Latestarter's ramblings/musings/gripes and grumbles.

[greybeard]

I have 3 really good bug zappers on my front porch. Between sundown and about 11pm, it sounds like Dr Frankenstein's castle out there...we kill thousands of 'em every night...all kinds of flying bugs. We have to get the leaf blower and clean the zappers out about every 3rd day.

The bugs torment my wife on the porch, but never bother me a bit sitting right next to her.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

I get eaten alive! It was even worse each time I was pregnant.

 

[RollingAcres]

I have noticed, that some people are more prone to attracting flying insects than others.

That's me, every time.

 

[greybeard]

Sometimes, it's just a case of unique & natural body odors (everyone has different subtle odors we can't/don't notice) that attract them, sometimes it's cologne, bath soap and laundry detergent residue, perfume, even anti antiperspirant, hair and beauty aids that attract them more to one person than another. Carbon dioxide exhaled has a lot to do with it as well. The man made 'attractant' Octenol that bug zappers use nowadays mimics C02, which attracts mosquitoes, but deer flies and horseflies have very good eyesight and mostly just use vision to locate their victims. Octenol is sometimes referred to as 'cow's breath'.

Blood type also plays into the formula. Biting insects seem to prefer type O blood and somehow the insects can detect it even before biting in.
Pregnant women are more prone to be bitten in the later stages of pregnancy than non-pregnant people but that's because they breath in and out more, pushing out a lot more C02.

Some research says that sweat attracts them more than non-sweaty people, but I haven't found that to be the case personally..I don't get bitten any more often when hot and sweaty than when not sweating.

 

[RollingAcres]

GB you're a wealth of information! I always feel smarter after reading your post (that's a compliment, not sarcasm).

 

[Mini Horses]

GB you're a wealth of information! I always feel smarter after reading your post (that's a compliment, not sarcasm).

2X!! I've said before "walking encyclopedia" -- it's GREAT! And apparently his stink isn't desired stink...….for bugs, anyway.

 

[Latestarter]

If only 1/2 of this actually happens, I'll be thrilled! Bring on that rain!

 

[greybeard]

2X!! I've said before "walking encyclopedia" -- it's GREAT!

Well, I read and research a LOT and because I grew up in a home that my father had a big auto shop beside it, myself and all 3 of my siblings worked in it and I developed early on, the urge (obsession?) to not only know what will work but how and more importantly 'why' something works..or doesn't work, and for whatever reason, I'm just one of those people that has a seemingly insatiable thirst for knowledge regarding all things and thus far in my old life, have been blessed with good memory.

If I read something and am not familiar with a word, process, practice or phrase, I simply 'have' to find out what it is even if I have no real use for it in my own life.

With all this trivia I have floating around, I sometimes think I am the very model of a modern major general but I'll leave it to the reader to discern what that italicized phrase means and from where it is derived, but to dispel that notion, I do try to post sources for things I post here and anywhere on the web.

 

[Mike CHS]

I hope you get some of that rain.

 

[greybeard]

light rain here, and the sky has that low altitude tropical look to it. Just light rain thus far with cloud cover coming in from ESE.