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I wonder if England being separated by water from the continent helped to prevent spread of ticks there.
I'd think the same about Australia - it didn't even have natural predators, really, being isolated had shielded it from ticks and much other fauna.
I thought that rainforest of Malaysia was full of mosquitos... when you say you didn't get bitten, were you using repellents?
I never use repellents and allergic to them anyway.
There are ticks here and some people do get Lymes disease from them, but it seems limited to some pockets of the country. Probably parts where there are lots of deer and you're mainly at risk if walking through bracken and vegetation like that. There are a few deer around here, but I've never seen a tick and I often walk through the countryside.
I did use insect repellent in Malaysia but not all the time. If there are a lot about I seem to get bitten a bit because I don't always remember to put it on and some aren't deterred anyway.
There are ticks here and some people do get Lymes disease from them, but it seems limited to some pockets of the country. Probably parts where there are lots of deer and you're mainly at risk if walking through bracken and vegetation like that. There are a few deer around here, but I've never seen a tick and I often walk through the countryside.
I did use insect repellent in Malaysia but not all the time. If there are a lot about I seem to get bitten a bit because I don't always remember to put it on and some aren't deterred anyway.
What you said about ticks - I assume you meant England.
If there were a lot of mosquitoes in Malaysian jungle I guess you'd see them hovering around even wearing a repellent...May be there's moderate quantity of mosquitoes there.
Pretty much. If you head up into the mountains and hang out in a marshy area, you will get swarmed by mosquitoes. In the places where people live, they are rarely if ever a problem. I live in Southern California and my sister lives in Spokane; one thing both places have in common is a general lack of insect pests.
When we had a dog, he got a tick maybe twice. I don't know any human around here who has been bitten by a tick.
On the other hand, my brother in New Jersey has had Lyme disease four times.
Yes, in the mountains one really has to find marshy area to find them and in 99% of cases it'd be very mild quantity of them even in marshy areas (nothing remotely comparable to Minnesota, Maine or Siberia). I camp in the Western US mountains all the time and almost never had to zip up tent's fly. Also, normally can sit and cook in the campsite, without fire going, and in the worst case it'd be only few bites, if any, nothing drastic.
In SoCal, some people did catch Lyme, same for SF Bay Area, but it's really few rare patches where one can find ticks - nothing like Eastern US where you literally catch them out of nowhere, pretty much all over the place and this problem growing every year. I've been sleeping, hiking, sitting in the woods without concern for avoiding vegetation or dead wood for decades and never got bitten in CA, even though I don't use repellents. I get to see occasional "dog tick"/Dermacentor but they don't transmit Lyme, and in CA they don't really transmit other human disease, and easy to feel when they crawl (unlike deer tick/Ixodes ticks). The Eastern US, on the other hand, is swarming with Ixodes ticks in the Northern half of it (Lyme + many other things), and Dermacentor carrying Ricksettias in the Southern half and Tularemia too.
I go hiking frequently and I feel like there is barely any here in western Washington. Never felt the need for any kind of bug spray etc. It's such a rare encounter to see them here in my experience. I'm from New England originally and they are terrible there. The whole east coast is terrible and the further south you go the worse it is.
Mosquitoes breed in puddles of shallow water especially where it rains alot. It does not breed in dry weather places.
I camped in Colorado for a long time and haven't been bitten by a single thing. I had seen a few mosquitoes right North of Colorado , in Wyoming - in Yellowstone and in National Forests (but nothing remotely like Northern Midwest or New England, of course). It's dry in Colorado. I was dry in Wyoming too, but not as dry, I guess. I was really swarmed by them in a couple of places in Yellowstone, which I didn't expect as WY is pretty dry state.
I consider "few" mosquitoes is when you can sit on a deck, especially in the evening, or out in your camp (without fire going), and only get none to few bites.
When you get bitten more than just very few times trying to cook outside or sitting - but no swarms - it's "moderate".
And "heavy" is when they're swarming, especially like in Northern Minnesota or Maine - "very heavy"...they fly into the car or bite when you're walking.
I really don't like any biting bugs and I think I'm extra allergic to them.
I suggest you look at Thermacell products, heat activated repellents that create a zone of protection. They are effective against mosquitoes, and other flying/biting insects. Whenever we intend to stay out on the patio later into the evening (SF Bay Area has few mosquitos, but they do come out in the evening), we use these:
I suggest you look at Thermacell products, heat activated repellents that create a zone of protection. They are effective against mosquitoes, and other flying/biting insects. Whenever we intend to stay out on the patio later into the evening (SF Bay Area has few mosquitos, but they do come out in the evening), we use these:
I'm not info using toxic repellents. I just avoid areas infested with bugs. I'm very familiar with Bay Area having lived there for many years, and wasn't bothered by mosquitoes, mostly, there, except the ones that came from garden trays where water was standing. They also spray in some cities for mosquitos (bred for man-made reasons), but camping out in nature there I haven't been bitten a single time.
Dry places, you won't need to worry about mosquitos. Cold places should kill out the rest of them.
That's why I love climates like in much of Colorado, which kill them with heat, cold and aridity and interested in where else there's the same kind of wonderful situation.
I've lived in both the Bay Area and SoCal and don't recall either place being bug-free or mosquito free. Then again, I'm usually the one that gets the majority of mosquito bites when out in a group and I think I even have a DNA test to confirm that one of my genes is responsible for that.
When living in Dallas, I remember being bitten by mosquitos a bit more than in SoCal but for some reason, those mosquito bites seemed to heal very quickly comparatively.
Cities themselves tend to have relatively few mosquitoes in my experience. They're mostly a problem when you wander into areas with standing water or dense unkempt vegetation. But I'm also not too vulnerable to them, after going on a long hike in the woods in June in shorts and no bug spray and getting about 500 bites, I seem to have developed a resistance to histamine?
Anyways, ice cap and desert climates will be fine. But that's probably about it. Dry summer climates should be less bad, but I've still been hit by swarms of mosquitoes in the Mediterranean (although only at night).
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and interested in where else there's the same kind of wonderful situation.
