Whatever Bugs You

The Burning Man (Black Rock Desert) bugs story is "trending" today on Facebook.
The story linked to above says that the eastern Sierra bugs are a different species, a different plague, than the pre-Burner Black Rock bugs.
 
From another article/photo I saw, they look like the Maple Bugs (Box Elder Bugs) that we had in Southern Oregon. Sometimes the side of the house would be black with them. Creepy, but harmless as far as I could tell.
 
Two years ago when I was in the open top Jeep heading from Antelope Lake in the general direction of Quincy I ran into a swarm of something cricket like (you can tell I'm not an entomologist) and it was pretty freaky. Amazingly they just went around the Jeep. Very localized though, after a couple miles they were gone. Kind of glad todays trip isn't going down 395.
 
We had something similar here is this area a couple of years back. We were near the epicenter of the US invasion of the Asian Brown Stinkbug. An invasive species that recently moved in. They were getting into houses and going dorment. Then in mid winter the heat would wake them up. We were killing over 100 a day inside the house in January. It got so bad I made up a paint roller covered in sticky side out masking tape to roll them off the walls in the great room where they would collect under the lights. Then we'd flick them into the wood stove. The house stunk for months.

We liken the 1st 3 years or so to the ripple created by dropping a stone into water. Once the breeding ripple passed it's down to a dull roar. But still a PIA. During those years farm and orchards here were reporting 35% crop losses to the little juice sucking monsters.
 
Great, I'm heading over to the east side Friday the 28th. Saturday the 29th, Bodie stays open till 10:00pm for a night photo shoot. Hope they're not a problem. Guess I'll have to keep lighting in the camper to a minimum....Maybe if I'm lucky this will be over by next week :)
 
K6ON said:
Great, I'm heading over to the east side Friday the 28th. Saturday the 29th, Bodie stays open till 10:00pm for a night photo shoot. Hope they're not a problem. Guess I'll have to keep lighting in the camper to a minimum....Maybe if I'm lucky this will be over by next week :)
Click to expand...
Hope the bugs are better when you go to Bodie. We did Bodie after dark last year. Enjoyed it and because Hwy 395 was closed, we went in Aurora Canyon Road north of Bridgeport. Lots of areas for dispersed camping along the way. If you do go in Aurora Canyon find a place to camp going it as it is very dark coming out of Bodie that way. Great stars up that way.
 
Thanks Bill, I always go in via Aurora Canyon as I hate the washboard main road. There's a great place to camp about 2 miles out of Bodie that I've used several times. Weather forecast is 70's in day and 40's at night, partly cloudy. Am hoping clouds a very "partly" for
some star pics. Think moon might be too bright for milky way shots, but will see. Now if the bugs give me a break all will be great ;-)
 
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