Flies, the Invasion

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by BIG CATS

I only see flies when Im out hiking (doesn't matter where). They are a nuisance, that's about it. Mosquitos on the other hand... I have a feeling that after last night's rain that Im gonna have swarms of those little cusses all over the place. ugh

At about 50 degrees mosquitoes shut down for the winter. The rain doesn't just magically bring them; they need to find standing water to lay eggs in and it is too cold by now for that.

[ScottsdaleMark]

I have seen three or four flies in my house over the last week or so, which is quite unusual as we very rarely see any where I live at any time. One of them kept landing on me over and over again, it was driving me nuts. I finally got out the fly swatter and took care of business...they're such harder hunting than mosquitoes because they have such excellent 360-degree vision and can move faster, so it's pretty satisfying when you finally nail one.

[BIG CATS]

Originally Posted by ElleTea

At about 50 degrees mosquitoes shut down for the winter. The rain doesn't just magically bring them; they need to find standing water to lay eggs in and it is too cold by now for that.

Its not too cold yet. Im killing at least one a day in the house, and that included this morning. And yes, rain brings standing water, which encourages egg-laying. Every year after a rainfall, especially when its colder and the water doesn't evaporate fast, we get tons more mosquitos. Why do you always have some strange rebuttal to my posts? Anyways, thanks for playing!

[ScottsdaleMark]

I remember I was way up north one November, snow all over the ground, well below freezing at night, and I'm down by a river and sure enough I see mosquitoes flying around by the water...moving verrry, verrry slowly. I couldn't believe it. Tough little buggers were still trying to hold on, I guess, until the river froze over and they hunkered down for the winter. I wonder if they were "snow mosquitoes" which are one of 32 species of mosquitoes in Alaska alone. LINK to story on AK mosquitoes.

Alaska and Canada every summer are beset by trillions of mosquitoes, it can be just overwhelmingly bad depending on where you're at. And that's despite it being still pretty cool there in the summer, much of the time, often falling well below the stated 50 degrees at night even in the summer.

And yet, here, the mosquitoes do not seem to like our mild, warm winters. I tried to research it but couldn't find any good graphics about the habitat ranges for various mosquito species in America. If anyone has such a thing, please post.

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by BIG CATS

Its not too cold yet. Im killing at least one a day in the house, and that included this morning. And yes, rain brings standing water, which encourages egg-laying. Every year after a rainfall, especially when its colder and the water doesn't evaporate fast, we get tons more mosquitos. Why do you always have some strange rebuttal to my posts? Anyways, thanks for playing!

::shrug:: Mosquitoes like warm water. What fell last night was far from warm.

You should get someone out to check out your bug issue. I haven't seen a mosquito in over 2 years!

[Colt AZ]

Originally Posted by ScottsdaleMark

I have seen three or four flies in my house over the last week or so, which is quite unusual as we very rarely see any where I live at any time. One of them kept landing on me over and over again, it was driving me nuts. I finally got out the fly swatter and took care of business...they're such harder hunting than mosquitoes because they have such excellent 360-degree vision and can move faster, so it's pretty satisfying when you finally nail one.

Swatting flies is one of America's oldest, under-the-radar, extreme sports, Mark. It's one of the beautiful games. People have learned to be quite creative.

[ScottsdaleMark]

Colt, we just need to get some dust-bags like the cattle use and shimmy up against them when the flies get too bothersome.



There are actually some really neat contraptions people have thought up to help get the flies off of livestock. I saw one that was like an entire walk-through device. Check out this bad boy:



Might be overkill for our relatively fly-free area, granted.

[Colt AZ]

Originally Posted by ScottsdaleMark

Colt, we just need to get some dust-bags like the cattle use and shimmy up against them when the flies get too bothersome.



There are actually some really neat contraptions people have thought up to help get the flies off of livestock. I saw one that was like an entire walk-through device. Check out this bad boy:



Might be overkill for our relatively fly-free area, granted.

Yep! First World pest control at its finest!

[LagunaMom]

I've lived in the same house since 1975, and I've NEVER had a problem like this. Funny, but it didn't start until we went to our son's house for Thanksgiving, and he showed us all of them hanging on fly paper. Now we've got fly paper hanging. Maybe they hitched a ride!