Birding and Nuisance Insects (1 Viewer)

"Malky, I was just curious as to how one "does not breathe out carbon dioxide"? This, I assumed, was an impossibility for a respirating human being."

Exactly. If you breathe, then you will have problems. And it's not only humans. The ringers who do the birds in upper latitudes, Russia and elsewhere, will tell you about the clouds of Mossies around the beaks of sitting birds.
Also, the Lactic acid on our skin is the added attraction.
Bananas eaten, just happen to augment the attraction.

Best regards as always

Malky.

Ps, the Austrain paper was called, "Breath-by-breath analysis of banana aroma by proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry."
Dagmar Mayr, Tilman Mark, Werner Lindinger, Hugues Brevard, Chahan Yeretzian.

Larry Lade said:

I believe our northern tier of states, Canada, Alaska and possibly the Arctic region might perhaps be the worse place for people to be in the summer months due to the insect populations.

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Lapland (Kola Peninsula + Finnish, Swedish & Norwegian North) is known a place to avoid in June-July. I've followed that order, so my worst encounter with Culicidae takes place in Cajun wetlands. After dark, do not take 200 km rides on a car there - somewhere in the middle You have to step out to clean the windscreen, and bingo - they have got you :eek!: Amazingly, on my Thai trip I found them to be rarities.

I use Off repellents in Finland, have found them good for two hours (especially the Finnish tar-flavoured brand). Years ago I bought wristwatch-looking electronic repeller from USA. It was to scare away mosquitos with "dragonfly buzz" or "male mosquito whine" (?!), creating a three-meter "skeeto-free" area. As I had thought, it had no effect on "skeetos" whatsoever.

A Finnish specialty is Lipoptena cervi, a close relative to Ornithomyia flies, that are familiar to bird banders. During autumn these flies hover in our forests, looking for Alces alces, and landing on any large dark animals, like humans. They immediately drop their wings and crawl into hair or under clothes. Only rarely they stick people, but they are a jolly nuisance, as they can hide a week in the clothes and are extremely hard to kill. They are repellent-tolerant, and due to their flat & hard appearance, slappng won't do - you have to cut them between your nails. Light-coloured (orange, yellow & white) clothes do not attract them, but with other colours there will be constant popping of Lipoptena in your back. Lipoptena has been spreading westwards, reaching Finnish west coast about ten years ago.

I am less prone to being eaten alive since I had to take antihistamine permanently, due to dangerous reaction to stings and bites, but since being on this permanent medication I have very rarely been either bitten or stung, so there is something in the be prepared lark! I had heard the Tee Tree oil was pretty good too, either before or after, but one thing I heard was guranteed to keep them at bay... urine, rub it all over exposed areas and allow to dry, sounds awful to me, but they do say it really works! I think I'll decline the trials though!