Real Facts!!!

As a lad in Minnesota (Land Of 10,000 Lakes and over a gazillion mosquitos per square mile in summer) the mosquitos were so big they had to fly landing patterns at the airport with the 747 airliners. ;)

We had some wet ground about a 1/4 mile from our house. In the evening as the air cooled down a bit, you could sit on the porch and hear the faint hum as they roused themselves.

Q: How many mosquitos does it take to make an audible hum across a quarter-mile distance??
A: A **LOT**!!!!

p.s. I enjoy the Snapple-facts, whether true or not. Any way to get a little education into the kids, even if it's a sneak attack they don't recognize. The bottle cap facts beat the heck out of inane promotional contest drivel like "Sorry, you don't win the free Hummer and island vacation home. Thank you for buying our over-priced product. Please buy more."
 
Alberta Ed said:
That's nuthin'... here in the Yukon we use 'em to drill shallow wells. You just stake out a tourist when they first arrive and are still nice and pale, to show up well against the tundra. A skeeter will dive bomb the hapless target and drive its beak right through the tourist deep into the soil ('less you hit permafrost, of course). Then you simply chainsaw off its beak, heave the tourist off the stob, attach a pump and you're in bizness. :D
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"hallow wells" - "shallow wells"! :rolleyes:

Guess you never heard why Journey to the Center of the Earth was filmed in Texas. They saved $$millions on their budget. Only had to pay for five DUCKS as bait. The volcanic problems did bother the insurance types somewhat, but who wants to live just south of Amarillo anyway? They don't even sell Snapple there.
 
The skeeters are so F***ing tough around here you can shoot them with a shotgun and they throw the buckshot back at you.1,000s of em laughing at you.Little punks. :barf: :thumbdn: :grumpy:
 
savagesicslayer said:
The skeeters are so F***ing tough around here you can shoot them with a shotgun and they throw the buckshot back at you.1,000s of em laughing at you.Little punks. :barf: :thumbdn: :grumpy:
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Yah, I heard they were "little" up in Canada. Send 'em down to Texas to build 'em up to adult size. Then you got sumthin'
 
Thomas Linton said:
Yah, I heard they were "little" up in Canada. Send 'em down to Texas to build 'em up to adult size. Then you got sumthin'
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LOL What they lack in size they more than make up for in enthusiasm. :p
 
ah, skeeters... provincial bird of saskatchewan.... and yes I can get post cards to prove that :p

nothing like walking out of your tent and hitting a black swarm on the morning prowl... You think ants are bad for covering thier prey :eek::eek:

The black ones are tame compared to the brown ones... now those suckers bite hard. Can actually feel them going in. Just waiting for one to take off with the neighbours dogs.
 
Real Fact #133:
Honeybees navigate by using the sun as a compass.
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Bees have survived many-year periods of complete darkness, after major asteroid impacts and mega-volcanoes have totally blackened the sky with particulate matter. So, while they may navigate by the sun when available, they apparently are also able to navigate without it.

Real Fact #182:
A rainbow can only be seen in the morning or late afternoon.
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Rainbows can be seen at ~30 degrees from the antisolar point. So, since this is a wilderness forum, it's worth noting that you can see rainbows closer to midday, if you are on high on a mountain, and looking downward.

--Mike
 
True story. Visited Fort Pulaski years ago. It is located in swampy country near the Georgia coast. There was a pile of bricks near the exit from the Visitor's Center. I asked a nearby Ranger if there was construction going on. She replied, "Why No, Sah. We require small children to carry a brick in each hand -- otherwise, the skeeters just carry them away and we nevah see them again."
 
Evolute said:
. So, while they may navigate by the sun when available, they apparently are also able to navigate without it.
--Mike
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There has been some physiological work with that. They can navigate with much cloud cover as well. Turns out there is a little bit of iron in their heads that they can use as an internal "compass" to forage. There was an interesting experiment where they took a hive of bees and flew them (overnight while they were sleeping, no joke) to another country up north and they went exactly the opposite direction. (I think, I have to go look at my notes again to get the whole story, but I think that was the rough idea)


oooooo now I have a reason for iron pills.... internal compass? All mine directs me to is more knives to buy. so much for navigating :rolleyes:
 
When I was still in college, I would get a snapple almost every day. I loved reading those facts. They used to have them all at snapple.com, but now I only see a little game you can play where they give you two "facts" and you have to spot the not. I didn't play it, but the game is here They claim that all of the facts are "A-1 certified", but I agree that the one about the mosquito teeth isn't entirely accurate. Here's a few that I remember from a couple years ago:

-A solid glass ball will bounce higher than a solid rubber ball
-In a lifetime, a person will eat, on average, 8 spiders while sleeping
-Flamingos get their pink color from eating shrimp

Those are some that I found to be interesting, so they stuck with me. I never bothered to look them up to see if they were true.

--AaronA
 
Actually, elephants can swim much farther than that, and many of them go on long swims frequently, particularly from the mainland Ivory Coast to islands along the Ivory Coast.

--Mike
 
Yall must have some small skeeters round if ya only use buckshot on em.Round here we use deer slugs. :D
 
I am glad elephants swim and not fly :eek:

In the North Dakota the small skeeters drag ya behinde the tree so the big ones can feed on ya.
 
Tony Turner said:
I am glad elephants swim and not fly :eek:

In the North Dakota the small skeeters drag ya behinde the tree so the big ones can feed on ya.
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These two threads are rapidly merging. So let's get to it: who here has mosquitos the size of elephants? And can swim 20 miles a day?
 
HA...You ROOKIES,don't have a clue to BIG SKITTERS!! Go to ALASKA,"then"you can see what "BIG SKITTERS"look like!!:D
Jim
 
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