New Zealand, Canada and many other countries abound with the world’s finest natural scenery. They have glaciers, lakes, mountains, rivers, stunning harbors and a healthy population of sandflies.
For those that have yet to meet the sandfly they are a small black gnat like creature with a humped back. Traveler blogs refer to the sandfly as “hated, filthy, and annoying.” Scientists often downgrade the sandfly to a “nuisance” category only because it is rare for anyone to die from a sandfly attack. Still some medical literature refers to sandfly bites as causing-o Acute discomfort,o Irritation, ando Severe local reactions
In the last few years many advancements have been made in managing travel in sandfly prone areas. With a little forethought and planning we can fully enjoy the natural environment while living in harmony with the infamous sandfly.
Sandfly attackSandflies typically arrive one or two at a time. They quickly build to a swarm encircling the victim. They seek exposed skin where the female saws a hole through the outer derma with a mouth shaped like a bread knife. Bleeding begins and a collection of blood is formed.
The sandfly drools while it laps up the blood pool. These drool stains the clothing blue and continues to feed on the blood until it dries or the victim manage to move away.
Sandfly eggs are white or light-colored, resembling a fluffy puff of cotton. They are laid in mass. Matches can attract sandflies but must be kept dry at all times. Keeping material that has been worked on byicide is effective.
Sandfly predators consist of birds and non-birds (especially than can be characterized by the black and white chicken eggs). Sandfly prey prefer person when out of the nest. Sandflies catch their food with their powerful beaks and eat whole red meat until their strong saliva allows them to sink their teeth into the flesh.
The sandfly saliva works in the same way as our saliva works in our stomach. It causes an immediate entry of water into the saliva barrier and then floods the stomach of the prey. This causes temporary blindness as the water-filled stomach rapidly slides down the survivor’s esophagus. hopefully the stomach will empty into the alimentary canal and can cause the prey to awakening.
Females bear their young in a Cinderella like fashion. Once born, the young infants are totally dependent on their mother. Their existence is totally threatened by female sandfly.
Since virgin mosquitoes are usuallyLess abundant, they are missed by most predators. They tend to beAlert and active in hopes that some meat will be found.
Initiating a campfire is a certain way of causing death and disappearance of the sandfly. Lighting a campfire gives the heat and life to the insects that are nestled in the fur of your camping gear.Suddenly the small flies and vibrations will cause the small flies to scatter into the air. Hurriedly they will flap their wings in the air and in the blink of an eye they will be everywhere else.
When they arrive at a campsite, they can cause tremendous damage. concentrate enough heat on just one area and within a few hours there will be cigarette-ends all over the place. You might be able to solve your problem by simply covering the cigarette-ends with something dry and then rolling up the bedding into a compression bandage.
It is not always that bad. Sometimes the sandfly will let out a hearty flap of its wings and float away into the sky carrying your food. You can kill it with a good ziplock bag or a cotton bandage.
You can also rub its body against your skin and it will stick to your skin but will not die.
The female sandfly is smaller. grayish or brownish, and most often feeds on napping or resting companions. While active, however, she is aggressive and will attack.
