Bug bites while splitting?

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lfunk11

Member
Jan 8, 2010
116
Morgantown, WV
I split a bunch of wood this weekend and now I must have 50+ bug bites on my left arm and 20-30 on my right. I have a few other places as well, but 90% of them are on my arms. This wasn't at a time that I would expect mosquitos (during the day) and I did not see anything actually bite me. There are way more tent worms than normal this year, but I don't think they bite/sting. They were dropping down on me from the trees though. I saw all different kinds of ants/spiders/bugs while splitting, but never had this issue before.

I guess I need to use some bug spray next time.
 
My buddy, whom the bugs love, saw a recommendation to use Banana Boat Sport sunscreen and tried it. No bites. I may have to check it out...
 
The black flies are very bad here this year.
If I cover every inch of skin and use a head net I only get one once in a while.
Hopefully if we get a hot spell they'll stop.
 
Yep - black flies are fierce here right now, but likely not where you are. Mosquitoes have just started, so hopefully only a couple more weeks of black flies - I'll take the skeeters any day. Cheers!
 
Chiggers? Most folks around here stay FAR from the woods in summer......I seem to do OK though. They don't seem to like me :)

http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/chiggers(008).shtml
 
varna said:
Chiggers? Most folks around here stay FAR from the woods in summer......I seem to do OK though. They don't seem to like me :)

http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/chiggers(008).shtml

I thought about that, but from what I read they tend to find areas of the skin that is not exposed or under tight fitting clothine - ie socks, armpits, etc. I have no idea though, but I had a loose t-shirt on and the bites were on my exposed arms. I thought about bed bugs too, but I am the only one with the bites and I noticed them at night after I was done outside. Whatever cause the bites, they sure did a number on me!
 
The first symptoms of poison ivy are tiny little red dot/blisters that look a lot like bug bites. If those 'bites' start oozing and begin to itch like crazy you may have got into poison ivy, not bugs.
 
Kenster said:
The first symptoms of poison ivy are tiny little red dot/blisters that look a lot like bug bites. If those 'bites' start oozing and begin to itch like crazy you may have got into poison ivy, not bugs.

I am immune from poison ivy :) I am allergic to everything else, but immune to that - lol
 
lfunk11 said:
Kenster said:
The first symptoms of poison ivy are tiny little red dot/blisters that look a lot like bug bites. If those 'bites' start oozing and begin to itch like crazy you may have got into poison ivy, not bugs.

I am immune from poison ivy :) I am allergic to everything else, but immune to that - lol

You're a blessed man, then. I can just look at it and break out!
 
varna said:
Chiggers? Most folks around here stay FAR from the woods in summer.l
I think that chiggers hang out more in grassy areas, not in the woods...
 
We don't have chiggers at all around here but up in north central Texas we used to get them bad. Always in grassy areas. The only thing I have to watch out for in my woods in summer is snakes and ticks. But rarely see either.
 
Mosquitoes certainly can do that. Rubbing some benadryl on helps the itch.


I'll still bank on my ThermaCell to ward off the skeeters. I've found nothing better and I've tried pretty much everything during my lifetime. When I was told about the ThermaCell I figured it was just another gimmick, but it did not take long to learn these things are worth their weight in gold! In thick mosquitoes, I can get along fine with bare arms.

I was not sure they would be real good while walking but I found out different. I had agreed to allow a journalist to hunt a parcel of land and we met there one day so I could show him around. I had taken an extra ThermaCell but he refused it saying he had some good bug dope. As we walked around (it was rather warm too) I had on only a t-shirt on top. He was covered and sprayed himself a lot before we left the vehicles. I saw him spray himself 3 more times before we got back to the car. I was not bitten even one time. Yes, I like the ThermaCell.
 
Backwoods Savage said:
Mosquitoes certainly can do that. Rubbing some benadryl on helps the itch.


I'll still bank on my ThermaCell to ward off the skeeters. I've found nothing better and I've tried pretty much everything during my lifetime. When I was told about the ThermaCell I figured it was just another gimmick, but it did not take long to learn these things are worth their weight in gold! In thick mosquitoes, I can get along fine with bare arms.

I was not sure they would be real good while walking but I found out different. I had agreed to allow a journalist to hunt a parcel of land and we met there one day so I could show him around. I had taken an extra ThermaCell but he refused it saying he had some good bug dope. As we walked around (it was rather warm too) I had on only a t-shirt on top. He was covered and sprayed himself a lot before we left the vehicles. I saw him spray himself 3 more times before we got back to the car. I was not bitten even one time. Yes, I like the ThermaCell.

hey dennis...do you remember "6-12"? used that while fishing for brookies as a kid; haven't seen it in years!
 
Ya Dave, I used to use that one too.
 
I remember 6-12 from when I was a tad. Seemed like it worked pretty well. Probably used some chemical that's illegal now.
 
yooperdave said:
hey dennis...do you remember "6-12"? used that while fishing for brookies as a kid; haven't seen it in years!
Wow! Blast from the past! Had a blue and yellow label, I think. The name is probably shorthand for some chemical that was banned years ago. :lol:
That reminds me...Mom used to put some stuff on our skeeter bites. It was a thick, translucent liquid in a clear, flat bottle and had a "watermelon" color. It had a smell that I really liked. I wish I could remember the name of that stuff...
 
This is by far the wrost bug season I have seen. All of the rain followed by sudden warmp temps has the little bastages going crazy. What worries me is that my prperty is infested with deer ticks which can carry Lyme disease. My son and I have both been bitten and I sent the ticks to be tested for Lyme. Luckily both came back engative, but we all wear lots of bug repellant when we go outside. I can't nuke the yard with pesticide due to the proximity of a trout stream.
 
Kenster said:
lfunk11 said:
Kenster said:
The first symptoms of poison ivy are tiny little red dot/blisters that look a lot like bug bites. If those 'bites' start oozing and begin to itch like crazy you may have got into poison ivy, not bugs.

I am immune from poison ivy :) I am allergic to everything else, but immune to that - lol

You're a blessed man, then. I can just look at it and break out!
From what I understand (and I have a lot of misunderstandings) it is the body's protective, albeit crazed, antibody-creating reaction to the oils in poison ivy that causes the blisters,etc, to form. Thus, if you are *not* immune to poison ivy then you'll be ok...it's when your body tries to protect you from it that you're in trouble.

Years ago I was hunting arrowheads along the Alabama River. I came upon a site (that someone else had already found and hunted) but I located the trash pile and was hand-grubbing through it. Growing around it were small poison oak plants. I thought nothing of them, just used a little bit of caution and plucked them up barehanded and pitched them out of the way. A mobnth or so prior I had gotten burned on the tender area on the inside of my left forearm by a hot radiator. As it turned out I developed a bad rash and itching from the PO right in the pink, tender, freshly healed area of my arm and no where else. I guess the skin in that area was just too tender/thin and was in an accelerated healing mode and "responded" aggressively to the PO. That was basically the first and more or less the only time I've ever been affected by poison ivy, oak, or whatever. But, since then, I take extra caution handling the stuff!!!

Good poison ivy/oak webpage.

Best wishes,
Ed

PS... If the "bites" are fairly stabilized and seem to be diminishing by now then I would say noseeums or such, rather than poison ivy/oak.
 
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