Bugs!

It's funny, bugs are one of the first and most often talked (cussed) about topics on fishing and hunting trips when someone visits Alaska.  Yet they seem to be the first thing that is forgotten after the trip is over.  So, the bugs are well worth the trip!!!  <!--emo&--><img src="http://beartoothbullets.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''><!--endemo-->

White sox are little suckers and they don't just bite or sting, they CHEW on you.  They actually make a small sore.  This is usually accompanied by swelling.  Very, very aggravating.  For some reason black flies seem to effect me the worst, I guess I have a reaction to their bite.

The most painful non-injury inflicted (at least to me) is getting stuck by devils club (when the plant is green) in a joint in your hand.  Makes the joint swell and becomes very sore.  Devils club along the Cape Suckling, Kaliakh River and Robinson Mountain area will go through heavy leather gloves is very hard to remove the hooked thorns.

ARRRRGGGGGGgggghhhhhh!

You guys just had to mention them, and now they are out! Big suckers too! Beaks like a Bald Eagle and suction like a dredge pump.

the nicest thing about them is hearing their little bones crack when you grind them under the heel of your boot!

There are a gazillion methods that people swear by to defeat the dang things, but the most effective is 100% DEET. The downside is that the stuff will eat the watch off your wrist, disolve the lenses in your glasses, and peel the paint off anything you touch. What it does to the body when soaked into the skin cannot be good! I use it on cloathing and hats and try to avoid in on my skin.

for application to the skin, I try kinder and gentler things like AVON "Skin so Soft" (works pretty good and is great for my fair hide) and a concoction of Ceder oil that I got from a Traditional Archery supply store.

When sitting on a bear stand I find that the only relief some evenings is a bug net. The nice thing about the net is that it helps strain out the half inch or so of dead skeets that collect in a coffee cup when you fill it.

I have also tried taking Vitaman E tablets (helps some) or Garlic pills (helps even more but interfears with my love life) a few weeks prior to a trip.

the best thing about the MooseQuitos is that they help get the tolerence for pain up for when the No-See-Ums come out. Them dang things raise a welt on me like a Horsefly bite (Benedryll helps the itching some) and they can fly through most bug nets without missing a wingbeat. They are attracted to blood and the only way to tolerate skinning a critter when they are out is with rubber gloves on and a healthy dose of DEET right around the arms where the glove ends.

Earplugs help drown out the sound of the Kamakazie attacks and keep one from tearing off his cloths and running maddly through the brush till you are overwhelmed by the sheer weight of the hordes and succomb to the long sleep brought on my massive hemorage.

Tis the Season,

Enjoy!

Scotty (slappin and scratchin for the next few months)

Stranger, Coldfingers is right that those suckers are out in force as we speak.  They seem really bad in Girdwood this spring.  They typically will make a nuisance of themselves till just after the first snow.  However, I've been mugged by them on the Copper River when there was 6 feet of snow on the ground in December!!!

The worst I have ever experienced was in the Copper River Basin south of Glenallen.  I found a neat little hidden lake near the mud volcanoes that was just filled with trophy Rainbow trout.  The moosequitoes were so bad I couldn't fish.  In your eyes, down your collar, in your ears, up your nose, not one inch of me didn't have 100 or more mosquitoes on it.  I was doused head to toe in 100% Deet, and they didn't care.  Didn't hurt their feelings one bit.  I put a head net and net gloves on and couldn't see because of all the mosquitoes on it.  Well, I packed up my gear and left the best fishing spot for trout I have ever seen and haven't been back.  I've been thinking if I'm ever on that side of the ridge again and the wind is blowing a bit, I might just try to get a few Rainbows out of there, but no way I'll step foot on that plateau again without the wind blowing.

"It is very probable that many of Alaska's mosquitoes could whip a wolf.  They are the embodiment of bravery.  I have seen a single mosquito attack a full grown dog.  It has been said that the Alaska mosquitoes differ from others by having a white spot between their eyes about the size of a man's hand.  I know a Colonel who asserts that he met one on the trail, and fortunately for him, the monster was eating a squirrel at the time."
from Trailing and Camping in Alaska by Addison Powell 1909.



<!--EDIT|alyeska338|May 17 2002,17:14-->

Well, sorry to hear you guys are really getting it. If I lived there, I'm sure I'd look like a giant pimple knowing the way I am with bugs. Damned things love me.

Coldfingers,

You have talent man, don't waste it. I know it when I see it. (grin)

Alyeska,

How about setting yourself on fire? Would that help?

LOL

Thanks for cheering me up guys, I needed that.



<!--EDIT|Contender|May 17 2002,22:16-->

Oh man! don't remind me about devils club...bad mojo memories....bad....

as for bugs---bens 100, muskol, and then if that don't work, go someplace there aren't any bugs...

seriously thats all you can do.

as for that #### plant.... I was chased down the side of a mountain by a squatter and his dogs and fell down a slope that was overgrown with that ****... the welts took 3 weeks to heal. I didn't have a gun w/me or I woulda shot his dogs. no lie, that hurt. I was pickin thorns outa me forever. these aren't small thorns either, they can get 1-2 inches long and the plant grows these huge leaves that hide the thorns so if you're not paying attention you'll pay the price. even the underside of the leaves have thorns. there isn't a bare patch of plant where there isn't a thorn except on the tops of the leaves. nasty---very nasty. I lived in Phoenix for 2 years and I did not see a cactus that was more thorny than the club.....yuck



Trackdog



<!--EDIT|MikeG|May 18 2002,22:50-->