South Texas Mosquitoes are preventing my pipe smoking

thesmokingtexan

Can't Leave

Jul 11, 2014

343

1

• Sep 20, 2014

• #1

It has been raining down here in south Texas for a week and a half and the resulting swarm of mosquitoes are preventing from being outside long enough to smoke my pipe. I guess I shouldn't complain since we need the rain. On a plus side my grass is looking real nice.

 

apiperisdown

Starting to Get Obsessed

Jan 28, 2014

114

2

• Sep 20, 2014

• #2

On a plus side my grass is looking real nice.

Click to expand...

…yeah but it’s 2 feet tall by now.

 

anthonyrosenthal74

Lifer

Jan 8, 2013

7,493

733

• Sep 20, 2014

• #3

for those of you not in Texas.... you have to understand the mosquitoes here are about the size of a pterodactyl 8O

 

papipeguy

Lifer

Jul 31, 2010

15,778

35

Bethlehem, Pa.

• Sep 20, 2014

• #4

I've been there. Those things have "N" numbers on their wings.

 

ravkesef

Lifer

Aug 10, 2010

2,928

9,570

82

Cheshire, CT

• Sep 20, 2014

• #5

it's the state bird

 

jimbo69

Might Stick Around

Jun 21, 2014

84

2

• Sep 20, 2014

• #6

They haven't been that bad in the DFW area where I am, thankfully, though I wish we had the rain. I've spent a small fortune in citronella candles the past few months though. :|

 

thesmokingtexan

Can't Leave

Jul 11, 2014

343

1

• Sep 20, 2014

• #7

I mowed the grass Friday in 90 degree weather in pants and a jacket just to keep them from biting. After a hour and a half of riding the mower through 4 foot tall grass my hands were red swollen burning and bloody from mosquito bites and slapping the little pests. My hands throbbed for about thirty minutes. There was a crazy swarm coming out of the grass on each new pass. Ussally riding my zero turn bad boy is the highlight of my week but this time it was miserable but I had to get it done while it wasn't raining.

 

warren

Lifer

Sep 13, 2013

11,733

16,332

Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK

• Sep 20, 2014

• #8

So, you have the second largest mosquitoes in the US. Seems only fitting. :nana:
Ours tend to stay withing 6 or 7 feet of the ground. I can find refuge up on my deck when the blood suckers show up in May. I'm pretty well surrounded by wet lands so I have to learn to tolerate them for five months of the year. I'm surprised that your pipe doesn't keep them at bay. When I'm out shooting water birds I always have something going, pipe cigarette or cigar. Oh! And a "Deet" shower before exiting the house.

 

thesmokingtexan

Can't Leave

Jul 11, 2014

343

1

• Sep 21, 2014

• #9

Yes opening weekend on dove season and I didn't both going out. That's all right cause I got plenty during the last two weekends which was the special season for the south zone of Texas. I do believe you are mistaken though. We do have the biggest blood suckers. You know everything is bigger in Texas. 8)

 

warren

Lifer

Sep 13, 2013

11,733

16,332

Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK

• Sep 21, 2014

• #10

Alaska skeeters are pretty big, especially the first hatch. I've only seen the Texas ones around San Antonio. Perhaps they are bigger closer to the border. Illegals perhaps?
OH! And our mountains are certainly much bigger than those wee hills scattered around Texas.
In the interest of camaraderie I will concede the point until we can hear from an entomologist with the definitive answer.
No matter how this is decided you have my sympathies.
And a totally irrelevant observation; what I most admire about Texas is that it was smart enough that, when being invited to join the US, the Republic of Texas insisted that a mechanism be put into the compact which allows it to revert back to a republic should Texans decide it necessary. Very wise those early Texicans were.

 

yaddy306

Lifer

Aug 7, 2013

1,372

504

Regina, Canada

• Sep 21, 2014

• #11

@thesmokingtexan, don't let Warren get to ya.
If you're ever fed up with being teased for being the second largest state in the union, you could always join us in Canada and be the sixth largest...

 

danielplainview

Lifer

Mar 30, 2014

2,853

78

wv

• Sep 21, 2014

• #12

Install a window fan in the mancave. Luckily the mosquitos arnt so bad around here.

 

conlejm

Lifer

Mar 22, 2014

1,433

8

• Sep 21, 2014

• #13

I don't envy you guys in Texas and Alaska for dealing with Mosquitos. They were not bad here in NH this summer, probably due to the wicked Winter we had. Lately the mosquitoes are carrying Eastern Equine Encephalitis here in New England, so I am grateful for the reprieve. The ticks were bad this year, though, and Lyme Disease contractions hit a new record. The infamous black flies were not so bad this year - at least not in Southern NH - again, probably due to the harsh winter. I can remember years that the black flies were so bad that the Grand Resorts (The Balsams, Mt. Washington Hotel, etc.) up in the White Mountains would not take reservations in Black Fly Season, rather than risk customers having an absolute miserable time. Nothing can keep the black flies away; all you can do is lather yourself in oil and hope they drown in it.

 

anthonyrosenthal74

Lifer

Jan 8, 2013

7,493

733

• Sep 21, 2014

• #14

 

F

frozenchurchwarden

Lifer

Mar 1, 2014

3,647

4,917

• Sep 21, 2014

• #15

I've done most of my piping for the last few months from inside one of these:

http://www.leevalley.com/US/garden/page.aspx?p=71396&cat=2,40725,45454
I actually prefer not to go outside in the summer, thankfully it's just cold enough now that virtually all the bugs are dead. Winter is my favourite time of year mostly for this reason.

Frost bite is relatively easy to avoid vs. an insatiable swarm of blood sucking insects.

 

crazypipe

Lifer

Sep 23, 2012

3,484

0

• Sep 21, 2014

• #16

 

tobyducote

Lifer

Jun 10, 2012

1,204

3

New Orleans

• Sep 21, 2014

• #17

The mosquitoes in south Louisiana are as big as vultures and more aggressive than a T-Rex....I feel your pain Texan

 

gregprince

Starting to Get Obsessed

Jan 29, 2014

276

0

• Sep 21, 2014

• #18

Possibly because I live in the forest on top of a hill my little corner of northwestern PA has almost no mosquitoes but an abundance of gnats and biting black flies at this time of the year. Like warren observed, they tend to stay near the ground so I spend a lot of time on the second story balconies. I like trailboss' insect jacket, may need to get one for yard work.

 

gamxiaoyuan

Might Stick Around

Sep 12, 2014

80

0

China

• Sep 21, 2014

• #19

In China, we have a special incese that repells mos.

I saw some Chinese grocery stores selling it when I was there.

It helps a little bit.

 

thesmokingtexan

Can't Leave

Jul 11, 2014

343

1

• Sep 22, 2014

• #20

I like the hat with the mosquito screen. My wife would get a kick out of that. I got done cutting all the grass that is around my house and that has helped. It is just that time of year I guess.