Mosquitos

[bodzcampers]

What's a chigger?

[F and E Damp]

When I read all these posts, I'm sure glad we live out here in Western Washington. We have a few skeeters, but they're slow enough that you can usually swat them after they touch down and before the deploy the drill rig.

We've never encountered chiggers or ticks, at least not in the areas around the salt water. When we lived in Tidewater Virginia (Hampton/Newport News area), biting bugs were the bane of our lives. I remember one evening, our oldest daughter (about 6 at the time) stepped out the front door and within 2 minutes had over a hundred bites.

There's a tale about campers in VA. Two mosquitoes are sitting on the ridge-pole of a tent, reviewing the person inside. One says to the other "are we going to eat this guy here or take him back to the swamp?" The other one says,"we'll eat him here. If we take him back to the swamp, those big mosquitoes will take him away from us."

Was I ever glad when Boeing came looking for me to go back to Washington.

[RalphieAdie]

Bug Zapper for mosquitoes! Works for us.

[bodzcampers]

Bug bites are annoying, but what scares me worse are the tragic diseases.
Lymes disease from tick bites is often life-altering and West Nile Virus from mosquitoes kills and devastates survivors by literally turning brains to mush.

[GASPEDDLER]

South Texas is going through its worse drought since the 1950's, so Mosquitos are not a problem. Gnats, now that's another story. During wet years when Mosquitos are a problem we use Deet spray, a fan and Ill drop a small log of mesquite into the grille to produce some smoke to help camouflage us from the skeeters.

[crushor]

Originally Posted by bodzcampers

What's a chigger?

As I have never seen them, but bitten by them many times... Here is pic and definition. I haven't been bitten by them for some time, however, as a kid playing in the grass usually attracted them.

[Bill_C]

Northern BC. Where mosquitos are the size of footballs. I have a .410 shotgun loaded with '00' shot. Not bad eating, either. Cook 'em up good though.

[Pawpod]

Trivia bit

Male mosquitos are vegetarians, they feed off plants. Females only go after blood, any one who has an X can testify to this

[49 34]

I spray my yard a few times a year with Malathion which is essentially used to spray fruit trees to kill worm larva. It will kill mosquito eggs and after about three days I don't have another problem with them until a torrential downpour occurs and hatches some eggs I missed somewhere. You can buy it at any farm store around Michigan or I assume order it online. It goes for about 25 to 30 bucks a gallon around here and a gallon will do my 1/2 acre and the neighbors for two years. Just don't let pets or kids on the yard until its dry. I swear by it.

[Weezer]

Originally Posted by crushor

Strange as this may sound (especially coming from the male population) if a chigger gets you, use clear nail polish to cover it. It takes care of the issue. My mother taught me this when I was a kid. Also, we have used "after bite" for skeeter bites. It takes the itching away.

Ah hah! Someone's Mom a very smart lady. The clear polish also kills ringworms. DH keeps after bite in his bathroom and we both use it often. I contains ammonia yanno.

DH is a skeeter magnet. I seldom get bitten by skeeters. It's chiggers that love me.

DH brought this home the other day:

Sawyer Premium Permethrin Clothing Insect Repellent Trigger Spray : Amazon.com : Sports & Outdoors

Haven't used it yet. I stand by Avon Skin So Soft though. Tried and true with my sons when they were little.

Yes, you can actually allergic to skeeter bites. Oldest son was, and when he'd get bitten it was like a horrible spider bite. HUGE red pone popped up as big as a tennis ball.

I also gave him garlic tablets. It works.

[Arefbee]

I HATE mosquitos!
Little extra garlic in the diet helps me, usually in the form of garlic knots from a place near by. The old italian couple we had next door recomended it, and it seems to work. Tikis and citronella buckets are good too.

Deet on clothes and hats if we are in danger of being over run. It is a toxin and has some risks I'd rather not expose my kids to.

"As a precaution, manufacturers advise that DEET products should not be used under clothing or on damaged skin, and that preparations be washed off after they are no longer needed or between applications."

"Citing human health reasons, Health Canada barred the sale of insect repellents for human use that contained more than 30% DEET in a 2002 re-evaluation. The agency recommended that DEET-based products be used on children between the ages of 2 and 12 only if the concentration of DEET is 10% or less and that repellents be applied no more than 3 times a day, children under 2 should not receive more than 1 application of repellent in a day and DEET-based products of any concentration should not be used on infants under 6 months"

DEET - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I appreciate the info on ThermaCell. Looking into it immediately.

[rattleNsmoke]

Light up a cigar.....repels skeeters and just about every person around ya' too.

[BombDoc]

Explosives????......

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by BombDoc

Explosives????......

[Arefbee]

Originally Posted by BombDoc

Explosives????......

...

...

!!!!

[RalphieAdie]

"Sarna" from most drug stores or Walmart, takes the itch out of most bug bites, almost immediately. It's a bit pricy, yet worth it.

[brokenaxle]

thermacell the only thing that I found other than repel sportmans spray. My wife hates the smell of the spray so we use the thermacell the best repellent yet. I have citronella tiki torches and I believe the light from the flame attracts the skeeters. So we just put them on the outside radius of our fire ring for light. We even use the thermacell with the belt holster when trout fishing in some of the worse mosquito laden environment there is you can grab them by the handful. They avoid us when on the stream in areas that without them you couldn't stand still for a minute without being swarmed. I believe our campground is the perfect testing area for mosquito repellent because it is located in a area surrounded by swamps.

[grayfox]

Originally Posted by acadianbob

Me too. Works good to great.

X3

[sfrye5853]

I usually spray my clothes with some sort of DEET concoction, but with Boy Scout Summer Camp just a few weeks away, I thought I would try something I saw in a hiking magazine. It is called Natrapel (http://www.natrapel.com). I have not tired this yet, nor do I benefit from the sale of this in any way. I just read that it is good for 8 hours, protects from mosquitoes and ticks. If it works well, it will become a part of our normal packing.

[garbonz]

Move to Colorado