Bugs Bugs Bugs

[almaty 19]

yea ....... i miss sooki......

she busy looking at her chigger bites..

[Lou Lou 1]

Avon's skin so soft range for mozzies is the best stuff going around and doesn't contain nasty deet. I swear by it Thankfully we don't get chiggers up here tho OH did have an encounter with them in a delicate area one year We also have the dreaded black fly that takes a chunk of your skin out when it bites....nice

[Bruce and Han 0]

I actually had a spider help me one summer, Not sure what kind it was. We were staying at the river house on the Mississippi river. Well the front screendoor had a hole in the top left corner, the screen gasget let go and that corner fell out. I was going to relplace it the next day when over night this very kind spider saw that I had a problem and built his web over the hole in the screen. He certanly kept the bugs out of the house and he remained with us on the door swinging back and forth all summer long.

[iceyspots 0]

ooo i want chigger bites

theres a big roach in "Removing Conditions on Residency General Discus..." See under Fraud

[minha_raposa 0]

Is anybody else finding the bugs an absolute nightmare in the USA.

Especially because it has been unseasonably hot in Oklahoma, they are bloody awful. I just had to come inside and leave hubby after getting dive bombed from all directions repeatedly. Despite having 2 insecticide lanterns going!

We have Dune bugs (aka Roly Poly's I think!) and these chase you down and are harmless, but quite big and yukky. One just got in my hair and helped me decide to come indoors

Then there are the Chiggers, which you never see.....2 weeks ago I had 28 chigger bites between my foot and knee on 1 leg!!!! My mum was the same this week, we have emptied the local stores of remedies to stop the itcing.

Then there are the HUGE yellow-jackets, like wasps on speed gone mad!

It is soooo much worse here then the UK for bugs

Yes...chiggers (aka Red Bugs) are a terrible pain to deal with. However, the clear nail polish will work, or you can go to the drug store and buy a product called Chigger-Rid. It works basically the same but has and added anti-itch medicine. One word of caution about chiggers(if you don't already know): chiggers LOVE soft , moist areas of your body, ESPECIALLY in the crotch area and they are not shy about making themselves right at home there. I'm not playing about this and if you live with chiggers, you will experience it. You can attempt to avoid them by spraying your legs with a DEET based spray or try rubbing Skin So Soft (Avon) on the rest of your skin. Also, avoid walking in dry leaves and off of establish trails when in the woods. Don't sit in leaves or take a 'wee' outdoors (I swear they can jump). If the problem is in your yard, you can buy an insecticide to mix and spray your lawn with. This is very effective.

Good luck!

One 'wasp' that really frightened me last year until I found out they don't sting and are harmless are cicada killers - they are huge! look like yellow jackets and they attack you - only because they can't sting and they seem to think if they can intimidate you you will stay away from the ground where they lay their eggs:-). I have learned to like them but they look ferocious.

Bugs, brrrrrrrrrrr!!

I hate those things!! They freakin scare me. As for the black widows, I've only seen one when I came down in the summer of 2004. Found it on a telephone pole. As for brown recluse spiders. I've seen a few of those this past year. Those freak me out too. I hate spiders. My husband also told me that there are these huge red and black fuzzy ants here and if I ever see when to steer away from it. Well what did he think? I'd go up and pet it?? :-p .... I hope to never see one. As for snakes, I've heard so much about people encounters with snakes of all kinds. I'd rather not encounter one at all ever. I hope God heard me on that one lol.

Those "fuzzy ants" are actually not ants...they are a type of wasp. Not much you can do to kill 'em short of one of Bush's Laser Guided Bomb, or maybe a point blank blast with a shotgun. I've heard the sting is terrible but fortunately their apperance is intimidating enough to keep you from getting close enough to get stung.

[minha_raposa 0]

ewwwwwww I actually have some little tiny ants in the kitchen now, and I just don't get it?? I was/am running to the store yet today to get some ant poison and see if that works..gonna look it up on the Internet too for some suggestions..can't stand it!!! Grrrrr

Suk, Craig says the same thing...he wondered on his first visit why we all had screens on the windows...he soon found out, and was VERY grateful for them!! :lol: He also said the same thing as you that the wasps are so much bigger than in the UK...up here in northern WI we get a lot of skeeters in the summer at night too...hate that! I don't like em any more than he does, but I guess we just gotta deal!

M.

Sounds like you are having problems with what we called(tiny and black) 'sugar ants'...they are a nuisance but really don't sting. Best advice is try and find where they are coming in and seal the hole/crack. Also, check you pantry and see if you have something open that could be attracting them. We always kept the sugar, crackers and the likes in air tight containers. They will chew through paper/plastic bags to get at the goodies.

[Vagina Journey 0]

OK so i see this post earlier and passed it by several times, So it's that time of the day that your just so bored you will open anything .......NOTE : Only reason i hadn't opened it earlier is due to the fact i thought it was a post about BUGS BUNNY!!! " Not a Bugs Bunny Fan"

To my surprise it was just about BUGS!!

Ive been amused for a few mins

Anyway living in the city about 2 months out of the year we have these damn water bugs, im sure they have other names but the city name is "water bug".... they look like a cockroach but the size of small boat... They seem to pop up from under the street and start in your basement and crawl up the pipes and wait till you have to wake up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and then they charge at your feet as you walk down the hall like they are defending the bathroom... Last week my son gets up at 3:10 am heading to the shower for work and i hear a thump, I wake up it was my 18 year falling down the steps due to being charge at by this boat size water bug, sometimes they charge in 3's as i found out going to the bathroom the same night as my son fell, I go in and the floors still wet from his shower and 3 of them come out from under the plunger I jumped and slipped on the wet floor......

So thats my bug story for the day... Im even gonna add a pic of my lovley son and "grandson of my older son"

[sukie175 0]

Update on the chigger bites....at 11pm last night I covered them in Chigger Rid and went to sleep, 4am I woke with horrendous itching all over my ankles!!! So up I get and resort back to After Bite Extra Strength and it worked way longer than the Chigger Rid. Later I am going to do the clear nail polish before I go to sleep. We also bought a Bug Fogger today and will start using that tonight around the patio and yard.

I would post a picture of my ankles, but I'd scare you all to death!

Iceeeey, miss ya too gal

[ajames79 0]

This thread is great!!

Last time Chris was here my dad and his best friend did their best to introduce him to all the creepy crawly bugs and what they can do to you! Although they exaggerated QUITE a bit, his reaction was sooo funny!

Chiggers were one of those mentioned!! I will have to get him to read this thread!!

Good luck with all your bugs guys!!

[sukie175 0]

Just applying yet another layer of Deet before I head out to water

[Reba 2]

the best and only completely effective insect repellent is DEET. Skin So Soft will only work a few minutes and only because its an oil and bugs can't sting thru it until its dissapated a bit. Once it has, the bugs are back. DEET repels not only mosquitoes, but chiggers, ticks, fleas, black flies, horse flies, etc etc etc...

DEET however is not safe for pets, but is safe for children.

I used to only use Citronella products, but they're just like Skin So Soft, you have to keep reapplying it, and its not 100% effective.

With the threat of West Nile virus and Lyme disease on this continent, I wouldn't trust anything but DEET. Encephylitis (sp?) doesn't sound fun

[*Robert* 2]

Sarah, you just need some good 'ole salve!!!

Certainly Gary can help you out with that!!!

[Lou Lou 1]

the best and only completely effective insect repellent is DEET. Skin So Soft will only work a few minutes and only because its an oil and bugs can't sting thru it until its dissapated a bit. Once it has, the bugs are back. DEET repels not only mosquitoes, but chiggers, ticks, fleas, black flies, horse flies, etc etc etc...

DEET however is not safe for pets, but is safe for children.

I used to only use Citronella products, but they're just like Skin So Soft, you have to keep reapplying it, and its not 100% effective.

I dunno...I think the Avon stuff is very effective. If I don't wear it I can get over 60 bites in under an hour so that makes me quite a prime target. If I do wear it I don't get bitten at all the whole evening with only one application *shrug* Weighing up the risk of west nile against the side risks of deet, I prefer not to apply a pesticide to my skin.

[Melo 1]

This thread is freaking me... I can't deal with bugs/insects of any kind other than butterflies and ladybirds... I am seriously paranoid... did not visit dear friends in Brisbane coz of the unmentionables there... I do not know how I will manage when I eventually get there... I am already feeling afraid.

[munchkins 0]

This thread is freaking me... I can't deal with bugs/insects of any kind other than butterflies and ladybirds... I am seriously paranoid... did not visit dear friends in Brisbane coz of the unmentionables there... I do not know how I will manage when I eventually get there... I am already feeling afraid.

And I am in the same boat as Melo, I don't mine the little things we get here in the UK, spiders don't get too big, ants are no problem and I never get bit by mosquitos, but I am getting really wary of what I will see when I get over there!!

What types of these horrible things live in the north of Florida, all I have ever seen there are the love bugs, some of the fire ants and a couple of snakes, (and they were not in the garden of my daughters house )

And would someone please enlighten me as to just what a "chigger " is and do they have them in Florida