Why dont survival/outdoors threads deal with critters very much?

Rsmith_77

Rsmith_77

Joined
Jun 4, 2010
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I live in mississippi, everytime i think about going camping i dont really worry about poisonous snakes or anything like that. What i think about are the chiggers, the ticks, mosquitos (my wife caught west nile virus 5 years ago and it partially paralyzed her from the waist down).

it just seems that if i were to build a shelter, i would wake up the next morning covered in bug bites or worse

in fact, its gotten to the point where if i were to consider camping again, i would seriously consider investing in a hammock just to keep me off the ground, maybe its cause i live in the deep south now but i cant help but wonder if others have come up with a solution to the critter problem (or perhaps live in other parts of the country where critters arent as big a deal)
 
well, i am born and raised in upstate new york
but i am a transport to central mississippi, more than just mosquitos down around here to worry about :/
 
I'm with you on this. Here in Texas if you sleep directly on the ground you are going to get ate up by something. It might be chiggers or ants but it might be a 400 lb hog too. sleeping on the ground sucks..I go with an ultra lite hammock. Part of my EDC/BOB every single day. Having been stuck,stranded by high water,and even just too damn lazy to walk back out more than once I can attest to that 16 ozs being well worth carrying. :)
 
Here the forests are infested with ticks. Risk of Lyme disease and Tick-borne meningoencephalitis is very real. Forget everything about hiking through tall grass/shrub. You'll come out on the other side covered in ticks. Its so bad, that i avoid straying off the beaten trails during the summer months.

Another problem are the mosquitoes, that thrive in the still-standing air of the forest.Their presence is unbearable :mad:
 
In AZ, forget about outside, all sorts of poisonous nasties can be found inside the house! And that is why (IMO) 24x7 flashlight carry is a must in these parts. Nearly stepped on a bark scorpion twice last week!

No ticks, thankfully (well, no grass), but West Nile is alive and well.
 
I live down here in GA now, but I've lived all over minus the northeast. During the spring and summer, there are a lot of creepy crawlies and sleeping on the open ground can be an adventure in itself. During the fall and winter, it's not too bad, but that just means you need to adjust your camping methods. I have invested in hammocks and it's my (and the family’s) choice of shelter when backpacking/camping. Another thing to consider is permethrin treated clothes. This time of year, I'll buy a few cans and treat my most common hiking clothes.

Dealing with insects is just part of the adventure. I have moderate "arachnophobia", but deal with them all the time around the house and barn at this time of year. Wolf spiders are all over (cool reflection from their eyes at night) right now; any shoes or boots left outside for more than a few days will inevitably have a black widow in them...you just have to learn to deal with them.

The good news is a hammock gets you off the ground, gives your 360 protection from insects and is cooler to sleep in when it's hot and muggy...I actually sleep better in my hammock than in my bed!

Another ironic aspect is that I will often wear Chaco sandals around the house, hiking and even backpacking. In a "Cody Lundin" sort of way, you do get a little more conscious of where you step and you slow down a little to avoid potential injury. A little precaution goes a long way and the more you spend outdoors, the more you learn to avoid the bad nasties, deal with some of the annoying ones and ignore the majority of them.

I remember canoe trips to Canada and the mosquito swarms that would keep you in the smoke of a fire or tent for relief, but you just lean how to avoid as best you can and deal with them. With the mention of scorpions, I remember inspecting a large circus tent my Soldiers were going to sleep in when we arrived in Egypt for a major exercise. The entire floor was covered in carpets and I lifted one up and my flashlight discovered close to a 100 scorpions...we found another tent, but I'm doubt it was scorpion free...you just learn to pay a little more attention and check your boots:D

This is a timely post as the cicadas are back from their 13-year slumber and there are several people new to the South that have never experienced them and they get a little spooked by their behavior. My wife said a teacher freaked out when a school girl pulled a cicada from her hair!

ROCK6
 
A month in Camp Bullis proved to me that Deet is just inadequate

for those that dont know, Camp Bullis is an army base about 1 1/2-2 hours south of san antonio that the air force uses for "field traning"
remember we were issued deet, slept in tents, kept our blousing straps on and most of us still came away with chigger bites, mosquito bites, i actually got stung by a scorpion** in my sleep and another trainee was bitten by a brown recluse...

**i should specify that the medics THINK it was a scorpion sting, apparently there is a variety of scorpion in texas whose venom is only about as bad as being stung twice, i didnt wake up and it didnt hurt, just woke up with a bump on my finger and it was sore the next morning heh
 
Same in Missouri. I sleep in a tent or I use a cot. Sleep on the ground and for the next two weeks Ill be digging at chigger bites. Its miserable. I use Deep Woods Off also.
 
it sounds crazy but this stuff isnt half bad as bug repelant, it smells alittle funny, i use the body wash in the shower and the lotion after, i used to have to go around the swamps and such here in FL for work, and i like to hike and fish, this stoped me from getting bit by mesquitos and have yet to have another tick or sand flea or really any bug problem in the woods

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my girlfriends mother was selling avon for awhile lol
 
I've toyed with the idea of a makeshift shelter for camping(tarps and what-not), but after seeing the way my tent is crawling with critters in the morning, I can't imagine spending a summer night outside without being completely encapsulated in nylon and mesh. It was a real wet spring, so there should be a bumper crop of skeeters this summer.

When on our honeymoon in St. Maarten, we decided to spend the first night with the walls open(sliding glass doors that slid into pockets exposing a westerly view of the great bay and killer sunsets). The owner said mesquitos weren't a problem. We woke up to little blood spots all over the sheets from rolling over onto the skeeters that had been gorging themselves on us all night. I'll go get the caladryll.
 
I grew up moving around south and central MS, and south and central AL. The OP gave me a 30yr flashback to Scouts. We used to make lean-tos and similar shelters to sleep in, sometimes. We went somewhere down on the Natchez Trace on an outing, and some of us got the brilliant idea to use Spanish moss in our shelters for beds instead of leaves. Oh. My. Gosh. Talk about getting ate up with chiggers...

Ticks were horrible here last year. So bad I'm about to get some permethrin for my pants and socks, and will sometimes be wearing shoes with gaiters and long pants instead of shorts and sandals this year.
Gonna get a hammock with mosquito netting, too, rather than use my bivy and a pad all summer. I see people talk about sleeping under a tarp in the summer..well, they can have that. Might be ok where they are, and even here, depending, but some places you're likely to wake up covered in any combination of ants, ticks, gnats, spiders, and mosquitoes, and snuggling with Mr. No Shoulders. I'll take some netting, thanks.

badJuJoo,
My grandparents swore by Skin So Soft, and that's all they used while fishing. Didn't know it kept ticks off, just that it worked on mosquitoes.
 
Where I live now, if I as much as step outside I could get a tick on me. Forget the mosquitoes, I take about 50 steps out back they could carry me away. Nothing seems to help with the ticks.. the mosquitoes I can deal with now, but the ticks I worry about dragging in the house. The only way to be sure not to do that is strip down and take a shower outside and then go inside and take another shower..
 
I don't pay as much attention to ticks when I'm out as I do at home. If I get one on me when I'm out I'm very “so what, where are the forceps” about it. I don't like them in mah bed though and that is all to easy when they can drop off mah dog anywhere. The one I found in mah bed that alerted me to the difference I hanged. I actually made a little all Neo-Bushcraft gibbet of lashed twigs, bum's rushed the brute outside, and strung it up by a thread as a good example / horrible warning to its friends. In fact, I posted a picture of the offender dangling from it here a couple of years back. Skeeters are just part of life and if they make it through the DEET, or headnet when there's a lot of of them, then that's just a cost of doing something I enjoy. Perhaps I'm well primed to hold an extreme view on this because of where I live but I make no exception for the mosquito. It hacks me off no end that historically my countrymen have murdered-up everything that scares them or makes the outdoors tough for them from wolves and bears to birds of prey. If I had a button on my desk I could press to make every mosquito magically disappear from the earth I would not press it because I can see no reasonably difference, only my whim. Midges are a different can of worms entirely. There might be places on earth that match the Scottish midge for tuning a person into a thrashing and flailing lunatic but I doubt anywhere exceeds it or them. I got caught in the wrong season once and never again. Not without a full on bug jacket. Without that the best approach is to get a tent, fill it full of poison, wait ten mins, get in, and don't come out 'till morning. Failing that some refinement of the prototype burqa dipped in permethrin is required. Far and away though the biggest menace to me has been horse flies. I react badly to those for some reason. It's my own fault 'cos I don't usually DEET my hands as I intensely dislike even the smallest taste of DEET. Twice I've been bitten on the hand only to have it swell up like an inflated washing up glove by the next morning. I felt sorry for the mother of mah woman; she took one it the head and it did the same thing to her face, sticker her in the hospital.
 
hehe i got an idea

set up a hammock, complete with mosquito netting INSIDE a tent...yeah that should do it...

yeah...stoopid bugs hehe
 
Where I go backpacking ticks and mosquitos aren't really that prevalent.

Where I LIVE my woods are full of them and I just pulled a tick out of my ear last week and the whole side of my face was itching. I have sort of an allergic reaction to tick anticoagulent. Leeches really get to me too. Leech saliva makes my eyes itch, I sneeze and my sinuses close off and the site takes a long time to heal!

The good news is Lyme is very rare here and deer ticks are too.:thumbup:
 
Ticks are an issue Here.. and sometimes ants.. that being said.. I;ve slept in many a primitive shelter without too much of a hassle..I do sometimes think about getting a hammock though.
 
OwenM said:
Ticks were horrible here last year. So bad I'm about to get some permethrin for my pants and socks, and will sometimes be wearing shoes with gaiters and long pants instead of shorts and sandals this year.
Click to expand...

ROCK6 said:
Another thing to consider is permethrin treated clothes. This time of year, I'll buy a few cans and treat my most common hiking clothes. ROCK6
Click to expand...

Guys, help me out here. I seem to sense a reluctance to use permethrin in both your posts. Any particular reasons?

I have been concerned about ticks and Lyme for quite a long time. In fact in the mid to late '90s I used to get checked for Lyme once a year. Little did I know at that time, the inaccuracies of the Lyme test we use in Canada. One day, my doctor called me and said that there was a newly produced Lyme vaccine and that I should probably get it - I did. Well, I guess everybody knows what happened with that. :(

Anyway, fast forward to the present. The official position up here until recently was that we didn't have Lyme up here, except in a clearly defined area at Lake Erie. In part, I guess, even though New York (our closest neighbour) had their tick problems, ticks didn't have passports. :rolleyes:

That has now changed -veterinarians finding Lyme in local dogs, government handouts warning of Lyme Disease in liquor stores, the realization that deer ticks were being spread near and far by songbirds, etc.

This has concerned me quite a bit. The official defense against Ixodes scapularis (deer ticks) is to tuck your pants in your socks, wear long sleeves and long pants and check yourself over after being outside. Also the use of DEET is recommended (the sale of permethrin for human recreational use in Canada, is not permitted) This is very problematic -

1. I couldn't see a tick on my butt, even if I had good eyesight :( - there's no way of removing the little buggers, if you don't know you have them.
2. As posted above, DEET is not very effective against ticks.

Because of the previous efforts of a couple of BF members, I have information on how to acquire permethrin, which, to me, seems to be the only defense, short of doing all your hikes in your closet. So, that's why I'm interested in your reluctance to use it, if I'm interpreting it correctly.

Doc
 
Its funny, when I read your thread title i thought you meant more people should show or talk about their interactions with critters.
I mostly deal with ticks--- have had bear run-ins and so forth, but two days ago I was laying in a hammock and a 5 foot king snake slithered under me. i pinned its head down with a stick of redwood and picked it up. Not before it secreted a foamy mess of saliva-like slime. I wish I would've gotten a pic, absolutely gorgeous snake. But then I reaized when you're in the moment you forget about taking that pic. I'll get one next time. I've seen plenty of scorpions here in norcal as well. if you take your precautions and know your environment, i still think its safer and more predictable than walking through a tough urban neighborhood. By the way for you tick prone people, i found my hound dog was bringing in most of the ticks that ended up on me, and i'm giving him Frontline, its pretty much 100% killing the buggers- i dont even bother pulling them off anymore.
 
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