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3013. arkymalarky - 5/11/2005 4:23:05 PM You don't know how lucky you are, Mac. Mosquitoes are awful in most of AR, but I don't know anything about the success of the devices Con'd describes. Repellents are most effective. You just can't get to enough mosquitoes to make an impact with that other stuff.
Anyone in here remember "No-Pest Strips"? I thought about them after reading Con'd's post. A strip of dead flies, hanging right from the ceiling fan/light fixture in the living room, really adds to the decor. Ugh. 3014. Macnas - 5/11/2005 4:29:26 PM Ah yes, fly paper strips. A house where I used to work during the summer would have them everywhere.
You'd come in from work for the dinner, and you'd have to eat it while 6 inches in front of your face a blue bottle was slowly dying and waving his legs at you.
3015. arkymalarky - 5/11/2005 4:32:34 PM Hahaha!
(Gross-out alert)
Never use those sticky mouse traps, either. Bob did once in the barn and when he caught a mouse, he felt guilty and tried to pry it loose to let it go--the mouse pretty much came apart. A friend's father did the same, not out of guilt, but because he wanted to reuse the trap, and the mouse's little feet came off onto the paper. 3016. Macnas - 5/11/2005 4:40:54 PM I've seen them here at work. Never, ever, ever trod on one. 3017. PelleNilsson - 5/11/2005 4:41:43 PM I have exactly the same memory.
Do Arkansas mosquitoes make a sound, arky? Swedish ones do, a high-pitched, whining, immensely irritating sound. A single specimen can keep two grown-ups awake for hours. The only solution is to let it bite you, smack it while it's sucking and then scratch yourself to sleep.
At the countryside the mosquito situation has improved dramatically during the last ten years as the trees grow larger and consume more water. No more standing puddles. 3018. arkymalarky - 5/11/2005 4:49:22 PM Only if they're right inside your ear, which they seem to like at night. Standing water is the kicker, and it's just impossible to control. This time of year at dusk I start feeling itchy and have to go in. They don't seem to bother Bob nearly as much.
The Arkansas Delta is WAY worse. Don't ever go to Stuttgart, AR without a mosquito-net suit (if they don't make such a thing, they should). They literally turn the air in front of you gray, they bite like crazy, and they're huge. In that part of the state they have mosquito recipes and make brownies and pizza and stuff with them as a novelty, to attract tourists--like anyone would be caught dead there between April and October who didn't live there or have to go there. 3019. Macnas - 5/11/2005 4:56:09 PM Thats interesting. My mother, good sweet woman that she is, seems to attract every biting insect that flys or crawls.
I, however, very rarely if ever get bitten. I wonder if there is something that attracts or repels such insects in different people. 3020. arkymalarky - 5/11/2005 5:01:14 PM Do you smoke? Bob used to smoke like a train, and though he hasn't in several years, I wonder if bugs still sense it. He rarely gets bitten. 3021. arkymalarky - 5/11/2005 5:12:02 PM This is going to be a horrific summer for ticks here, unfortunately. 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.
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