Thick swarms of mosquitoes are killing livestock in Louisiana after Hurricane Laura
www.cbsnews.com
The bites leave animals anemic and bleeding under their skins, and they also become exhausted from constantly moving in an attempt to avoid the insects.
  • ConstableJelly@piefed.socialEnglish
    2 months

    We got terribly swarmed in a very remote area in Michigan’s upper peninsula while walking in the woods. My partner and I grabbed pine branches and started waving them around us while we ran back, but my dog kept thinking I was playing as I tried to wave them around her and would run off from me. Within 20 minutes of getting back, she was covered in massive lumps all over her body, her lips and ears were grossly swollen, and she started breathing really, really shallowly.

    There were no open or emergency vets anywhere nearby, so we tried to give her some benadryl and water as best we could. Luckily, she was well-recovered by morning. But the danger posed by swarms of mosquitos became abundantly clear to me.

  • corsicanguppy@lemmy.caEnglish
    2 months

    The size of mosquitoes in rural Canada confirms this is possible. It could even require 4 of them to completely bleed a human dry.

    • Asfalttikyntaja@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      2 months

      In Finnish lapland we have mosquitoes so big that my friend takes them and dries them to make sauna stools.

      • MrFinnbean@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2 months

        God you are lucky in lapland. I have always wanted to do that, but the ones here in northern ostrobothnia dont fit trough the doors so we can use them only as patio furniture.

        • Scubus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          2 months

          Sailors round these parts use the massive ancient mosquitos to navigate the ocean since they dont move in the sky

        • Asfalttikyntaja@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          2 months

          Tell me you’re from the ostrobothnia without telling me you’re from the ostrobothnia.

    • Omgpwnies@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 months

      They generally don’t though, they prefer picking people up and dropping them from height on some sharp rocks, then feasting on the corpse.

    • KC_Royalz@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 months

      Last year I had to take some parts to a pivot crew working in soybeans. I want to preface this that I used to farm and I’ve built fences next to river bottoms I’ve had to deal with some bad mosquitoes.

      With that said I never have seen a mosquito outbreak like last summer fall. I took two steps into that field and was immediately covered. I have no idea how those builders could stand being out there.

      I think, if they wanted to, those mosquitoes could have lifted me off the ground and flown me to their lair.

    • OldQWERTYbastard@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2 months

      A Mississippi delta mosquito bit me in the ass through denim and underwear. The little bastards are big enough that you can see color details on their bodies.

    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.todayEnglish
      2 months

      the large ones are called elephant mosquitoes totally harmless thier larva usually hunt actual mosquitoes in water.

    • SillyDude@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2 months

      Jesus. I’ve seen it in wild rabbits, but that makes sense because the ticks can get larger than their eyeballs. And that looks really bad, like their ears are more tick than ear. With the square cube rule the number of ticks to take down a moose scares me.

      • Taleya@aussie.zoneEnglish
        2 months

        Lets be honest, anything that takes down moose is petrifying

    • stickly@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 months

      Very interesting read, aside from the blood curdling close up of those patches of engorged ticks. Also…

      At that stage, the bloodsucking arachnids are the size of a pencil tip.

      That has to be one of the least precise measurements I’ve seen. Might as well say “as deep as a cup of water” or “as bright as a light”

    • Rubanski@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      2 months

      Lee Kantar—moose biologist with the Maine “Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife—counts winter tick larvae, or nymphs, on a live moose calf in Maine.” - definitely not my type of job :(

  • jlow@slrpnk.netEnglish
    2 months

    This sounds like an excellent setup for a trashy horror-movie.

    • OldChicoAle@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 months

      I imagine it’s more of a burning sensation. Like death by a thousand cuts

    • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2 months

      You don’t hear bleed used as a transitive verb (with an object) as much anymore with actual blood since they stopped using leeches in medicine, but it’s still commonly used for other situations. You can bleed fluid from a hydraulic line, for example.