I use one of those 'mosquito magnets' around my place. Runs on propane to create carbon monoxide and has a chemical attractant 'oxynol'. A small vacuum sucks them up and traps them when they get close enough to the nozzle. There'll be tens of thousands in there when I clean it out. Helps knock down the numbers, but there's an endless supply of the buggers.
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That thing looks damned hard to carry around in the field!!
We use to joke around in the field with newer field hands.?ÿ If a new hand had not yet developed the sun-tempered skin we compared them with 'sacrificial' livestock.?ÿ In lower latitudes someone had read crossing piranha-infested streams involved leading a luckless animal downstream and cutting them to bleed.?ÿ This would draw all the piranha to the ill-fated animal and allow all the others to quickly cross the stream safely.
Our joke was we enjoyed having a "newbie" with us so all the mosquitos and gnats would flock to the 'tender meat' and stay away from the rest of us.?ÿ I don't think it really worked all that well.
Been using one of these 'Thermacells' last few years while out camping and got to say they really work well at keeping the skeeters at bay, but out surveying I'm usually on the move and these work best when I'm just hanging out in one spot.
I was born in Manitoba; we moved to Omaha when I was six...
I've seen hoards of bugs: Black Flies, Horse Flies, House Flies, Gnats, Mosquitos, Chiggers...you name it, mass quantities. I moved to Seattle in September 1990. Flying in, I looked down and saw all that water; lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands and thought; damn, there's going to be a lot of bugs! I started working on Monday and no bugs! I notice some apartments with windows open; no screens! I thought: this is crazy! How can they have the windows open and no screens?
If you get up into the mountains, you might run into a few black flies, and if you work near a wetland, you might see a few mosquitos; but that's it. There is a lot of hornets, so that is a problem. Keep your eyes open; no amount of deet is going to keep them at bay...
The best thing to do is live where there's minimum, annoying insects. But don't tell anyone about Washington State; it's a secret. ??ÿ
