There's no worse Mosquitos than on the Mississippi, in Miss., with one exception

Reading about the south, deep woods, giant mosquitos, etc. takes me back to my days as a kid when me and by buddies went to see "The Legend of Boggy Creek" and it scared the bejeebus out of all of us.

Found it on VHS a few years ago and almost busted a gut laughing because it was so hokey. Sure was terrifying as a 10-year-old, tho.

 

It was not near as bad this morning for a coupla hours early. It seems to be a common problem around these parts that almost on cue, at a particular point with the sunsetting, they lift. We got down this AM after the rains hit and the sun was up. Wasn't anywhere close to bad. We knew, or my buddy knew, that there was a case of it being bad last night. He thought I had sprayed. Stupid me.

 

Hondo,

The theory I have always heard is that the snow melting in the spring creates pools of standing water for the buggers to breed.

 

Re: There's no worse Mosquitos than on the Mississippi, in Miss., with one excep

Yep, natives know that exactly when the skeeter launch happens just by the position of the sun.

Summer in the South can really suck at times.

 

As an add in, Itasca in Minnesota was beautiful but absolutely lousy with ticks and mosquitos.
And then there were the mosquitos in Nigeria, where I gto malaria. Not cool.

 

But wouldn't that affect quantity, not size? My only experience with sub-Arctic mosquitoes was in Maine, where they come in both IFR and VFR modes.

 

I'm curious why some people get eaten up by mosquitoes, and others don't. I pretty much have lived in the South my whole life, including several years in South Mississippi, and never really had much problem with them. My dad (who still lives in Mississippi) doesn't either, but my stepmom and husband get eaten alive when were outside in the summer.

May be a little off topic, but just curious why that is.

 

Just got back from a trip though southern Africa for 3 weeks. The bad thing about mosquitos there is not the numbers; it's that they often carry malaria.

Now that's bad ...

 

In the early '80s, I worked at The Brazosport Facts in Clute, Texas.

About 60 miles southwest of Houston.

Home of the Great Texas Mosquito Festival.

It was fuckin' awful.

In the summertime, if it rained, you really couldn't go outside. You had to cover yourself in Cutter (Deepwoods Off wasn't toxic enough). I had a beat-up Chevy X-11 that had a crappy, leaky sun roof, and they'd get in there and wait for my ass.

It sucked.

 

The ones in Louisiana mock those pretenders in Mississippi. Cars disappear, carried off, never to be seen again.

In fact, as I am typing this

 

Peytons Place, there is something about different humans that attracts mosquitoes and repels others.

http://www.webmd.com/allergies/features/are-you-mosquito-magnet

Johnny D is right. Louisiana's mosquitoes, especially in the marshes, and those in Florida spit in the eye of all others. Violent, relentless bastards. Off! and Deet are cocktails.

Light-colored clothing is believed to be better to wear than dark clothing. For some reason mosquitoes are attracted to dark clothing.

I'd rather battle the mosquitoes than the black flies up north. Sumbitches hurt. Mosquitoes just itch.

Try something called a ThermaCell. They're very effective.

http://www.thermacell.net/

 

Never been there, but I've had enough reliable reports that the mosquitoes and biting flies in the North are much more virulent and have a greater swarming capacity than what we have down here. My (totally unscientific) theory is that the very short summer compresses the insect life cycle, that they only have so much time to do whatever it is they have to do to survive.

Of course, the South compensates by having a year-round mosquito problem. You can get chewed to pieces on Christmas. Plus, we have fire ants, which is a whole 'nother kettle of fish.