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Anybody else having a miserable time this year with the flying things that bite?

Mosquitoes have always been annoying, but for me seem to be largely avoidable, and I find that their bites will only irritate me for a couple of hours at most.

But this year I've been destroyed by other things. Often I don't even notice that I've been bit or see the culprit. Most recently I did see the culprit - a black housefly looking bug that packed quite a punch and seems to be undeterred by deet or picaradin.

But the worst has been the never-seen (noseeums? midges? gnats? mites? chiggers?) nasty, painful, itchy bites I've gotten that leave a scar and itch for several days of misery.

Are these instances worse this year? Is it just me and Joe?

Gnats at horton creek a few weeks ago

chumley wrote:nasty, painful, itchy bites I've gotten that leave a scar and itch for several days of misery

Be thankful it's only for a couple of days. I still have scars from bites from last year at PFNP.

@The_Eagle
Trekkin or LP?

Gnats are the worst and I react very badly to them. And they don't give a s*** about mosquito repellents. I use Avon Skin So Soft and it seems to help, but you have to spray it on frequently.
Like one part Skin So Soft Oil to about 4 parts of water in a spray bottle. They love my face and scalp and they tend to go for the hairline and around my eyes. If they get me around the eyes, my entire eye swells, sometimes almost shut. And then the normal biting fly which also suck. Ran into those on my float down the Grand Canyon.

There is a small kind of elongated black fly or beetle that I run into in certain places that bites and it's irritating as well.

Found out something really interesting though. While Mosquito bites usually give me some grief, apparently the Mosquitos in Washington State have a different anti coagulant formula. My sister and I went on a hike and I forgot repellent. They were thick and relentless. And of the hundreds that actually landed on me during that hike, I only had one bite that was visible and itched. Otherwise I felt completely unscathed. Really weird, but I was certainly grateful.

Don't even get me started on Chiggers, lol

@chumley
Have you tried increasing your shower frequency?

I’m a mosquito magnet, but besides them, a few large black flies bit me in the spring, and several got me last year. Quite painful. I’m sure I’ve been bitten by gnats, but can’t recall any specific instances.

LindaAnn wrote:Have you tried increasing your shower frequency?

Yes, but I'm boycotting Big Soap® and the replacement natural desert remedy of crushed mesquite leaf oils may not be doing the job.

We camped a few nights a month ago by Mud Lake. No skeeters, but a couple of days later, Nano Aliens Part 4.

Here in NJ, I've had to abandon night hiking because the bugs are too bad. Dew points are into the 70s lately, so it's muggy, but at least less buggy under the sun.

@big_load
I was actually pleased that I didn't really have a lot of insects on me while hiking in Somerset County on Sunday. Last week or so the local black flies were very bad. Night hiking until a hard freeze in these parts is dangerous. I learned that the hard way in May.

On the positive, a hot cleansing fire has treated or purified an area I had hoped to hike before I realized tick infestations were at record levels. Now, they should be fried until the local white tailed cockroaches deposit more of them.

@Jim_H

I'm glad you've a reduced-tick zone. I'm sticking to low-risk trails until winter. I already forgot happened in May (if I knew). Injury?

So ... normal this year or more typical?

chumley wrote: ↑Jul 09 2024 6:22 pm So ... normal this year or more typical?

Pretty normal here, if anything slightly below normal. It's a little early yet for the worst of the mosquitos, though.

@big_load Oh, It wasn't me. I was optimistic there was an ecologically minded arsonist out there, but the state officially says it was fireworks. Very disappointing. That said, from where the fire seems to have originated, the FFS was very aggressive in the area they burned out, so there was that. It basically became a managed wildfire as the USFS does in Arizona, but here they are stuck in the 1960s and so they still act like it was a huge wildfire and people are mean and bad! Whatever, it's NJ, the state is a ridiculous clown show.

As far the mosquitoes, back in May I finished my "Hell Hike" around 9:30 and enjoyed many bites that last for weeks.