Oh no!:rant: Because of a warm winter the Maine state bird has arrived early....

[BarnacleBill]

[attachment 25006 bf.jpg]

Simulium venustum.

Si vis pacem, para bellum.

And these little @#^#/*# drive me nuts, I know better, so I'm headin' for the coast. For those from the mid-west, think chigger 25x bigger w/wings, and likes to swarm in your nose & ears, even with bug dope on.

Happy Swatting
BarnacleBill

 

[Frank in NH]

n/t

 

[John(Tx)]

State bird was the Turkey......HH John

 

[BarnacleBill]

n/t

 

[James/Washington]

What ARE them things I am from Deep South Texas and they look like a cross between a yellow jacket and a bee Do they make a paper nest or what What are they called....oh I mean what is the name of these critters? Do they get mean easily

 

[BarnacleBill]

there's about a hundred little sub-species and it's only the females that bite(typical). They don't sting like a bee or bite like a mosquito with a syringe, the blasted things have blades for mouth parts and chew a hole in you and then lick/soak the blood up. They'll crawl up under an untucked shirt like a tick and have at you. You can put on all the deet based product you want(I use Ben's 100% deet), but that won't keep'em outta yours eyes/ears or nose when they really get hammering. They'll travel 9 to 10 miles from where they hatch to get at you, they sniff for carbon dioxide.

I do use a hat with a head net from time to time, but the bloody blasted things still swarm constantly. Try to get a drink of water, and now the head net is full of them. They're attracted to dark colors (like your tires), so they'll hang around cars. They grow in swift running water, not stagnant water like skeeters. Many states are now putting a bacteria in the rivers and streams to kill them, the bacteria doesn't harm anything else.

They kill tourism in many places this time of year, 'cause once you've had the pleasure, you won't forget it. The city slickers are the ones who are usually in for the rudest awakening, they have no idea what misery these beasties can cause. I have a skeeter-vac propane based bug catcher, and it just slaughters them, put it on Thurs., probably have a couple hundred caught already. They usually run May to July when the skeeters take over for them, but this year very early.

If ya'll come up this way in the spring time, get some Ben's 100 and slather it on.

HH
BarnacleBill

 

[James/Washington]

Dang. I have heard of these little mosters but being from Deep South Texas and never further up north than Fort Leonardwood, Mo., I havent ever seen one. I hope that I never do. They sound like they can be bad to the bone type bugs!!!:angry: