TOPIC: mosquito,s

I was wondering, from reading all these posts, just what are mosquitos good for any way?
Well, it turns out that they are actually vital to the ecosystem in many ways. First, they lay their eggs in water and those eggs become food for many other animals like fish, dragonflys, pond walkers, ect... The adult mosquitos also eat microorganisms and fungie from the surface of ponds to prevent them from going stagnant.
Spiders also thrive off mosquitos as do many other species of stinging insects.
But here is the kicker guys, and I think you'll love this... It's only the females that bite us humans. The males are actually nectar feeders like honey bees. The male mosquito is actually a pollenater of many plants you see out in the woods.
Turn out we actually need these bugs in the world, they are nasty, I know. But without them the food chain would suffer dramatically. There would be a lot less wildlife out there without them, especially around ponds.
Just a thought.

Thanks fos for trying but im not buying it I still hate them @$##$&#@s ! lol

Here in Middle TN we don't have to worry so much about skeeters - it is the ticks and chiggars that will really get you here.

Seed Ticks - tiny little critters and they seem to bunch up in herds on low bushes and weeds and when you walk thru em you may get a patch transferred to your pants leg that has hundreds of them in a mob - and they all seem to start heading direct for your \"crotch\" area. Talk about torture - a couple hundred tiny ticks latched onto your privates - nope you don't want that to happen.

We use a Repel Product called Permanone - that is for treating clothing (not skin). You can basically lay out your pants and shirt and pre-treat them spraying on a good dose of permanone and then later on while wearing those hunting, if a tick crawls up on your clothes - they just die and die immediatly. It kills em dead.

I have found large brown patches just above my knee that had hundreds of seed ticks in it and none at all were moving. It killed them almost as soon as they landed.

Don't spray that Permanone on your skin - can cause a bad reaction - red skin - pealing, etc.

Then the other thing we also use is another Repel or Off product that has a high % of DEET (40% or more). That takes care of the chiggars and helps with skeeters too.

We basically put on our treated with permanone clothes, then just before going into the woods we spray good with the 40% DEET spray and that takes care of you fairly well.

I also pack along (in my fanny pack) a pump spray bottle of that 40% deet Repel product so I can \"refresh\" later on if needed.

At our Local Walmart they also have the Repel Product in a very small pump spray (pen sized) at 100% DEET. I picked up some of that a couple days ago and will be packing that in my fanny pack this season.

PS - if you folks are in tick areas like we are - need to check out that Repel Product called Permanone. Man it works great. I would actually be a bit afraid to do much seng huting around here in the early season wihtout it.

Below is a link that shows the Permanone product.

www.repel.com/ProductCategories/SpecialtyProducts/Permanone/

They used to carry that at our local Walmart Stores but for some odd reason stopped last year. I called a local hunting supply store and the do carry permanone so I am going to go by there this weekend and pick up a couple cans.

TNhunter

bugs and crap don't bother me at all grew up in the woods unlike most kids today i was always outside. but the little @ss deer ticks and the chiggars i hate em all they suck.as far as uesing deet are something i don't use any of that crap.. i can't bring myself to spay myself with chemicales they say it's alright to use but if u read on it says not to use it for 3 days in a roll are something like that.. So i don't use it at all.. something to thinks about huh.. might find out one day leg might fall off are something for using that stuff...

TNhunter, what are these seed ticks you talk of? We have deer ticks, mostly wood ticks here in Wisconsin, but I found about half dozen small ticks on the upper part of my leg (way up) that seem to be neither. Never had that happen before. Was wondering about that, but didn't think about it much. Mosquitos about normal, each carrying one tick.

jchrisfos thanks for sharing all that information I didnt no exactly what they where for that was very informative.

Borrowed time,

Seed ticks (as far as I know) are just baby ticks, hatchlings, probably only a few weeks or months old.

Here in the south (Middle TN Area) - mid summer thru late fall (I have got a mess of seed ticks as late as end of September/early October while tracking a deer shot with bow/arrow) or while Squirrel Hunting, or even Dove Hunting.

Often when you do get them you don't just get 1 or 2 or 3 - but you may get hundreds. I expect that the Mother tick lays her eggs in a batch on low bushes/weeds and such and then after they hatch out they sort of stick together in a group for a while.

Then when some critter (our deer are often infested with them) or human happens to walk by and brush up against that bush/weed - they hop on and you get a whole mob of those things on you all at one time.

Even though they are tiny - they stick just like a big tick and even after you remove them the bite area can itch like crazy for weeks - just like the adult tick bite can.

If you do get a mess of them and they are not stuck yet, you can use a wad of duck tape and just stick it to your jeans or shirt or where ever they are crawling and pluck them off that way. That works well.

If you spray your jeans with permanone - they will land in a mob and when you do notice them - they will all just be dead but hanging on.

I did a yahoo image search on seed tick and found a couple of pic's - including them below.

Another Pic of seed ticks:



Permanone alone does not seem to stop chiggars and a high % deet spray alone does not seem to stop seed or adult ticks.

I \"ALWAYS\" use both a 40% (minimum) DEET spray and Permanone and hardly ever get a tick or chiggar even when spending 4-6 hours tromping thru areas that are loaded with both.

I only treat my boots/jeans/lower shirt with Permanone and when I apply the DEET spray keep the majority of that on the same areas and very little if any on my skin.

TNhunter

Here is another tip that will help keep the ticks from making their way to sinking their teeth into your skin.

When we dress for seng hunting or (basically any kind of hunting or outdoor activity where you are going to be getting in the weeds/bushes or woods much) we do a few other things with how we put on our clothes that helps.

I always put on 2 pair of thin cotton socks (the long kind that come up high on your calf).

I put on the first pair and then my jeans (which are treated with permanone). Then I fold the bottom of my jeans around tightly in the ankle area and then put on that second pair of socks and pull them up over the bottom 8-10 inches of my jeans.

So I have 1 pair of socks on under the jeans, then another pair on that pulls up over the jeans.

Then I put my boots on with the jeans tucked down inside the boots.

This works well when using either tall rubber boots or tall snake boots and when I am in the woods around here I almost always wear one or the other.

Then when you put on your pants, tuck your shirt in and wear a belt.

The goal of all this is to NOT give the ticks a place that they can just crawl up and then get under your clothes and easily make it to your skin to latch on.

If you tuck everything in then they just crawl up and have to crawl over jeans or shirt that are treated with Permanone or DEET or Both.

If you just put on your socks and boots like normal or if you don't tuck your shirt tail in and you brush up agianst a bush or weed that has a couple hundred seed ticks on it, the just crawl up a little ways and under your jeans or shirt and they have easy access to skin. By the time you notice the itch it's too late - hundreds latched on and weeks of suffering.

TNhunter

A lot of information, thanks. Regulat wood ticks by us are mostly gone by august 10 or so. Deer ticks here even in nov.