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Totally Bugged Out

Boreal Birch said:
Jeeze Louise, bugs are part of the deal.
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Sometimes and in some places you do what you have to do to be there now. I have done so, stayed, endured, survived and wouldn’t trade the memories. Or much want to re-live them, at least suffering with the bug-gear we had at the time.

When our sons were young I tried, not always successfully, to avoid the worst of biting insect hell. My older son would was (is) a bug-magnet, and would come home thoroughly welted and scratched and bloodied. And bruised and bandaged, he was both clumsy and adventurous.

After a Christmas or Spring Break trip, when they returned to school, I always kinda wondered if Social Services would be knocking on our door inquiring about their condition.

Boreal Birch said:
If you can not stand the heat stay out of the kitchen, is one of the oldest sayings I can remember. Maybe canoe camping is not for you take up mini golf.
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“Blackfly” may have chosen an unfortunately poster name, throwing down the gauntlet and challenging the Gods of the Hatch. I do not know if he had his brood of young offspring with him, which needs be considered if you want to raise kids who enjoyed their experiences and want to go back. The poor dogs didn’t have much of a belly-bit say in the matter.

While I enjoy a round of putt-putt golf every 10 years or so there are places I simply will not again trip during the height of bug season. Long sleeves, long pants, socks tucked in, bug jacket, gloves, head net, dope, freaking duct tape or rubber bands around my wrists and pant legs.

Am I really here, or sealed off in a moon suit from the outside world? And dang I wish it wasn’t so hot and breezeless, and I wasn’t sight/sound/touch occluded, encased head to toe in bug-barriers.

Otherwise I can be caged and restless inside a screen house. Looking through the no-see-um netting at a hazy, breeze killing view of what I came here to see and feel? Aside from shoveling in un-buggy meals I actually prefer the former; at least I am out here, not inside there.

Thanks for the mini-golf memories I had not thought of in years.

We played a round 40 years ago at a middle of nowhere bayside putt-putt course. One of the guys was actually a very skilled golfer, and while he was laughing at the absurdity the whole time, I could sense he was getting frustrated (and was not winning).

The 18[SUP]th[/SUP] hole: Hit through the windmill and into the clown’s mouth (why is there a clown behind a Dutch windmill?) and win a ticket for a free round. He teed his ball up on the “putting green”, abruptly turned sideways and blasted a solid 100 yard drive out into the bay with a putter.

I think he felt ever so much better after the distant splash.
 
Thanks for the report sweeper. I have a memory of horseflys as big as quarters on one of my scout leader experiences there-so big and slow nobody was bitten-but if they were!. The only universal help for bugs is smuge (smoke). Other wise I use many defenses for different bugs--what works for one is ignored by another. Although blackflys can be the most difficult bugs to deal with, they seem to react the most strongly to smoke. From my reading, most guide camps in the ADKs had a smudge contained up wind. I sometimes use my twig stove for this.
Turtle
 
Yup, turtle's got it right! my main defense in camp is a slow smoky fire, as soon as I can when setting up, I start a small fire and add a punky log to it. Within minutes there isn't a blackfly or mossie within sight.
When moving, my main defense are an old secondhand, oversized white dress shirt, a tilley, and pants tucked into my socks. I MIGHT put some deet or Repelfly on a bandanna around my neck or hat brim, and when portaging on my hands.
I also use "zen" repellent- slather it on the first day, use it when I remember the second day, and "what repellent" the third day...
 
Those stable flies have been getting to me in the Adirondacks.. I find them the most noxious of all as they don't nibble or pierce.. They take a big honking bite.
So I was dismayed to find them on Grand Manan Island equally as hungry and also a new species.. The beach hornet...

Deerfly tape is definitely in the future wardrobe.
 
Anyone try extra doses of vitamin B? Seriously. I know I know, our world is already full up of crack remedies and old wives' tales, but you never know when a myth might be founded on a truth.
Smudge works. Adding balsam to the fire is nice. If you're gonna smell sooty it might as well be a nice sooty. I have a Chlorophylle tarp that's never gonna smell the same no matter how I wash it. You wouldn't think polywhatever could absorb odours but this one does. Another good reason for a complete clothing change before bed every night. We try extra diligently to leave camp smells outside upon retiring. A quick refreshing dip before bed and a change of clothes does it but it does involve bug fighting at the tent threshold. I haven't tried the burning Pic incense in the tent yet. Maybe for a more romantic evening, we'll see.
Well my wife got a hard dose of reality when she sprayed herself with Eau De Mystere she got as gift, and went out to the garden to pick chard. She "was nearly eaten alive!!" she says. I told her there's a spritz bottle of Deep Woods Off in the shed down at the bottom of the garden. Her fancy stuff may get set aside for more "light duty" activities. I suggested she carry Diana around the garden whilst harvesting veg and berries. Her look told me that wasn't funny.
If all goes well we'll soon be testing our bug defences up north. And I've been looking for ways to get blood stains out of fabrics. Ha. I hope it doesn't come to that.
 
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Black Fly,

I wonder if you are indulging in embellishment for the sake of the story. A cloud of bugs at the border? No bugs south of the border? And your picture shows a beautiful woman and dog apparently at ease. No cloud of bugs obscuring your camera lens!
 
yellowcanoe said:
Those stable flies have been getting to me in the Adirondacks.. I find them the most noxious of all as they don't nibble or pierce.. They take a big honking bite.
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Those dang ankle biters are one of my least favorites. One landed on the heel of a nylon tennis shoe, I directly sprayed him with high concentration DEET and he proceeded to bite me through the heel of my shoe.

The greenhead flys at least are kinda slow stupid circling and easily swatted, although a simple swat won’t kill them. I swat them and lay out a greenhead graveyard on the thwart and have seen some wings all akimbo miraculously put themselves back together. I now pop them between my fingertips once swatted and then lay out my trophies.

My most hated biting insect is chiggers, actually the parasitic larval stage of a mite.

I absolutely detest chiggers. Unfortunately they seem to like me. The wworst part with chiggers is that they are dang near microscopic, and you don’t know you’ve been into them and been bit until a day or two later when dozens of maddeningly itchy red bumps begin to appear under any elastic waist band or sock.

Hand down your pants vigorously scratching your nether regions is not a good look out in public, and the bites will itch for a week.

A few years ago a southerner on CanoeTripping suggested spraying on a mix of Dawn dishwashing detergent and Canola oil as a chigger preventative. It works, provided you remember to do so beforehand when in chigger areas.
 
Some interesting reading.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ticle24710321/

These days my bug battles involve ants. Our property is a raised sandy bench some distance above a bend in a river. I haven't bothered to research the post glacial stratigraphy enough to know the exact origins, who cares, all I know is we have sand, and loads and loads of ants. I've found that a sweetened Borax mixture to be effective. I'm winning the fight in amongst my raspberries and throughout the veggie patch. We're now doing battle at our very doorsteps. So it feels naively shortsighted to think that in a couple weeks I'll be canoe tripping up north and getting away from my bug problems. Ha.
 
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Supposedly Diatomaceous Earth works to kill ants. A friend told me about it this past weekend. We were talking about the big black carpenter ants, that like to eat log homes such as mine. I have not been to Fairbanks yet to see if I can find some, so do not know if it works. The friend said diatomaceous earth is ground glass that gets in their joints making openings in the exoskeleton which causes them to dry up from the inside.
 
Mike WTH does a chigger look like? Annually I get a fire ant refresher course but chiggers I don't know about.. I might have had them...
 
ya ankle biters! grrrr. I put repellant on my bare ankles, get out of the canoe and wash it off, get back in and put my feet under the seat and they strike!
 
"In a delightful tracking of one food-specific chain, dragonflies feed on blackflies when dragonflies are still in the water, and again when both are adults and in the air. And dragonflies, bless them, also feed voraciously on mosquitoes."

I had a bunch dragonflies at the sites I stayed at. Looked to me the like they were more interested in running each other off then eating.
 
You guys are a hoot. We just got back, spent the last couple days with grandkids in lower Penninsula. These were the worst bugs I've seen in July in Ontario, MN, or MI in the 15 years we've been going. We did Woodland Caribou last year in July, and the bugs weren't half as bad. Last trip I remember being nearly this infested was in MN during early June, when we lived in bug shirts in camp, no dog. 20190708_202032.jpg

If it hadn't been for the wife and pups, I would have persevered. They were having no fun. Everyone was bleeding. Dogs wanted to stay in the car, which was full of bugs, but their bellies were off the ground. Ears and bellies were eaten up on the poor kids. They were running and begging to get back in the car. Poor guys. When we let them in the tent, our previously bug-free sleeping chamber started filling up with bugs that were buried in their fur. Maybe I'm getting soft, but torture is not fun. The ranger at the park was covered in bites on his neck and face, said the bugs were even worse the week before. He said the least buggy sites were at the south end, but the air was dead, even out on the lake. Motor boats provided the best respite from the onslaught, he said. We saw 2 bears or the same one twice on the road. I'll go back sometime in late summer or fall, probably solo and not for car camping.

Now I'm going to review the Big Agnes Big 4 tent. It was easy to set up, but hot due to poor ventilation. The back door is useless, as it rolls down, and has only a little screen at the top. It should be a full zip open screen door. The vestibule is roomy, but I'm pretty sure the wind resistance is poor due to the large flat surfaces on this tent. I'll give it 3 stars out of 5.
 
on my recent ADK trip the dragonfly's were mating. interesting to watch, but I couldn't figger out the mechanics of the operation.
 
Insect mating is very weird in human reference, because of the hard armoured exoskeleton making things mechanical. Picture needle nose pliers clamped in a steel vise, held together with sharp hooklike things and probes that ensure everything stays in place and goes in properly. Different mechanics and apparatus for every species, too. Insect porn can be stimulating but not in the everyday sense, more like... oh man...bizarro world or what.... makes the little green men on Mars look friendly by comparison.
 
I know one thing, that exoskeleton sounds like rain on a tent when they get going good. I was putting up the tent and heard that and thought "whew, just in time." Then realized it wasn't a wet rain at all. :eek:
 
Black_Fly said:
I know one thing, that exoskeleton sounds like rain on a tent when they get going good. I was putting up the tent and heard that and thought "whew, just in time." Then realized it wasn't a wet rain at all. :eek:
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yep . Makes you reevaluate your need to pee . Nalgenes with this dedicated purpose are useful to avoid tent exits.
You would not enjoy Florida in no seeum season.. They are even worse.

The poor doggies.. I used Picardin on my mutts head last week,, Seemed to work.. In New Brunswick there were not many bugs but two miles in Maine the skeeters and blackflies were having a joint convention.
 
Speaking of sounds, on my recent trip A horsefly got caught on the deerfly tape on my stern deck. The buzzing on my composite boat hull sounded so much like my cell phone vibrating that I dug it out of my pack to see if I forgot to shut it off. Finally tracked down the noise just as he got free.
 
It is a hellacious year for bugs up here, worst I've seen in quite a few. Hot dry weather for the most part though so hopefully they will dry up by the end of the month .
 
yellowcanoe said:
Mike WTH does a chigger look like? Annually I get a fire ant refresher course but chiggers I don't know about.. I might have had them...
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Beats the hell out of me. It’s the larval stage of a freaking mite, a half dozen could fit inside a punctuation mark .

Can’t see chiggers, and they are so tiny you can’t feel them like a tick crawling across a follicle. You don’t know until a day later when the itchy welts appear under your u-trou elastic or socks/shoes and lasts for days. If “might have had them” equaled maddeningly itchy bumps under any area of constricting clothing, you’ve had them.

I don’t think I have ever done a warm weather trip in the eastern Carolinas and not come back without chigger bites, although the worst chigger bit I have ever been occurred on Maryland’s eastern shore. During a high ground swamp shore break a friend’s dog got scent of some mole or vole and began pawing a hole in the dirt.

Pawing a hole, and scattering the dirt directly on my tight neoprene water shoe-clad feet. I thought it was hilarious, until a day later when I had dozens of maddeningly itchy chigger bites on each foot. I’ll get you for that Mobey.

More Chigger horror than you want to know:

https://www.purdue.edu/uns/html3month/2001/010716.Gibb.chiggers.html

It must be living hell for the Marines crawling through the grass at Camp Lejeune.
 
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