Not sure what type of critter it is, I know it's not mosquitoes, but something is eating us alive on our back porch. I have tried spraying the yard and porch area with the yard sprays from Lowes to no avail, I guess we could just spray off every time we go out but that's a pain in the ass.

Property is grass and borders a fairway up here in NE TX, we do have dogs on both sides but I would have thought if they were fleas we would have them inside by now.

Any ideas what they are and how to kill the bastages off, it really makes enjoying our back yard difficult.

Noseeums, maybe. Little bitty noxious biting gnats. Repellent is your only recourse, in my experience.

My legs look like I've got the measles or chicken pox. They attack me in swarms. Long pants would probably help, but they're not my style.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
Noseeums, maybe. Little bitty noxious biting gnats. Repellent is your only recourse, in my experience.

My thought, too. Nasty critters that seem to appear in waves, sometimes. And like moskeetoes, their bite does not register until after they are gone.

Thermacell.

I've got billions of them things at my place. The good thing is that ours don't bite, they're just annoying as hell when clouds of them show up.

The Thermacell does a great job of keeping the bugs away.

If it's fleas you'll usually get more bites under clothing, as opposed to a lot of bites only on exposed skin, which means probably mosquitoes or biting gnats. Chiggers mostly bite the legs and ankles, and one bite can be incredibly itchy for days, in my experience.

You might try daubing campho-phenique on the bites. That gives me some relief for the itching.

sounds like no see ums....we had them at my first unit...I would routinely walk over to the boat and get a handful of diesel and smear it all over my arms to keep them away....

other guys used Skin So Soft..but the gnats just drowned int he oil on them....

the military DEET would keep them away but I found the diesel or bilge slop would repel them too...

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
You might try daubing campho-phenique on the bites. That gives me some relief for the itching.

Hydrocortisone cream works well for me.

If I don't douse my lower legs with DEET when I go to our gun club I get some bites that are very itchy / irritated shortly after. Pretty sure that they're fire ants, although I haven't actually seen them. Sneaky bastages.

we use these... https://www.amazon.com/Dynatra...iginal/dp/B000H68U9K

we have a lot of ivy in our back yard, a creek, and a lot of shade, so mosquitoes are a big problem. we still have skeeters but typically not within 30' or so of our Dynatraps.

It is not a zapper. It is just a UVF light, CO2 emitter, and a fan that sucks bugs into a little trap until they die. It makes no noise and emits no smell. You have to empty it every 4-6 months which is very easy.

It would probably work well on gnats, but we don't have them this far north in Ga.

Time for a screened in porch?

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
Noseeums, maybe. Little bitty noxious biting gnats. Repellent is your only recourse, in my experience.

Their anatomy consists of wings and teeth only.

Permethrin - cheap & kills just about any insect & is about the safest insecticide.
It's about $20/gallon in concentrate. Spray the porch, doorways, landscaping & yard close by.

then use something with the highest DEET % you can find.

Put a decent powered fan out there.

They are weak fliers and can't overcome a windy breeze.

"Pull out the fan

Use an electric fan while you're outside as mosquitoes aren’t powerful enough to fight the air current, Joe Conlon of the American Mosquito Control Association said. Plus, fans disperse the odor trails that mosquitoes follow to reach you and your guests."



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Mosquitos love me but when I'm smoking a cigar they don't come near me

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
sounds like no see ums....we had them at my first unit...I would routinely walk over to the boat and get a handful of diesel and smear it all over my arms to keep them away....

other guys used Skin So Soft..but the gnats just drowned int he oil on them....

the military DEET would keep them away but I found the diesel or bilge slop would repel them too...

Something a lot nicer is to simply attach a Bounce sheet to your shirt. Wife puts it on the back of my shirt with a safety pin.

Keeps the bugs away! Really works, too.

Had a confirmation from a VA state game officer. He agreed and said that he always used them when not in uniform. Some regulation prevented him from using it.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
You might try daubing campho-phenique on the bites. That gives me some relief for the itching.

Hydrocortisone cream works well for me.

If I don't douse my lower legs with DEET when I go to our gun club I get some bites that are very itchy / irritated shortly after. Pretty sure that they're fire ants, although I haven't actually seen them. Sneaky bastages.

If fire ants are equal to the red ants we have around here, there is no delay between the bite/sting and the pain.

I use AftaBite on bites.
Any repellent with DEET works well to keep the nasties away.

We have them here, outside of man made things, the best bug killers are bats, they eat a ton of the skeeters, noseeums etc., we have some that moved into the natural area close by, since then, we no see um no seeums...

Or go big time with a propane powered bug killer.. These are used to clear larger areas
of skeeters etc...

http://propanemosquitotrap.com/

I hate DEET.

Picaridin is where it's at.