Unusual NorthEast Mosquito Activity?

[richg]

I was playing golf about two weeks ago and swatted a skeeter that landed on me. It was the biggest dang one I have ever seen, and funky looking too.....black with stripes. I looked it up online, sure enough, an Asian Tiger Mosquito. The number of invasive species from Asia is astonishing....emerald ash borer, snakeheads, tiger mosquitoes, spiked water chestnuts, and last but not least, THOSE GD STINKBUGS!

 

[maple1]

Odd thing here is it has been fairly dry here for quite a while, not much at all since Irene went thru - and she didn't dump much here, and it was dry for 2 -3 weeks at least before that.

Had a bunch of kids out paintballing last night, the skeeters were crazy....

 

[Woody Stover]

We didn't get drenched here like you did out East...sounds pretty bad. Hopefully, you'll get relief soon!

I went out in the early afternoon to move some wood and I was attacked by these little gnats?

I went out to pick up and stack some Pine kindling that I made, and those gnats/ no-see-ums or whatever the hell they are tore my arse up. Had to go back in and change into long pants. Maybe my arm skin was too leathery for them, but they mainly were nailing my legs...

swatted a skeeter that landed on me. It was the biggest dang one I have ever seen, and funky looking too.....black with stripes. I looked it up online, sure enough, an Asian Tiger Mosquito

As soon as they land on you, you're bit. More like a stab...nasty critters.

 

[willworkforwood]

Great to hear the entire East coast is feeling my pain :sick:. Was planning to go down the road to get a downed oak tomorrow - should be lots of fun - 70% humidity, dressed head-to-toe with a cloud of these suckers flying around my head. These things are so psycho that I might need to wear 2 layers. And now the Weather report - continued warm days and nights with no killing frost anywhere in sight. Need to check the obits to see if I died and went to :snake:

 

[DanCorcoran]

"Need to check the obits to see if I died and went to..."

Houston?

 

[Badfish740]

Upper New Jersey reporting in - same as everyone else. With breeding water everywhere no surprise. I am surprised, however, on the magnitude of the daytime attacks. I've never experienced so many mosquito's out for blood in the middle of the day.

My in-laws live outside of Newton in Sussex and they got notice that there will be helicopters conducting spraying-its about time.

 

[littlalex]

Ah, just to show my age, it's with horror and astonishment that I recall running with my friends through the DDT mist being sprayed down all the streets in the town I grew up in (mid 50's). It was so exciting! Came back to memory while I was watching "Tree of Life" last night - there is a scene that almost exactly reenacts that fun adventure.

Damn you Rachel Carson - ruining all our fun (gleep!)

Littlalex

 

[onetracker]

Upper New Jersey reporting in - same as everyone else. With breeding water everywhere no surprise. I am surprised, however, on the magnitude of the daytime attacks. I've never experienced so many mosquito's out for blood in the middle of the day.

My in-laws live outside of Newton in Sussex and they got notice that there will be helicopters conducting spraying-its about time.

i'll take skeeters over cancer.
plus how do you keep that stuff outta the food and water supply? you don't.
i'll take skeeters. i work outside every day...in the woods. i come home and cut wood. it sucks, but i'll take skeeters over insecticide.
hang tough everybody. in a coupla more weeks they'll be gone.

 

[littlalex]

Onetracker - Amen, amen and amen again.

Littlalex

 

[fishingpol]

The latest batch of those tiger mosquitos bite and I don't feel them biting. A co-worker had five bites on her leg at lunch and did not even feel them until they started to itch.

I do remember the days back in the late 70's when the neighbor had a "fogger" and gassed his yard and everything around it. I'm glad that mentality is gone. I can't even imagine what was in that fog and yes, we did breathe some in occassionally if the breeze pushed it our way. :sick:

 

[Badfish740]

i'll take skeeters over cancer.
plus how do you keep that stuff outta the food and water supply? you don't.
i'll take skeeters. i work outside every day...in the woods. i come home and cut wood. it sucks, but i'll take skeeters over insecticide.
hang tough everybody. in a coupla more weeks they'll be gone.

Municipal mosquito control isn't what it was 30 or 40 years ago. Most of the stuff they use now is actually living cultures-bacteria, and the pesticides that are used are a far cry from the bad old days of chlordane and other nasty chemicals. Skeeters are an annoyance, yes, but they also are carrying more and more diseases like West Nile Virus and even Dengue Fever in places like Florida.

 

[weatherguy]

Ah, just to show my age, it’s with horror and astonishment that I recall running with my friends through the DDT mist being sprayed down all the streets in the town I grew up in (mid 50’s). It was so exciting! Came back to memory while I was watching “Tree of Life†last night - there is a scene that almost exactly reenacts that fun adventure.

Damn you Rachel Carson - ruining all our fun (gleep!)

Littlalex

Back then we ate DDT sprinkled on our cereal, and we liked it!

 

[tlingit]

We get wicked mosquitos up here and here's a few things that are helpful for us. I use yellow cedar oil on my skin, just dab it on like perfume and put it around my ankles. Off makes mosquito lanterns that work great. Sort of the same principle as a theracell but a candle instead of butane. The lanterns give a 15 foot bug free zone. I'll light one or two and put them out when we are splitting or stacking wood and they otherwise swarm us.

 

[mhrischuk]

Don't know how true this is but a fellow up in NY told me the bats are dying off from some kind of sickness.

 

[tlingit]

Yes, they are getting some sort of fungal infection that kills them when they hibernate. It's sad, they are so helpful with mosquitos.

 

[weatherguy]

Yes, they are getting some sort of fungal infection that kills them when they hibernate. It's sad, they are so helpful with mosquitos.

Some kind of white nose fungi, there was an article in the local paper over the summer about this.

 

[Battenkiller]

We have had a real bad mosquito season, but I've never seen anything like what cropped up after Irene came through. Same damn little f**kers everyone else here is seeing, and MAN are they dense! :wow:

This is the time of year we usually head for the Adirondacks for our fall camping and canoeing trips. Why? All the bugs are gone by now. Well, not this year, not by a long-shot. We have been all over three counties looking frantically for a new home. Every place we visit is the same - dense clouds of tiny, voracious mosquitos furiously feeding in the middle of the day. Never seen them this small, never seen them out in the daytime like this.

Except... There is one site that we are thinking of building on. There is nothing but big pine on the lot right now, and the property is partly on a DEC wetlands. You'd expect this to be the most infested area of all, right? Nope. Just the occasional ordinary-sized mossie that you brushed away every minute or two the entire time we walked the property. Could this be heaven? Guess we won't know for sure until we own the house and live there a few seasons. Could be hell in a normal season... if we ever have one of those again.

 

[tbuff]

Horrible here in NJ, my Mom called me this morning to talk to my kids and said that she was outside her house at 830am and was being attacked by mosquitos... Not good. I have to split wood in long sleeves dowsed in OFF...

 

[MasterMech]

We have had a real bad mosquito season, but I've never seen anything like what cropped up after Irene came through. Same damn little f**kers everyone else here is seeing, and MAN are they dense! :wow:

This is the time of year we usually head for the Adirondacks for our fall camping and canoeing trips. Why? All the bugs are gone by now. Well, not this year, not by a long-shot. We have been all over three counties looking frantically for a new home. Every place we visit is the same - dense clouds of tiny, voracious mosquitos furiously feeding in the middle of the day. Never seen them this small, never seen them out in the daytime like this.

Except... There is one site that we are thinking of building on. There is nothing but big pine on the lot right now, and the property is partly on a DEC wetlands. You'd expect this to be the most infested area of all, right? Nope. Just the occasional ordinary-sized mossie that you brushed away every minute or two the entire time we walked the property. Could this be heaven? Guess we won't know for sure until we own the house and live there a few seasons. Could be hell in a normal season... if we ever have one of those again.

+1 on never seeing so many, so small.

Was out on the course (it a terrible job, I know!) this am from 6 - 10 and they were INTENSE!

 

[tlingit]

Guys, I'm telling you, Off Mosquito lanterns. Magical. At Walmart.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Off-Heat-...0000007346530&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=11046008

 

[Cascade Failure]

Same thing here. One thing I noticed, they are really small mosquitos. I rubb clove oil on when I go to cut wood, etc. They hate that stuff. Dilute it in some water in a spray bottle. Just don't touch your eye's or down south when the oils been on your hands. I learned the hard way :ahhh:

Interesting....just grind up cloves...or do you buy the clove oil?
Just interested as I haven't heard of this one before but am interested.

I order oil 100% pure from Young Living Essential oils. Purification is a blend of plant oils that ticks don't care for. Peppermint, lemongrass are also good oils for bugs as well. If the oils say do not ingest or take internally, they are not pure. A good way to know what your using internally as well as on your skin. I spray my garden with their oils as well, for bugs, on your dogs and on myself to fend of ticks. I like non toxic!

That's kind of funny...I use lemongrasss oil in by honeybee swarm traps. The ladies love it.

 

[allhandsworking]

We have killed about thirty today in the house! They are so small must be getting threw the screens! I'm in Queens NY we haven't seen a bat in 2 years, back in July we had about 4 flying over the yard at dusk. Nice to see them back!

 

[onetracker]

We have had a real bad mosquito season, but I've never seen anything like what cropped up after Irene came through. Same damn little f**kers everyone else here is seeing, and MAN are they dense! :wow:

This is the time of year we usually head for the Adirondacks for our fall camping and canoeing trips. Why? All the bugs are gone by now. Well, not this year, not by a long-shot. We have been all over three counties looking frantically for a new home. Every place we visit is the same - dense clouds of tiny, voracious mosquitos furiously feeding in the middle of the day. Never seen them this small, never seen them out in the daytime like this.

Except... There is one site that we are thinking of building on. There is nothing but big pine on the lot right now, and the property is partly on a DEC wetlands. You'd expect this to be the most infested area of all, right? Nope. Just the occasional ordinary-sized mossie that you brushed away every minute or two the entire time we walked the property. Could this be heaven? Guess we won't know for sure until we own the house and live there a few seasons. Could be hell in a normal season... if we ever have one of those again.

+1 on never seeing so many, so small.

Was out on the course (it a terrible job, I know!) this am from 6 - 10 and they were INTENSE!

there are also clouds of gnats, some biting, some not that i never remember this time of year.
i'd swear they are black flies, but there may be more than one species of those little pissants.
is anyone else in other regions seeing this too? anyone have an idea of what they mightbe?

 

[ChrisNJ]

Horrible all summer with tiny ones and jumbo killers that land on you and bite like horse flies, but these tiny ones en mass are the worst :-(

 

[firefighterjake]

Bad year for bugs over all . . .

Held Camp Jakeawana this past weekend which is usually bug free and the skeeters were wicked thick . . . dug out the anti skeeter citronella candles and other assorted anti-bug stuff.

Fleas have also had a field day this year . . . local vet in Bangor said he normally has 2-3 cases involving fleas daily and this year he was seeing 10 cases or so each day.