Really creeped out

flutterby

Fly away!
So, I'm terrified of June Bugs. Phobic. They are everywhere. If there is a light on in a room in my house, they are flying into the windows. Over and over and over again. It sounds like pebbles hitting my windows. And it sounds like a lot of them, although I suppose it could be a couple hitting it over and over again. But, the window in my garage - there are 6 of them on it. And they are flying into the garage door - which has no windows, so they are flying into a wall. Ping! Ping! Ping! It goes on all night long.

I think I'm going to sit in the dark all summer. I feel like I have bugs crawling all over me. I really hate these things. It's worse this year than previous years - the number of them flying into the windows. *shiver*
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I know just how you feel. Those and cicadas are totally nasty and disgusting and horrible. I still remember being in jr high and each year we would have at least 2 weeks of june bug problems. Bad enough that you simply couldn't step out of the bus in the morning with-o crunching them with every step. Ballet flats were the style back then and they had super thin soles so it was truly gross. Then I was in Cincy in the spring of 87 for my bff's graduation from high school. They had a record breaking Cicada Summer - there were 2 or 3 typs of them hatching. some were the ones that hatched every 7 yrs and some on other schedules and they all hit the same year. Makes me sick even thinking about them.

I hope they go away soon.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
At least you've never had to deal with Bogong Moths. These things are soft and fluffy, about the size of your thumb joint. They swarm. They migrate generally along the eastern mountains from Queensland to Mt Bogong in the Victorian Alps, but sometimes winds and city lights draw them off course and Sydney cops a plague. Canberra generally gets a plague every year. They leave large yellow "fly specks" all over stuff, and you can't kill them except with a slipper. And when there are hundreds or more, it's tiring. Sprays don't work. These things like caves, they're actually looking for a cool dark cave to spend their summer in, so they will congregate near ceilings, in dark corners etc. NEVER leave the lid up on the toilet! It's a very odd and unpleasant sensation to sit on the loo and feel the startled moths fluttering around your bare backside... when you're an Aussie, you learn to always check before you sit down.
These things also can't be flushed - they are so 'fluffy' with moth dust on their wings, that they are unwettable. I've gleefully flushed thousands of them only to see them sitting dry on the surface of the water, ready to take off as soon as the turbulence subsides.

Best prevention - have a hermetically sealed house. Leave lights off or install a yellow bulb in the patio light. Sleep with ear plugs. Go round the bedroom before bed with a fly swat or a large shoe. Wonder why Aussies tend to wear thongs (as in, flip-flops) in summer? So we always have a handy weapon...

And don't let me get started on spiders...

Marg
 

trinityroyal

Well-Known Member
Ewww. June bugs, May flies....yuck yuck yuck!
Around here, crane fly season is coming up. They look like giant mosquitoes, and they flutter around and just give me the willies.

I think earplugs and lights-off are a great idea. Anything to keep them from pinging against your windows.
Yuck, yuck, YUCK!
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
I don't like them either, though I guess you have more of them than we do. Or I just haven't seen them...

...shudder...
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
I hate bugs but I am a Floridian who is not about to relocate. We have alot of different yucky bugs. I always feel sorry for the tourists who unwittingly arrive at the wrong time of year. We have sand flies (a/k/a sand sand fleas) that eat you alive after dark if you're on the beach. We have mosquitoes that will suck you dry and make you want to commit Hari Kari. We have roaches that fly after dark. YUK! (Of course, we have alligators and snakes and big gross stuff)

The most irritating is LOVE BUGS. Tourists don't know about these. I think it is a blankin' secret that is protected by the State and the Chambers of Commerce. Twice a year we have these vulgar bugs that mate in a frenzie and then die. The
fluids from their contact with your car causes the paint to corrode. If you don't clean and scrub the dead bus and their excretions off your car.........within two weeks the paint job can be hugely damaged. Even worse if your family plans a trip
to Disney or one of the other attractions you don't know until you get there that you'll be swatting these blankin bugs out of the way as you walk to meet Mickey Mouse. GROSS! DDD (Day 15 or 16 and still very aggitated!)
 
H

HaoZi

Guest
Transplanted Floridian here. I sure don't miss the lovebugs (blame U of F for importing them because they thought lovebugs ate skeeters). Hitting a swarm of those sounds like driving through a hail storm. I don't miss the palmetto bugs, either. *shudder* Or the Georgia thumpers. Or the Asian tiger mosquitoes that come out in the daytime in addition to the normal evening/nighttime skeeters. Fire ants, aren't those fun? Not.
One of the worst bug incidents I saw was on a trip to Iowa, though. They had these things called Mormon flies, and talk about your massive die-offs! The sidewalks, roads, everything would be covered. Layers of these dead flies and cars would slide on them on the road. They had snowplows out to get them off the roads.
Up here it's carpenter ant time again. Yay.
 

trinityroyal

Well-Known Member
Shad flies. The worst bug experience I ever had was a business trip to North Bay Ontario during shad fly season. They swarm in huge clouds for about 3 weeks in July, and apparently their sole purpose in life is to be fish food. They don't bite and they're perfectly harmless, but are they ever yucky! And they STICK to things.

The hotel in which I was staying was engulfed with them, they swarmed in huge clouds, sides of buildings were covered with them. That business trip was about 4 years ago now, but I'm still creeped out by it.
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
flutter, hate junebugs. I ended up in ER when I was a teenager hyperventilating because of june bugs. My then boyfriend thought it would be fun to touch my hair like there was one in my hair & I flipped out. He about drove off the road & I couldn't breath.

Those are ugly ugly bugs. I'm just glad they're here for a short period of time.
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
LOL! My family blames Unversity of Florida for everything that has gone wrong in Florida over the past fifty years! DDD
 
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