Once Upon A Time We Went Hunting For Deer In A Southern Swamp

Discussion in 'Tall Tales & Fabrications' started by Kalvin Mitnic, Feb 16, 2017.

  1. Kalvin Mitnic

    Kalvin Mitnic Veteran Member
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    One of the guys had a rough cabin that was habitable but just just so. We foolishly forgot it was the worst of the gallon nippers season. That's skeeters to you uninformed. Not just skeeters, the big kind that warranted the name 'gallon nippers.'
    They started attacking us ruthlessly as we set out for the remote cabin. It became urgent that we get to shelter pdq because these pests were out for blood and were coming now in clouds having picked up on our 'fresh blood' scent. We got into the cabin but it wasn't entirely skeeter proof at first so we needed to block up a few places and thought we were pretty safe. Not so really, these damn bugs had found they could get their proboscises through the thin roof and were hell bent on doing so. One by one they attacked til there were a dozen suckers coming through bent on blood sucking intent. Now one of the guys said, "shit" no skeeters going to get the best of me and he took to pounding on the beaky things bending them over so they were stuck. That was working pretty well so we all set at doing the same thing quite happy at our ingenuity of immobilizing the giant beasts. Well now all was going fine we thought but gallon nipper reinforcements soon arrived and that roof inside started looking like the outside of a porcupine. Still we were safe, or so we thought. Inch by inch them pinned on critters lifted off that roof and the last we saw of it was it passing over the swamp headed for well, it's no matter where because by then we were running pall mall the other way. The cottage still sits roofless I'm guessing and I'm still scratching scars and taking to itching any time I hear a skeeter buzz.
    One of the guys manage to decapitate a bug and he has it mounted over the gun case as a reminder that they grow things big thereabouts. (location a secret for safety reasoning. Some fool would otherwise be heading there to verify my story.)
     
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  2. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    Bwahahahahaha! Them some big suckers. :D
     
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  3. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Kalvin Mitnic
    You should experience once the preponderance of Ticks in the Missouri Ozarks. They abound where wild game predominates; we had both in abundance. Not only a sickening parasite, the Tick carries Lyme Disease bacilli, injecting them into the human bloodstream. Long-term occupancy of the human body by Lyme Disease carries with it the spectre of arthritic damage to almost any organ(s), skin, brain, lungs, etc. Then, too, there were the black, biting flies known in Minnesota as "Deer Flies". Those things are bastardish in their endeavor to suck blood, but lesser than the Horseflies and "Green-headed" flies. I had them bite me very painfully RIGHT THROUGH my shirt, on my back, where awareness lacked until after the lancing!
    Frank
     
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  4. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    Ticks scare me but thankfully I've never even seen one. There are a lot in the woods behind my baby sisters house in NJ but they're not the Lyme carrying ones.

    Very common there though, my brother in law who is a dr in ER and urgent care says most docs around there have cards with pics of all the different ticks in the area...that's how common it is for people to show up in ER or wherever with ticks on them.

    This was a a few years ago so don't know if the tick situation has changed or not.
     
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  5. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Chrissy Cross Ticks are, IMO, one of the more insidious creatures to have been introduced into existence. Tiny, especially when in the form called "seed ticks", youth, barely visible, fully able to inflict misery and pain,. and possib;ly disease. MO was full of them. They burrow their head beneath the victim's skin, then inject anticoagulent spit, then start sucking blood. They can do this almost painlessly, without the victim's knowledge. They will begin their engorgement about the size of a B-B, if adult, and can attain the size of a kid's glass playing marble, stretched to the limit full of blood, before they withdraw and drop off. Sickening to say the least. I have seen dogs with literally hundreds attached to their backs, so plentiful as to make the animal look like it had no fur on it's back.

    Cats, OTOH, are scrupulous. A cat usually is able to pluck any engaged tick from it's skin, no matter where located. Applaud the cat's flexibility and physical dexterity.

    I hate ticks.
    Frank
     
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  6. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    Yes @Frank Sanoica , I do know how horrid Ticks can be...I always check Pickles although he's black and it's hard to see but even though in 9 yrs. he hasn't had one....still a concern sometimes.

    When I first got him and for a few years I had him wear a flea and tick collar but after awhile I quit doing that.
     
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  7. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    I've always wondered why Noah didn't kill those two ticks before they left the ark. Skeeters, too. :D
     
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  8. Louise Williams

    Louise Williams Supreme Member
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    I agree Shirley. what good are those ticks to humans or animals anyway? never could figure that out.. We do have the outside yard of our house sprayed in the spring and in the fall for ticks. we don't have any dogs but we do have the neighbor dogs who think they live here!! we have 2 cats but they are indoor cats !....But I do see the dogs groom each other for tics. and just today I saw one big fat dead tick under our carport.. its belly looked like a gray M&M candy.. it was huge!!! had to of been one that the dogs pulled off of the other dog.. beginning of April the pest control guy will be here to spray around the house. it really does help , big time!!

    And how bout those stink bugs ? . lol.. we do not have them here but we did up in Maine, if you should happen to step on one, ,oh brother , they stink to high heaven , best to wash off the bottom of your shoe too.. PHEW!!!
     
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  9. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Louisiana, south Florida and Vietnam are some pretty bad areas when it comes to the heinous mosquito. Who knew that Avon would spend millions researching a new great smelling skin softener for the ladies and then name it Skin So Soft just to find out that construction workers use it for mosquito repellent?

    That said, when I worked in Ekuk, Alaska the biggest fear during the warm season was the rather large variety of mosquitoes that plagued the area. As long as there was a healthy breeze, everyone breathed easier but once that died down it was a time to be on the alert.
    The blood sucking insects are absolutely huge and get as large as a small dragon fly. They attack in swarms so large that they have been known to down bears, moose, cattle and yes, humans. Since the swarms fill the mouths and air passage ways of their prey, most of the deaths are attributed to suffocation rather than the concurrent blood letting and stings.
    Even the smell pretty Avon alternative to "Off" does little to thwart the pest and probably only serves as a tasty treat to the large insect.
     
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  10. Louise Williams

    Louise Williams Supreme Member
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    Bobby I lived in La. for about 5 yrs and the only flying insect I can recall were those big ole love bugs , they were everywhere ! even splatted all over the car windshield when driving. . luckily it was not all the time Just in their mating season.. they never would bite you tho.. I lived near Baton Rouge..
    I have to say tho. I hated those wood roaches there too,,,they were so big you could put a saddle on them and ride em'.. exaggerating of course , but they were the biggest cockroach's I even seen in my life time.. !
    And I do recall using Skin-so-Soft for the mosquitoes up in Maine,.. But the worse bites were from those tiny Black Flies..! OUCHIE!!!
    Im sure Ken probably knows about them by now too..
     
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    Last edited: Mar 10, 2017
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  11. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Yes, putting a saddle on a Louisiana cockroach is an Absolute exaggeration! It is well known that they cannot be fully tamed and too skittish to accept a saddle. My good friend, Jean Fonvergne tried once (when he had too many beers) and awoke a couple of hours later wearing the western saddle he tried to put on his pet roach Beaudreaux. That thing was just plain mean. I once saw him stab a nutria just to take his crawfish away.
    I'm sure that nutria would have gladly shared but no, that roach wanted the whole thing. Some critters in the swamp are like that. Did I ever tell you the time when.............
     
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  12. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    Weak stomach? Or just can't stand roaches? Be prepared to wonder how folks can stand occupying a home with perhaps tens of thousands of them:

     
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  13. Von Jones

    Von Jones Supreme Member
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    @Frank Sanoica I'm thinking 'WHO YOU GONNA CALL ***ROACHBUSTERS***!!!!!'.
     
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  14. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Well, they was brand new and He had no experience with'um likes we do. Had it to do over again we'd all be wiser.
     
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  15. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    That's about half scary.
     
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