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3022. thoughtful - 5/11/2005 7:33:25 PM Pelle, don't you know the old saw about the mosquitoes buzzing at night? The females bite, but the males don't...the males buzz but the females don't...so it's not the buzzing ones you have to worry about...it's when you DON'T hear them, watch out!
They do lots of spraying around our area so mosquitos are never too terrible. Our area has equine encephalitis and west nile virus so everyone is immediately up in arms unless spraying is instituted. We had one fellow with a small frog pond where he was raising frogs and his neighbors brought him to court to get it removed because of mosquitos! Hello, the frogs EAT the larvae!
One time tho as a kid I did get really scared as I was riding my bike through a wooded area and hit a swarm of deer flies... Yow! Those things bite like mad and they had me completely surrounded. I could only try to out run them while I was busy slapping away. Yuck.
Then we went to VT one june on vacation and were surrounded by black flies....which seemed to disappear completely once we hiked high enough on the mountain. 3023. wabbit - 5/11/2005 7:51:39 PM I had one of those no-pest sticky strips hanging on my porch right by the kitchen door. It caught a young phoebe. I spent hours getting the poor bird off the strip, then washing the glue and oil off, with frequent water breaks for the bird, of course. I kept him overnight to make sure he was ok. He lost a few feathers, but was able to fly off the next day.
I no longer use no-pest strips. 3024. wabbit - 5/11/2005 7:54:52 PM Oh man, deerfly are bad - my horse used to attract them, repellent or not. And greenheads, nasty things. 3025. jayackroyd - 5/11/2005 8:16:11 PM Concerned--
My experience with devices intended to attract and kill bugs is that they provide a very satisfying collection of dead bugs, but attract many more than they kill. This would be particularly problematic with mosquitoes, as they may well stop to bite on the way to a grim death.
wabbit--
Ah deerflies. As a teenager, I worked for a caretaker. Deerflies were the bane of my existence. The worst part is they really like to hang around in back of you, at head height. I ended up developing a very effective back of the head snatch technique. Didn't matter, of course. I ended up all bitten up every day. 3026. PelleNilsson - 5/11/2005 8:23:34 PM thoughtful
We must be talking about different varieties of mosquitoes. If you were to come here and sit outside a summer evening in shorts and a T-shirt ignoring the mosquitoes that buzz because "they are male and don't bite" you would be guaranteed a sleepless night.
Luckily, we don't have any mosquito-borne diseases. There used to be malaria but it disappeared in the 1930s. 3027. robertjayb - 5/11/2005 8:44:19 PM West Nile returns to Houston...
Harris County health officials said today they have found a mosquito infected with the virus in northeast Houston, near the intersection of Navasota and Rebel.
This year's first infected mosquito has appeared about one month earlier than last year's first appearance in mosquitoes, which happened in early June.
Harris County's Mosquito Control Division has begun spraying in affected areas in response to the tests for positive mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes become infected with the virus by biting birds, and then can pass it on to other birds, animals and humans.
Understand that Houston was built in a swamp. 3028. thoughtful - 5/11/2005 9:35:41 PM Pelle, that old saw wasn't meant to be truthful, only meant to keep young campers up at night... 3029. thoughtful - 5/11/2005 9:36:27 PM Then there was my father in law who used to drink so much he would sit outside in the evening and watch the mosquito land, bite drink up and keel over.
Takes all kinds.... 3030. arkymalarky - 5/11/2005 9:58:02 PM My experience with devices intended to attract and kill bugs is that they provide a very satisfying collection of dead bugs, but attract many more than they kill.
Hahaha! Exactly. And the blue zappy ones are cool to look at late at night when you've had a few friends and a few beers on the porch. 3031. arkymalarky - 5/11/2005 9:59:02 PM Hmmm. I wonder if Con'd got one whether it would help his neighbors' bug problems? All the bugs would be gathered at Con'd's house. 3032. arkymalarky - 5/11/2005 10:01:49 PM We have all kinds of bug-borne diseases here, though it's better than it used to be. They don't spray any more, though, I don't think. They used to when we first moved here, but quit after complaints, especially following a national NCAA track tournament hosted at the university where my dad taught. Races were underway when the city "bug truck" went by. A blue-gray fog slowly descended over all the athletes as fans watched and coughed in the stands. 3033. arkymalarky - 5/11/2005 10:03:51 PM I don't know if that university had the privilege of hosting any more national tournaments after that. 3034. Macnas - 5/12/2005 8:57:10 AM Arky
Yes I still smoke, so there may be something to that. However, I can recall back before I started to smoke, walking home in the warm evenings from the fly-paper house after work, as clouds of gnats and squads of horse fly filled the country lane. I'd hardly ever get bit.
However, It sounds like y'all have much, much more of a problem with the amount and variety of bugs that like to bite and sting.
Another reason why I love Ireland. 3035. alistairconnor - 5/12/2005 9:21:56 AM No skeeters! Did St Patrick swat them all? 3036. Macnas - 5/12/2005 9:32:07 AM If we do have them, they've never bothered me, or anyone else I know. I must find out. 3037. Macnas - 5/12/2005 9:46:00 AM It seems there are a few species of skeeter in Ireland. But our climate, among other things, does not make for a lot of them. Speaking for myself, I've can't recall ever having seen one.
We do have biting midges, and grass mites in uncultivated land and meadows. Now, grass mites I do know about, as I've picked up a few while out and about. Nasty beggers. But, again, thankfully, only a few. 3038. judithathome - 5/12/2005 11:43:41 AM I think grass mites are called chiggers in the south part of the USA. 3039. Macnas - 5/12/2005 11:48:46 AM Chiggers, that sounds worse. 3040. judithathome - 5/12/2005 11:51:50 AM They are as pesky as the name implies.
Every kid I knew growing up had ankles ringed with chigger bites. They were the bane of our existance all summer long. 3041. Macnas - 5/12/2005 11:58:12 AM Methylated spirits and small tweezers were the only solution, otherwise you'd be scratching the bite for 2 days afterwards.
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