Tick, chigger, mosquito... Ahh summer.

[patrickg]

Dan, Sure sorry to hear they got you again... Yeah, the 0.5% stuff is expensive BUT if you really saturate your cotton socks, cotton, trowsers, and cotton outer shirt and let it dry from 2hrs to overnight (dep on rel humidity) it works. I'm sure diluting the 13.5% down to the military method certainly works longer and brobably better. Even though you and I would like to, I'm sure, we can only kill them dead not deader no mater how. This came in immediately after I received yoiur post...

Thank you for your interest and catalog request. Your copy will be in the
mail ASAP.

We offer 13.3% Permethrin liquid concentrate as follows:
gallon - $150.00
quart - $37.50
pint - $23.50
8 oz - $12.25

Sincerely,
Chris Plonske
United Spray Systems, Inc.
800-950-4883, 507-665-2269

How about it bargain shoppers, is this a good deal?

Patrick
507-665-3520 Fax
http://www.bugpage.com/uss.html
plonske@bugpage.com

 

[JOR_EL]

Re: Tick, chigger, mosquito... Ahh summer. REVENGE

Dan,

I'm considering whether I'd like to trade your ticks for my bald-faced HORNETS.

Mowing with a walk-behind(JD) near my front door the other day,...ZAP!
Left forehead between eyebrow and hairline. Yelled, swatted. dived for the front door and had Benedryl (sp?) cream on it within 30 seconds. Took tablets, per instructions rest of day/evening.

Serious "bump" by nightfall, but pain diminished. Expected continued improvement by next morning.

NOT! Awakened to find swelling migrated South. Both eyes swollen partially shut, eyelids plainly visible from my side of the face. Both cheeks swollen as well (No!, No!, ...FACE cheeks /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif ).

Pharmacist suggested another "histamine-blocker", began taking tablets, ...still 4-5 days before back to normal. Was surprised to have been stung, and uncertain of perpetrator, ...could not see nest anywhere, heard no buzz first(maybe drowned by mower-noise). Have been stung numerous times by yellowjackets, with less severe reactions, never before by bald-face. Pain level roughly the same, but not sure if I got a full dose(I swatted FAST!).

Today, careful search discovered softball-sized Hornets-nest hidden in leaves on oak branch near face ht, within few feet of incident location.

Have seen them basketball-size in this part of the country, with no-telling-how-many occupants.Glad this one is only a "starter home".

it's also very-nearly a "finished" home. My hunch is that an arsonist is going to visit them in the middle of the night tonight!
/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

Peaceful coexistence with "critters" only goes so far!

Larry

 

[dmccarty]

PatrickG,

I may have to by the small bottle to get the clothes ready for this weekend. $150 a gallon is an OUCH!

On the other hand I would pay $20 to stop the itches I have right now. And these itches are from bites on sensitive body parts! /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif 20 bucks would be danged cheap at the moment! Thank goodness for Benydryl gel and hydrocortisone cream!!!!!! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Last summer when I was the main course for 50 or so chiggers, I could only sleep when using two antihistimine(sp) pills. Those things knock me out but I had to get some sleep.......

I think I'll go order a bottle! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Thanks...
Dan WhoBItchin McCarty

 

[dmccarty]

Re: Tick, chigger, mosquito... Ahh summer. REVENGE

Larry,

Sorry no trade. I already had a run in with the Flying Stinging Critters and they t'aint no fun either. Last year, I think it was before I had the tractor, I was clearing land for a driveway. There was a big snarl of 5 trees that were downed by Hurricane Floyd that I was working my way through with the brush cutter and chainsaw. I had cut up a good bit of it and wanted to put some flagging on a small tree to mark the driveway. I had spotted a Flying Stinging Critter Nest in a small cedar sapling that was bent over and pinned under a bigger tree. I stayed away from them. The small tree was about 20 or so feet from the nest so I thought I was safe.... You do see this coming don't you? I sure did not.... /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif I wanted the flagging way off the ground so it would be easier to see through the mess so I stepped up on the trunk of a downed tree, pull out my machete and swacked out a branch that was in the way. IMMEDIATELY and I do mean as soon as the machete hit that little itty bitty branch a Flying Stinging Critter was on the end of my nose! OUCH! I jumped off that trunk, threw the machete one way to free up my right hand for swatting duty, started flailing with my left hand(out of the corner of my eye I saw my watch zipping through the air to land in some thick grape vines), started running through the woods like a madman who just jumped over the mad house fence cussing words that I'm not sure have been ever heard before! I'm lucky that nobody was around because of all the yelling and cussing they would have thought I had cut off a major body part! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I circle around the area of the violent, unprovoked, gutless attack, and snuck back to my truck. I pulled my collapsable chair, grabbed some water and sat down to soak my wounds. The little $%^&*( had stung my arm in one or two places but the one that hurt like heck was the one that had landed on the end of my nose! The little ^&*() had stung INSIDE my nose! OUCH! You talk about hurt. My nose stung and eyes watered for an hour! I had some hydrocortisone cream that I put all over my nose but it really did not help. It took 30 minutes for my heart rate to get back to normal. My nose started to swell up. After a couple of hours my nose had grown to look like WC Fields large sniffer! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif It really hurt since it was still stinging and the skin on the nose was so tight from the swelling... Not FUN!

My next trip to the property included a can of foamy Flying Critter Killer... he he he he

I never could figure out how they go from 20 feet away to me that quick. I thought there was another nest nearby that I had missed but I could not find one. I never found a vine connecting the branch on the tree to the nest in the cedar either. Really has/had me puzzled.

I did have the presence of mind to note where my watch went flying and I did find it. It now sits on a watch bob like thing that I wear clipped onto a belt loop on my pants.... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

So NO!, I don't want to trade! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

In all seriousness I do understand how the man cut killed by his rotary cutter when he hit a nest, started swatting, fell off the tractor, and got run over. I keep that in my mind when I'm cutting areas that might have a nasty nest.....

Later...
Dan

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Re: Tick, chigger, mosquito... Ahh summer. REVENGE

Jor El,

I had my brother in laws help me frame the new house a couple years ago. We were sitting on the main floor taking a break before stringing a few more rafters and my brother in law had a can of Pepsi sitting on the floor. He picked it up, took a big swig, spit, snatched the cap off MY head and commenced beating the floor. Turns out a hornet had crawled right inside his open can. Got him 3 times, tongue, lip and cheek. I made him sit and watched him for about 30 mintues to make sure there was no allergic reaction and he would keep breathing, (really hard to do that when when you're ready to wet your pants from laughing), and then sent him home. He was sore for several days, but the swelling went down within just a few hours.

Fortunately, there was no damage to my hat! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

SHF

 

[JOR_EL]

Don't know about PURPLE marlins, but the black/blue/white ones, usually caught from an offshore sportfisherman are REALLY hard to get to nest in your box! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Larry (wonder if those captains know they could use mosquito-bait?)

 

[patrickg]

Re: Tick, chigger, mosquito... Ahh summer. REVENGE

Oh, Dan... I was having sympathy pains for you, man. Of course I was also having flashbacks to Dudley Moore in the movie "10", the wedding scene where he smells the flowers and takes a bee up the snozz. No disrespect, but a video of your "performance under fire" would have taken a prize.

Patrick (waiting for the fire ant invasion)

 

[patrickg]

Re: Tick, chigger, mosquito... Ahh summer. REVENGE

Once upon a time wen I was working on a contract for the US Army's National Training Center (Desert Warfare games with real Russian tanks and the agressor force wearing Russian uniforms and all) NTC is between Death Valley and Barstow, you may safely think of it as desert. Anyway a company memo was posted in compliance with the base commanders wishes regarding uncovered water sources in the desert. Seems there are bees in the desert that can sense water wafted as moisture plumes through the dry desert air as far as 50 miles. They home in on the source. If they happen to be closer to the source of moisture when detected, their ETA to the location is proportionally quicker. This gave rise to some problems. 1. Sometimes when ya gotta go ya gotta go but the bees sometimes show up with alarming alacrity. 2. cans of pop attract then really well and they don't want to share or play nice, not infrequently getting in a can with predictable potentialities (sound familiar?), 3. Condensate water dripping off of not quite insulated well enough chilled water lines (to cool mountain top computer complex) attracted large numbers to the general area so that other impromptu sources of moisture would be close by and a short flight to visit them (think soda, in the can or later being uhh err ahh recycled). and 4. One A-hole with a bad attitude and a minor language difficulty (English wasn't his first language, verstehen zie?) He read the memo and thought the poor beasties were disadvantaged having to fly so far as up to 50 miles to track down water so he left several water filled soda cans out for the poor darlings. When appraised of his slight misunderstanding, he got his Teutonic pride hurt. So he hid the water cans, many water cans for the poor disadvantaged darlings. We all loved Hans for his independent thinking as well as his selflessness in helping even the small creatures of creation. Good old Hans, just give us one good rotor stall coming in on the mountain top and he would have been jetisoned to lighten ship.

Patrick

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Re: Tick, chigger, mosquito... Ahh summer. REVENGE

Patrick,

The water seeking phenomenon isn't just for bees. I spent the last couple of days insulating the new house. It's a hot, nasty job working up under those vaulted ceilings on days like this and I went through a lot of water. Since I was watering the trees, I left the hose on a trickle and just laid it by the base of a tree. When thirsty, I'd go out and fill up my jug from the hose since the water had run and is pretty cold. On my second trip out, I noticed all these butterflys... Must have been a hundred of em all sipping from the damp ground around the end of the hose. I'd come out, get my fill, move the hose to the next tree and next time I came out, all the butterflys had moved to the new location. Went on all afternoon. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Been so dry around here the last three weeks that everything is turning brown, I guess they were getting desperate, because it didn't seem to bother them much that I was out moving the hose around.

I knew bees could follow air flow to track moving targets, which is why standing still is sometimes better than running like heck. But I didn't know they could follow water sources the same way. Running to the nearest pond may not be such a good idea after all.

SHF

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by StoneHeartFarm on 07/15/01 12:49 PM (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[patrickg]

Re: Tick, chigger, mosquito... Ahh summer. REVENGE

The butterfly watering hole can be deceiving. I betcha it was minerals the water was disolving they were after. What, I don't know, but I have seen hundreds crowded around a patch of wet dirt with acres of wet dirt available and literally miles of shoreline and acres of water but they chose a specific dirt patch. A naturalist type there at the time explained the mineral thing to me. Of course, yours could just have been thirsty, I'm not a butterfly expert. I have a good friend who is PhD zoologist and is a wealth of information on things like this, I'll try to remember to ask.

Another good reason to stand still, if I recall my natural science correctly and can integrate some optics studies, is that the compound eye is a terrific motion detector. if you don't move in their field of view, you are just part of the background/landscape. The short baseline distance between their eyes is such that they can't see in 3D as far as we do. With the resolution limit placed on their vision by lense size they can't resolve the tiny changes in paralactic angle represented by our close versus our far features so at any reasonable distance they see 2D. This 2D thing is an instantaneous 2D. If like an owl or a lizard that you see moving his head back and forth likek dancing the Egyptian the bee can take advantage of a series of views then they could get a 3D effect. At least they would be able to measure the relative distance to you as compared to other objects. Something like HUMAN SHAPED OBJECT at 3 o'clock, farther than wisteria vine with yummy nectar but not as far as the neighboring hive there in that tree. If yoiu are familiar with navigation it is just like a running fix.

I say again, these are not your regular european honey bees snifing out water from 50 miles. They are solitary desert bees. Look a lot the same to me but again, I'm no expert and a lot of flying stinging things are hard for me to identify as I am usually having to look where I'm going as I depart the immediate area.

As far as running to the pond is concerned: If it is "killer bees" (africanized european honey bees) honey bees with a very bad attitude and disposition they will in fact follow you to the water and wait for you to come up for air. This has been observed to be a behavior common to that hybrid. Hope for a reed or something to breath through and hope they don't come down it. I think when or if they make it to this neck of the woods I will carry a couple yds of netting in my pocket to minimize the attack while retreating to a better situation. Don't have'm yet, fire ants neither but it is inevitable. Killer bees, yet another delight brought to you by well intentioned dabling with genetics. Yup folks, check it out. Some altruistic SOBs thought they would improve on the honey bee and create a boon for mankind. Hardy was one of the characteristics they sought. Bingo, right on target, they are hardy. What's next?

Patrick