Mt. Nusatsum

Mt. Nusatsum

Thursday, September 9, 2010

The Truth About Mosquitoes

It's never popular to talk about mosquitoes, but a blog about Bella Coola wouldn't be complete without some reference to them.  First of all let me say that there is no where in the Bella Coola Valley where mosquitoes are as bad as the legendary mosquitoes of the western Chilcotin.  Bella Coola has certain locations in the spring and early summer where there are some mosquitoes.  You couldn't really expect to live in a rain forest surrounded by river, wet areas, forest and warm, sometimes humid temperatures and not experience a few bugs.

Generally the mosquitoes get less as you travel west towards the inlet in Bella Coola.  I think there are also less the more built up an area is like Hagensborg or Bella Coola Townsite. There is no where that I would specifically avoid in the valley because the mosquitoes are unbearable, but sometimes around sunset on a summer or spring night around the river or in the garden around dark they can get a bit annoying for an hour or two.


It's really all about perspective though - this photo of my dog taken several years ago while hiking in the Rainbow Mountains, gives you the true meaning of what mosquitoes can really mean, when a yellow lab is grateful to be covered by a mosquito net!  Grizzly

4 comments:

  1. I remember being glad there were bats up at the Atnarko on summer evenings. Even then, we would pack up and leave because of the mosquitoes.

    Otherwise, they only bothered us in spring, when we weren't used to them yet, for that year.

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  2. I just had a run-in with mosquitoes in Drumheller, and they were ferocious. I'll never forget the clouds that surrounded me, and thankfully I had netting. I actually left Alberta earlier than I had intended because of them. Pure torture. And your dog is lucky to have someone who cares enough to carry a net for them, very cool.

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  3. Thanks,that was something I was going to ask about.

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  4. Second worst mosquitoes I've ever experienced were in the upper Dean River north of Anahim Lake, spring and early summer. Worst was one day where we managed to forget the bug spray and nets, and were forced to do compass fore shots and backshots as a two person team, with one person waving huckleberry branches around the compass person's hands and face so they could concentrate enough to keep a straight line.

    Even that wasn't as bad as early summer at the mouth of the Smith River at the Liard - pure hell, matched by heaven at the end of the job when I stopped at Summit Lake and had an afternoon in the alpine, blessedly nearly bug-free.
    Morley

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