mosquitos black flies and blactails

[brian]

Say you have a given mountain where an area of better habitat is infested by biting insects, but there is some not so good habitat that is less infested. Will deer tend to hang out more where biting insects populations are lighter? I think I already know the answer to this, but I wanted to check in with what the more experienced hunters have to say on the subject.

[Steeleco]

I just spent 4 days in our area we like up the Coq. The bugs were far worse than what we felt to be normal, even in a stiff wind the Mosquitoes were a pain, we also saw 2 of the biggest Mulies and 2 of the biggest Whitetails we've ever seen, their tails were going non stop, but they were chowing down just the same.

[kennyj]

We are bothered by bugs a lot more than the animals. Take some bug spray and get out there into the best areas.
kenny

[Darksith]

if you spend enough time in areas that have massive populations of bugs, you start to not pay attention to them. They aren't that big of a pain to humans that are used to it, so I would imagine that they are even less of a pain to animals covered in fur. Its when your not accustomed to the bugs, and then you go into an infested area that you really notice them. When its hard to eat your lunch because there are so many mosquitoes and you aren't interested in eating the bugs, then you know you are in bug country. When you don't even think twice about it and you simply just eat your lunch, then you know you've been in bug country for a while.

[brian]

That's interesting, I would assumed the opposite. But its also good to know.

[Barracuda]

you may learn to tolerate them but you can get sick from fly and skeeter bites and animals do become weakened and die from them .

A black fly outbreak can can do serious weakening of an animal just by sheer volume of bites and reactions never mind the other insects which could carry disease
Animals will seek refuge from insects with higher elevation , some in water etc and if they are too much for them the animals may change eating times or habits depending on insect .

as for fur i thought the the dogs would be ok till i noticed the blackflies would get on the dogs and literally crawl in the fur and gorge on the dogs.

[dana]

I remember catching a big wide typical muley at first light one summer low down in the basin. He was trotting, bucking, kicking and stotting, throwing his head up in the air and swinging it back and forth. The bugs had him pissed. He then proceeded to bound straight up the steepest slope in the basin. Every once in a while he would stop and shake his head, buck and then go back to bounding straight up. I was in sheer amazement at how fast he gained elevation. Once he got to the top, he hit the wind and I watched him instantly relax. The wind was strong enough to take the bugs away. He bedded in the rocks right there. This all happened before the sun was up and he spent the day sleeping relaxed in that high perch. I would never of picked him out with the binos if I hadn't of watched him bed.