mosquitoes are not out yet but the Buffalo Knats are thick in places. So bad that they are killing deer! Anytime You drive at night you get a coating of bugs on the car. Not too many ticks and chiggers.

[Three44s]

I was kidding with my aunt from Norway a number of years ago.

I told her that it was said that mosquitos in Alaska had been known to pack off small children , she told that in Norway they had two motors!

Three44s

[varmintpopper]

Mosquitoes are Alaska's State Bird.

[Mr_Sheesh]

Up by Chicken, Alaska (Sorta near Tok) the "white footed assassins" are a royal pain - little white footed gnats, bites swell up like a half garbanzo and they are legion. Plus quite enough skeeters. Some up there mass bug bomb around camp in hope of staying sane...

Here in WA the mosquitoes can be a pain, but they don't drive you near as nuts as those evil things.

[starmac]

We do not have a single mosquito in Alaska/
Well not unless someone has killed ones mate. lol
They can be BAD, but a drop or two on each wrist and on your neck takes care of them. I do not go anywhere without it, and since my first summer here, do not wait till skeeters are buzzin to buy it either.

[MrWolf]

We do not have a single mosquito in Alaska/
Well not unless someone has killed ones mate. lol
They can be BAD, but a drop or two on each wrist and on your neck takes care of them. I do not go anywhere without it, and since my first summer here, do not wait till skeeters are buzzin to buy it either.

A drop or two of what or am I missing something?

[Idaho45guy]

About the only things I can think of are moths on nights here when I open the doors by a light. No mosquitos. Gee, I guess I'm lucky.

Uh, you are forgetting the three reasons my ex-wife and daughter will never live in Arizona again; the centipedes, scorpions, and the tarantulas.

This is the front door of my house during the monsoon season when the tarantulas come out and are everywhere...

218551

And an internet photo of the super creepy centipedes that randomly appear in your living areas:

218552

And of course the scorpions...

218555

[Bulldog71]

Ya'll got your bug listings all wrong. The absolute worst insect to come out of spring in the south is CHIGGERS! aka No Seeums! Because you can't even see um and they leave nasty super itchy small bites like a mosquito but in every private, warm or sweaty part of your body. UHHHHGG! Nasty!
Those from the South know exactly what I'm talking about. Let the Bodily Insecticiding Begin!

[RU shooter]

Here in SW Pa and the tri state area in general about the only thing that's is really pain are the ticks . For about the last 10 years they are everywhere and can't even go in the yard without getting some on you .i spend my child-young adulthood tromping in the woods and fields I never had a single one on me . never even knew what one looked like back then .

[MaryB]

My brothers were going on a scout canoe trip when I was younger. I went with dad to look for a camping spot they could pull off into. We walked into tall grass to our waists... got back to the car and started picking ticks... we both stripped to our underwear in the middle of the road to get rid of the 100+ ticks on each of us! Scratched that spot for camping and found them a nice sand beach...

[Hannibal]

Contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted Tick Fever 4 years ago. Sick, sick, sick for 4 days. Blood test confirmation.
Since then, I've found ticks crawling on me too many times to count. Haven't been bitten once.

[MT Gianni]

The wet side of the divide gets yellow jackets bad. We get mosquitos, ticks and wasps, with no see-ums on the high-line.

[Thundarstick]

I guess in this end of Tennessee we have a good mixture of gnawers, bitters, suckers, stingers, and just plain annoyances.

We have biting gnats, a horse and deer fly season, at least three different mosquitos, a scourge of brown recluse spiders plus black widows, brown dog, deer, and lone star ticks, hornets, several kinds of wasps and yellow jackets, red velvet ants (actually a wingless wasp), God help you if you step on one of those bear footed, fleas, and Satan's spawn- chiggers!

You could contract, Lymes, Rocky Mt.Spotted Feaver, West Nile, St. Louis Encephalitis, rotting flesh, and I'm sure I'm leaving out others!

January and February you get a reprieve!
Permethrin will stop the mosquitos, ticks, spiders, and horse flys, but won't stop chiggers. The mosquitos around here seem to suck up Thermacell like a bunch of stoners shotgunning weed!
You're on your own with ones that sting!

[RogerDat]

Deer flies, Black Flies the first will follow you, the second don't suck blood they slice you open to lap it up and seem to like beaches. Ticks of course. Then we have at least 4 main types of mosquitos. You know how a heavy snow can reflect your headlights back so you can't see? Have had the skeeters thick enough to do the same thing, couldn't see fence line at 200 feet for the "haze" in the headlights. That takes the tree and mud mosquitos hatching while the stagnant water ones are still out. It happens. Love it when we get a frost that nails the first hatching that sets them back for the whole year.

No-see-em's or gnats get into the act at some point. We have wasps and hornets but of the two ground hornets are the worst, mean as a pissed off ex wife with a dumb attorney. They swarm after you in mass, and can repeatedly give a venomous bite. Finding one of their nests on a riding mower or lawn tractor is most unpleasant.

Yeah those desert states don't have mosquitos but venomous spiders, snakes, scorpions and half your plants can bite. Oh did I mention ya'll get to enjoy those fire ants too.

[gwpercle]

You boy's need to visit South Louisiana...all we got are pretty butterflies and a few honey bees.
Nothing down here bites...never ! I swear !!

[RogerDat]

You boy's need to visit South Louisiana...all we got are pretty butterflies and a few honey bees.
Nothing down here bites...never ! I swear !! Really? Way I heard it half of what you put on the table would eat you or kill you given half a chance, the rest doubles as bait to catch the stuff that would eat you or kill you. :-p Some folks claim the modern tennis racket started out life as a Louisiana mosquito swatter. Designed to be heavier than the badminton rackets because they bent if you connected good and solid with two skeeters instead of one.

[woodbutcher]

:-) Gee,sounds like ole GW is"spinning a windy"there.When my family moved to Fl before
our(the USA)involement in the war(1916),My Dad said Grand Dad tried to keep a mosquito for a pet.Did`nt work.It kept chewing through the chain.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[MaryB]

Deer flies, Black Flies the first will follow you, the second don't suck blood they slice you open to lap it up and seem to like beaches. Ticks of course. Then we have at least 4 main types of mosquitos. You know how a heavy snow can reflect your headlights back so you can't see? Have had the skeeters thick enough to do the same thing, couldn't see fence line at 200 feet for the "haze" in the headlights. That takes the tree and mud mosquitos hatching while the stagnant water ones are still out. It happens. Love it when we get a frost that nails the first hatching that sets them back for the whole year.

No-see-em's or gnats get into the act at some point. We have wasps and hornets but of the two ground hornets are the worst, mean as a pissed off ex wife with a dumb attorney. They swarm after you in mass, and can repeatedly give a venomous bite. Finding one of their nests on a riding mower or lawn tractor is most unpleasant.

Yeah those desert states don't have mosquitos but venomous spiders, snakes, scorpions and half your plants can bite. Oh did I mention ya'll get to enjoy those fire ants too.


Neighbors kid was attacked by ground hornets, 5 gallons of diesel and gas down the hole followed by a road flare chucked in from 50 feet back...

[MaryB]

I stepped into the green bean patch last summer and forgot the 98% deet... looked down and I literally had 200 mosquitoes on my legs... and my country has had west nile outbreaks most years...

[Mr_Sheesh]

MrWolf - having been through that state I'm suspecting they either mean napalm (ignited o'course), Botulinis toxin, or perhaps radioactive waste; Unless there's something more toxic that I am aware of (quite possible.) Hmmm it could be poison dart frogs' poison, that'd do it too.

[Three44s]

..... and they had to outlaw DDT!

Three44s

[MrWolf]

Thanks Mr_Sheesh

[woodbutcher]

[smilie=s:Hi three44`s.Yep,thanks to a book full of lies titled"Silent Spring".
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo