Lovebugs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

charlie_the_tuna

charlie_the_tuna

God
so a buddy of mine lives in the cape coral area and he knows I have a slight bug issue. well, he sent me a video yesterday. he was on his boat with a couple of buddys and they were fishing. why is that so unusual, you ask?? LOVEBUGS!!!!!!!!!! I've never seen anything like this! this was difficult for me to watch for a couple of reasons. number one, they were so thick, they actually blocked the camera for parts of the video. number two, i'm totally grosses out by bugs!! I don't know what it is. whenever there's a bug in the house, I make my wife take care of it. I couldn't imagine going through what these guys went through during this absolute swarm of bugs!! I don't know how I would have handled it!! now, they tell me that this is a west coast thing and they don't appear like this in southeast. if this is true, I think my mind has been made up! there's no way I could withstand this invasion of bugs! how long do they hang around? is this really a west coast thing? is there nothing you can do except to sit and let thousands of bugs land on you while trying to enjoy the great outdoors?
 
Mostly from Lake City / Gainesville south, we get them up here, but not as bad. When i was going to school in Tampa, they would get so bad you could not see out your windshield. Rookie mistake, trying to clean the off with windshield wipers and fluid. Then u have smeared love bugs. Also, if left on cars too long, the acid in their remains will eat the paint.

They sell screens to put across your front grill to keep them from clogging up your radiator

Can t wait till you move south and come face to face with a 3 inch long cockroach or palmetto bug as the chamber of commerce calls them.
 
sh!t. a bug like that may just about kill me!!! I know y'all got skeeters down there, but what about ticks? those'r a pretty big problem up here in the warmer months.
 
we breed them down here to run the transplants back up North, the Love bugs are harmless, but give a great visual, it looks like an Hitchcock movie. They will attack your car, causing paint damage and overheating. You cant ride your bike or motorcycle with your mouth open, well unless youre hungry for bugs.They will try to fly in your ears and nose as well. The Mosquitoes are the ones that actually inflict physical harm, being attacked by thousands of winged vampires, their bites will suck you dry of blood and cause your body to whelp up. The gnats and noseums are the invisable attackers, they will make you look like a raving lunatic, swatting at invisible objects that no one else can see. Its amazing something so small can hurt that bad. Locals will point out your flaying and wonder, "whats that crazy yankee doing". The aggravation will usually increase your blood pressure to heart attack levels. Depending on what part of the South you are in, we have various species of ants that will bite and inject poison that will bring you to your knees in pain. They usually crawl up your leg and launch a coordinated attack where they all start biting at once, Black Widow spiders, brown recluse, yea, we got them too. Big harry wolf spiders that are harmless, but will make any women scream like they are being killed. Ticks, got them too, they like to attach right on the back side of your privates, you wont realize its there till you wake up in the middle of the night scratching your self. Improper removal usually cause infection. Hornets, wasp, bee's and ******* yellow jackets are the top predator in the bug world, even after they die, their stingers can inflict pain. Its going to take another thread to cover the snakes,gators, and other critters.

I had to comeback and edit, I cant believe I forgot the fisherman worst freind, the green horse fly. Combining the stealth of the tick, the annoyance of the noseums, and the pain of the yellow jacket, they usually attack right about the time a fish starts to nibble on your bait, distracting you just long enough for the fish to get away.


So, Charlie, when are you moving down?
 
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Spare, you nailed it! Here in Carolina the bugs are tough in the heat of the summer. I found Skeeter Beater works really well. I met the guy that came up with it at the oyster fest. In my backyard I have a propane powered skeeter killer that works great, fired it up yesterday. And them green head yellow flies ain't no joke! Either you kill him or he's gonna pester you till he bites you!
 
You forgot black flies or deer flies, looks like an ordinary housefly with the bite of a Doberman. Also the ground hornets.
 
I found a bait shop that had a bug spray called cactus juice over in NJ. It worked good for those green flies.
 
Here in NC the deer ticks will eat you alive in the woods about 6 months out of the year. The (tiny) deer ticks carry Lyme's disease which can really F* up your life!

Phat stole my thunder. I was reading intently and could barely contain my excitement in sharing all about our wonderful, nearly invisible, chigger aka red bug. They're fantastic! I don't know which is worse, poison oak/ivy or chiggers. Will make you scratch until you bleed.

I took my brother in law,my sisters wife, and my lady to the deer camp last year in mid september. We took a pic on the 4-wheeler on the way in - all 4 of us on the honda foreman, smiling intently at the camera. That pic became a meme with the slogan, "Chigger Time!"

I've never seen a swarm of love bugs but I can assure you they don't scare me in the slightest lol.
 
phatdaddy said:
You forgot black flies or deer flies, looks like an ordinary housefly with the bite of a Doberman. Also the ground hornets.
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we don't have many of the black flys down here, but the ground hornets will ruin your day when you run over the nest with the mower. I've been helping a buddy prepping some food plots, he wont bush hog with the small tractor, he only uses the enclosed cab tractor just for the ground hornets and wasp(AC is nice too)
 
phatdaddy said:
You forgot black flies or deer flies, looks like an ordinary housefly with the bite of a Doberman. Also the ground hornets.
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Try being allergic to them. More than 2 bites and I start swelling up. 5 or 6 and my eyes go blood shot and my lips start swelling. To top it off they're out on the river and flats when the fish are.

And don't forget locusts(giant grasshoppers). Nothing like getting pegged in the eye by a 4 inch grasshopper.
 
They are the worst here in the fall, seems they live in the deep woods and when the north wind starts blowing, it pushes them down to the beaches and bay. When you get out of your boat to do some wade fishing and come back, there will be a couple of hundred waiting for you.
 
man, you guys are really the bearers of good news, aren't you?!? suddenly, i'm reconsidering my direction of migration. anybody know how the bugs are at the north pole?? man, looks like I've got a lot to look forward to. I guess i'll be spending more time than I thought inside the condo, caulking every crack. the one thing I really don't want to deal with is bugs. I don't so much mind spiders, as they eat bugs. i'm hoping to settle smack in the middle of a bat colony so they can take care of my bug phobias.
 
Notice we don't have any of those things in New Jersey. "I know a guy"..........

(Actually, we have the worlds worst mosquito. They are small, but they travel in packs and love the taste of "OFF" and other mosquito repellents.. I swear it actually attracts them. Ground wasps, ticks, deer flys, chiggers and spiders?... yep, we got them too... )
 
Around here copperhead snakes and black widows are pretty thick too. Years ago when I bought the first v20 I had the motor off to do transom work. I hung the motor on a homemade wooden stand that i made and it was sitting on the edge of the woods. I sold the motor and me and a buddy went to move the stand. I noticed something crawling on it. There were a couple thousand baby black widow spiders crawling on it and their mom was there too! Freaks me out thinking about it.
 
Blue_Runner said:
Around here copperhead snakes and black widows are pretty thick too. Years ago when I bought the first v20 I had the motor off to do transom work. I hung the motor on a homemade wooden stand that i made and it was sitting on the edge of the woods. I sold the motor and me and a buddy went to move the stand. I noticed something crawling on it. There were a couple thousand baby black widow spiders crawling on it and their mom was there too! Freaks me out thinking about it.
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carb cleaner will do a number on them
 
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