Heading out to AZ

[ttpadilla]

I'm surrounded by Juniper, and I haven't either, but I think it's because it's so damn cold here in the Spring. Bob said in Spring at a certain temperature, so maybe that's the difference. Another difference could be the species (?) of Juniper? The ones in the video were kind of short and sprawly, and the ones in Central Oregon tend to grow a little more vertically.

More importantly, why have I never encountered these old gin camps?! I hike!

 

[akrvbob]

I'm at 5200 feet in the Junipers and it's too early for them to be out, and I think you are higher than I am, so they aren't out yet. It will be another 2-3 weeks at least. At lower elevations they come out earlier. 

Here is an interesting page about them, oddly enough the site is about ear health but he is talking about midges attacking the ears:
http://hearinghealthmatters.org/waynesworld/2011/my-battle-with-the-ear-no-see-ums-and-textbooks/

Some quotes from the page that exactly match my experience and the experience of all my friends in the Junipers:

[font=Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif]And, if you have ventured in my area at the right time of the year and have been in the juniper tree areas, you would know exactly what I’m talking about – where you are bombarded by little “midges”, “cedar gnats”, or “no-see-ums”, whatever you want to call them. These very small insects make their appearance here at that time of the year, with favorite targets being the ears, in the hair on the scalp, and ankles, driving you crazy. And when these little buggers bite, their evil little wounds itch worse than mosquito bites. In reality, the no-see-um IS the State bird of Utah[/font]


[font=Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif][font=Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif]No-see-ums can surprise you because their bite is completely out of proportion to their tiny size—which is less than 1/8 of an inch long – hence the name, no-see-ums. Like mosquitoes, only the female bites because she needs a blood meal to produce eggs. Unlike mosquitoes, no-see-ums don’t puncture the skin. They cut it open with their scissor-like mandibles. Then they squirt a chemical on the open wound to prevent clotting. Finally they suck up the resulting pool of blood through their proboscis, a straw-like structure near their mouth (Figure 2). Think of no-see-ums as miniature blenders making a smoothie out of you! And they always seem to attack the ears (where mosquitoes almost never bite), and their bites itch like crazy.[/font]
[/font]


This is from that page to give you an idea of the size of the things. 

 
It's easy to blow this of as an exaggeration, once you've experienced it though, you'll know it's worse than I'm letting on.
Bob

 

[ttpadilla]

 
It's easy to blow this of as an exaggeration, once you've experienced it though, you'll know it's worse than I'm letting on.
Bob

That's fairly horrifying, Bob. I've been warned of No-seeums at the campground where I'm hosting this summer. I certainly hope they are of a different, non-nightmare-inducing, species.

 

[offroad]

The south has the no-see-um versions during certain seasons. Had to create some mosquito traps and place them inside the house to stop them. Basically a two liter plastic bottle with yeast in a sugar water. Yeast makes carbon dioxide like your breath and attracts the bugs to a trap. Look up variations on YouTube. It works.

 

[gypsychic]

Maybe we could split this off to another thread about dealing with insects for trying to refer back to this info in the future, please mods?

Someone mentioned in another thread about using lemon juice. Since I love the smell of lemons I'll try that out. Probably not very strong but I'm really sensitive to sprays & such. Another thought is citronella essential oil in a carrier oil. I have a feeling I'll be dealing with them like Bob does, leave the area.

Biting bugs love me and I detest them. Luckily where I'm at now I haven't encountered them much, if at all.