BWCA Year of the Mosquito? Making a comeback ? Boundary Waters Listening Point - General Discussion
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      Year of the Mosquito? Making a comeback ?     

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05/07/2011 09:48PM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
Been looking recently while walking in the woods around Mille lacs in north central Minnesota where we have more standing water than in a decade.Look in any puddle and you see hundreds of small wiggly immature mosquitoes swimming. In this area we will have record year class Mosquitoes this year. Just got back from BWCA and had a few large mosquitoes already out and seen a few larvae in puddles. Ely area has more standing water than recent years,but nothing to the extreme,I still see more water than the last few years when mosquitoes been non existent,this year the BWCA should be worst than the past few years. Do many of you use deet and what concentration and do you have the full length mosquitoes jacket?(just bought one last year and it is great). My worst mosquito nightmare was on Cairn lake and we were camped on a Island and at high noon with a strong wind you had to take cover in the tent. Strange as it was we get up to Kawnipi which has a lot of swamp areas and mosquitoes were rare.Everybody I think must have areas they avoid at certain times of year to avoid bloodsucking creatures? The other creature black flies I know my brother got a fever from being bite too much.
 
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Savage Voyageur
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05/07/2011 10:19PM  
I use 100% deet on my clothes along with permethrin. I then spray with deep woods off on any exposed skin. They still find me tasty.
 
Frenchy
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05/08/2011 05:41AM  
I think the mosquitos get toegether and plot their strategy for the year. They want to get the biggest bite for their buck. I agree that 100% DEET is the way to go.
 
05/08/2011 06:43AM  
Permethrin for ticks, deet for mosquitoes.
 
DeterminedOrange
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05/08/2011 12:09PM  
PT, I hope your theory on the mosquitoes levels this year is incorrect.

We use 100% DEET but what works best is to stay covered up. We bought the Original Bug Shirts at copia this year and it might be just in time!
 
Divainthewild
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05/08/2011 12:25PM  
I feel sorry for my ankles. I got sympathy pains already.
 
05/08/2011 03:15PM  
Like I said around home I have not seen this many mosquito larvae wigglers in years. The BWCA(at least the west side)looks more like a normal year in wetness now.We will survive. I wonder if the bugs get a cut in all the money spent on deet and bug shirts. Like I said earlier I use to laugh at bug shirts but now I like the new ones.I even giggled when I went by somebody who had a face net on. I use to be Macho Man and did not use even deet-still don't use it alot, but definitely have it handy now.I suppose we have somebody on this board who says mosquitoes don't bite them(the old vitamin B theory?). I know they say wearing certain colors is worst. The thing is just like the weather things can change very easy. Like we get a dry spell etc. or very hot weather.
 
ccaz
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05/08/2011 03:50PM  
Same here north of twin cities. Gotta say I used a head net a couple of times and found it indispensable. lost mine last year and will get a new one for my June trip
 
bapabear
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05/08/2011 06:05PM  
 
05/08/2011 06:26PM  
Do those disks come in a 1000 round belt? You'll need it for the mosquitoes up north.
 
MatthewA
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05/08/2011 07:49PM  
I work outdoors all year. I live in the Brainerd area and agree with Pinetree about the standing water. Not looking forward to the buggy season. That being said, I have found that for me 3M Ultrathon works best for me.
 
Mattbrome
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05/08/2011 09:51PM  
I don't have any bug shirts. I bring a cheap net stuffed in the side of my pack every year, but in the 25+ trips I'ce been on I have only had it out once. I just use DEET at 100% strength. Seems to me it would be crazy to go without it. I will say that I have used the 3M Ultrathon also, and it works great too. My only issue with it was it made my skin a little sticky, but it worked so well I really didn't care.
 
bapabear
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05/08/2011 10:33PM  
I suppose my mid-June trip will be a real bug challenge from what some of you are saying with the standing water and chance for skeeters. I use permethrin on my clothes, use Ultrathon 3M, and bring a head net. I suppose I'll have long sleeves on more if there are hordes of the little blood suckers. What's that product, again, I've heard about where it supposedly clears an area around you from bugs? Do many feel that it's a useful thing to bring along?
 
QueticoMike
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05/09/2011 10:25AM  
The best fishing is when there are a lot of bugs out, because if the bugs are out that means it isn't windy and if it isn't windy up there you can actually get out and catch fish. Just cover your exposed areas, and wear a headnet.
 
05/09/2011 12:04PM  
quote bapabear: " Can I swing this into a gun thread??? "


LOL! those are great, but my dad prefers this!
 
05/09/2011 12:57PM  
I saw a graph somewhere on efficacy of DEET at various levels. Once you get past 35% or so it flattens off pretty good. I use 25% Deep Woods OFF pump as my standard. I also use 3M Ultrathon on skin when they are thick. I have always found this combination to be plenty effective.
 
MatthewA
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05/09/2011 01:56PM  
quote bapabear: "I suppose my mid-June trip will be a real bug challenge from what some of you are saying with the standing water and chance for skeeters. I use permethrin on my clothes, use Ultrathon 3M, and bring a head net. I suppose I'll have long sleeves on more if there are hordes of the little blood suckers. What's that product, again, I've heard about where it supposedly clears an area around you from bugs? Do many feel that it's a useful thing to bring along?"



We call it the Magic Box. Also known as Thermacell. On calm days, it works FABULOUSLY!
 
05/10/2011 08:41PM  
Maybe I need to find my first ex wife. Whenever we went camping, skeeters never bit me but tormented her relentlessly. Then again, her brothers have vowed to kill me on sight, maybe skeeters ain't so bad.
 
Stumpy
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05/10/2011 09:01PM  


What skeeters?
 
QueticoMike
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05/11/2011 07:01AM  
quote Stumpy: "


What skeeters?"


That's classic !!! LOL
 
Stumpy
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05/12/2011 10:33PM  
Gotta keep peace, with the parasites.
 
05/27/2022 05:45PM  
Very-very old thread, but mosquitoes, black flies, and stable flies have not gone extinct yet even tho I did my best swatting them

Also was thinking I am sure like me your tent walls are sometimes splashed with blood-filled mosquitoes that you furnished supper to during the night. Also, I hate it when someone leaves the tent door open.

Your worst site or area for you and your Survival experience. Like I previously mentioned 11 years ago (man, I must be an old-timer, not young like nctry or stumpy) and you all remember that I thought of Cairn lake in Quetico.
Yes bald eagle lake-Island river in the BWCA has a healthy population of mosquitoes.
 
05/27/2022 05:46PM  
Yes, 2022 will go down in history as one of the most abundant crops of mosquitoes -black flies, after drying up the last few years.
 
05/28/2022 09:06PM  
Any 2022 reports if mosquitoes still exist in the BWCA?
 
05/28/2022 09:42PM  
Right now the gnats are in full force! Haven’t seen any mosquitoes…yet!
 
05/28/2022 10:08PM  
egknuti: "Right now the gnats are in full force! Haven’t seen any mosquitoes…yet! "

I think the water was a little cold up there yet. Around home in Brainerd right now they are the worst in years,
 
05/28/2022 10:48PM  
Spraying all clothes with permethrin has been the only thing keeping me sane
I wish I knew why they make a bee line for me. I also have to wear mid height socks sprayed with permethrin to ward off chiggers. I had a professor that told us diphenhydramine cream didn't work and am pretty upset it took me so long to figure out how fast it stops the itching from bug bites. Maybe it doesn't affect histamine in the skin, but it does work to lessen itching from chigger and mosquito bites.
 
06/07/2022 09:07PM  
I sometimes wonder with all the blackflies and mosquitoes this year, throw-in, and a few ticks you wonder if we campers have enough blood to donate to them. I don't think they care what blood type you have, be it A or B or other.

I know a little further south in the Mille lacs area. We have at least a decade record for an abundance of mosquitoes.
 
06/08/2022 11:15AM  
We went from no mosquitos to billions overnight and we live on a rocky hill in Duluth. I can’t imagine what the numbers are like in the rest of the state
 
TuscaroraBorealis
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06/08/2022 11:47AM  
 
Minnesotian
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06/08/2022 12:04PM  

Just spent a week on Rainy Lake outside of International Falls doing some flood mitigation. We watched as the mosquito hatch hit and then doubled everyday. By Sunday night they were in the pattern of being thick a half hour before sunset to a half hour after sunset. Much time was spent in screened porches.

Based off the standing, pooling water in the northland that I saw this last week, we are in for a hell of a mosquito season this year. I'm sure the bats and nighthawks will appreciate it.
 
airmorse
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06/08/2022 12:12PM  
TuscaroraBorealis: " "


That isn't...
 
06/08/2022 01:00PM  
TuscaroraBorealis: " "


Och-double ouch. I hate it also when have to drop your pants to go to the bathroom, they really like to zoom in on one's butt.
 
06/13/2022 11:36AM  
Just got out of the BW yesterday after 9 days and I can confirm the bugs are bad, probably an 8/10 if I'm being as objective as possible. Black flies were worse a week ago, but mosquitoes are in full force, all day long. They barely went away when it got cold 2 nights ago, but they were out in the morning. Picaridin works wonders most times, but I found the morning skeeters to be particularly ferocious, still swarming despite being doused in picaridin, until the day heated up and they retreated to the forest edge.

Bring your head net...
 
06/13/2022 11:40AM  
Was in my local store and Deet is just flying off the shelves. Mosquitoes in northcentral Minnesota are terrible.
 
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