Air cover has arrived!

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crfriend
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Air cover has arrived!

Post by crfriend »

Life is good at the moment in Central Massachusetts. Today was finally pleasant, even above "normal" (Huh? What's that?) for about the first time since February (when we had a day that flirted with 70 degrees F) -- and I saw my first bat (a "little brown") this evening.

Seeing bats is always a good thing because they eat mosquitoes (albeit not enough!) and mosquitoes are a family that I wish we could drive to extinction because of the amount of grief and suffering it causes world-wide.

Here in the North-east US of A we are not-so-slowly reaching third-world-status as far as insect-borne diseases and outright pathogens go. We've got several annoyances, but we've also got some really lethal problems with things like EEE (Eastern Equine Encephalitis), and increasingly problems like West Nile; we're only a short step away from Yellow Fever being re-introduced. Zika is a worry, mostly for the human reproduction cycle, and dengue may be on the horizon. Those are just from the mosquito population. From the tick population, which is exploding, and nobody is either willing or able to do anything about it, we get Lyme disease which attacks joints and nerves -- and there's no immunity garnered from having had it. You get it, it's chemically "cured", and then you get it again. Bloody lovely.

I wanted to go outside this evening in my miniskirt -- the first time I've worn one this year -- to watch the bats, but the mosquito density drove me back indoors. Foo!

I guess I need to find myself a burka made of mosquito-netting which I can cinch up around my ankles, MC Hammer-like, to fend off ticks. I long for the days when we were worried about macro-fauna -- wolves, coyotes, and the occasional puma. At least with those if you had a long enough and sharp enough stick you could deal with them. With the mini-fauna it's down to having to don armour -- in the hottest time of the year when it'd be much better to be unencumbered.

My how the mighty have fallen.
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Caultron
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Re: Air cover has arrived!

Post by Caultron »

This is one of nature's cruelest pranks.

All winter you dream of warmer weather, and then it comes, and then after one day you have to stay inside to avoid the mosquitos.
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john62
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Re: Air cover has arrived!

Post by john62 »

Here in Australia the Federal Government refuses to accept that we have Lyme Disease. Medical Doctors who treat people with diagnosed Lyme Disease, the testing has to be done overseas because Lyme Disease does not exist here, are "disciplined" by the Medical boards and many people remain chronically ill. The strange thing is that in the '80s the Government did accept the condition was here but now it is no longer here, go figure!

John
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denimini
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Re: Air cover has arrived!

Post by denimini »

Thankfully most of the time it is too dry here for mosquitos but occasionally they can get thick. I have quite an aversion to the little blighters after getting Ross River Fever. Generally I stay indoors at dawn and dusk, other times it is OK outside in a mini.
As similarly mentioned, I would rather face a threat like a snake than some insidious single-celled organism, that breeds in warm water and can eat away your brain. Hmmm, I can't think what it is called now .............. Naegleria fowleri (phew!)
Anthony, a denim miniskirt wearer in Outback Australia
pelmut
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Re: Air cover has arrived!

Post by pelmut »

john62 wrote:Here in Australia the Federal Government refuses to accept that we have Lyme Disease. Medical Doctors who treat people with diagnosed Lyme Disease, the testing has to be done overseas because Lyme Disease does not exist here, are "disciplined" by the Medical boards and many people remain chronically ill. The strange thing is that in the '80s the Government did accept the condition was here but now it is no longer here, go figure!

John
In the UK until recently many doctors didn't belive it existed and refused to diagnose it, even when the patient gave the doctor ample proof. Now the NHS reluctantly accepts it, but the test they use is inadequate and gives a very high proportion of false negatives. The recommended treatment is too short and is often ineffective. When the more serious symptoms appear later, they are usually diagnosed as something different.  The few doctors who have been treating it effectively are one-by-one being forced out of practice because they aren't following the NHS guidelines.
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beachlion
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Re: Air cover has arrived!

Post by beachlion »

It looks like stupidity rules a wider part of the globe than I assumed. I know at least the Dutch medical circles know about Lyme disease and how to treat it. Also the USA is warning people to be careful when in the woods. Lyme disease in PA is on the rise according to the news.
http://www.health.pa.gov/my%20health/di ... ease-.aspx
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Fred in Skirts
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Re: Air cover has arrived!

Post by Fred in Skirts »

In my neck of the woods summer has arrived and with it the bugs, all kinds of them. :censored: Mosquitoes' ticks and biting flies. :twisted: They are all dangerous and carry many different sicknesses. The health department is advocating the prolific use of insect repentant containing "Deet". :sunny:
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moonshadow
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Re: Air cover has arrived!

Post by moonshadow »

pelmut wrote:In the UK until recently many doctors didn't belive it existed and refused to diagnose it, even when the patient gave the doctor ample proof. Now the NHS reluctantly accepts it, but the test they use is inadequate and gives a very high proportion of false negatives. The recommended treatment is too short and is often ineffective. When the more serious symptoms appear later, they are usually diagnosed as something different. The few doctors who have been treating it effectively are one-by-one being forced out of practice because they aren't following the NHS guidelines.
Interesting... that's the first real fault I've heard about social healthcare... ever! And quite frankly, it's pretty scary. It's like your bureaucracy just sticks their fingers in their ears and chants "la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la- CANT HEAR YOU!" when confronted with a new problem. Guess our old school capitalist (profit driven) system does have it's perks... we'll treat anything if there's money to be made from it! Or at least treat the symptoms... :wink:

As for the mosquitos, I get into them once in a while. We had them REALLY bad at our trailer in Marion, mainly because the whole place was damp and in the woods. Here where we're at now, there isn't a lot of shade, or standing water near by so they don't seem as bad. It's too breezy right now for them to be no much of a nuisance because the wind won't let them settle. Once the wind dies down then we can always light a fire and that helps keep them down. Ticks can be a problem, and certainly wearing skirts makes one more vulnerable to them.

I'd like to see something done about these stink bugs from China. I don't understand it... we can drive the honeybee to near extinction, but nothing can be done about stink bugs? What... are we only allowed to kill things that help us?
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The old hillbilly from the coal fields of the Appalachian mountains currently living like there's no tomorrow on the west coast.
Jerevo
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Re: Air cover has arrived!

Post by Jerevo »

Goodness!

I'm glad I live in Munich - Munich and the Bavarian Alps are still an island of relative safety in a sea of infestation (both the diseased six-legged kind and the politically noxious two-legged kind). Here the primary risk is tick-borne encephalitis (for which there is, fortunately, a vaccine).

J
Freedomforall
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Re: Air cover has arrived!

Post by Freedomforall »

I caught West Nile Virus one summer after a mosquito bite. I was in the hospital for 3 days.
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