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Planning on Prospecting in Northern Nevada? Beware of Bugs!


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I don't normally head back out to the Nevada gold fields until after labor day / Burning man is past - just because of the heat. The shady high country in California is just nicer when the weather is generally hot.

However I was reading last night about bugs infesting the folks constructing the Burning man site - which is not all that far from the placer areas. Although the geology of the burning man area is different, the desert environment is the same.

I just thought I'd let anyone planning on prospecting in that region that there is a bug problem and its not pretty.

The bugs fly, they invade your personal space ( according to one guy, "They crawl all over you. They get up and in you"), they bite and they stink. They bite like a mosquito - only they are not searching for blood, but water. To these bugs, you are a big bag of water to be extracted through your skin.

They take water from plants or wherever they can get it, and like a mosquito, they leave a welt.

In all the years I've been out there, I've not seen or had problems with bugs like this, but this has been the wettest year for summer rains that I have seen in the 35 years I have lived in Nevada. Apparently, the regular waterings from the sky have created an explosion in various bug species.  Although its been a couple months since I have been out that way, the weeds were growing at an amazing rate when I was last there, I guess the bugs followed.

I figure I may wait a bit for the cold weather to knock them down.

 

For those who want more info - see:

http://gizmodo.com/weve-identified-those-bugs-infesting-burning-man-and-1725287661

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/swarms-bugs-infest-site-burning-man-festival-n413136

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Too late this year for the crickets. If they were coming back this year they would have been all over already. Steve, I think your "flying skinny ants" are the bug that is causing most of the problem. The burning man folks do a lot their work at night under big bright construction lights which probably pull them in from miles away. They are already calling the place Bug Rock City.

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Doesn't Burning Man become the second largest city in Nevada each year during the time it's going?

That is a serious amount of bug food.

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We had an experience with some type of biting bug out of winnemucca a couple years back, they were so small you couldn't see them. They would get in your nose ears anything exposed and bite and leave itchy bumps. We tried several bug sprays,anything we could think of,nothing held them off. One of the locals,

said they were chiggers that came in from the black rock desert in the wind. The wind had been blowing steady and had been carrying a huge amount of sand with it you could see hundreds of feet high for a couple days. The bites on my brotherinlaw and i went away in a couple weeks,but my sister had her feet and lower legs exposed to them and ended up with bad reaction over several weeks to these,it was pretty serious. These critters dont look like the bugs that are infesting the area of burning man.

Anyone else have this experience in the area? May have to get a alaskan mosquito suit if it happens again, it can sure ruin an planned outing.

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