stu and dawn

I've seen a few posts mentioning them. Just wondering how bad it gets with them? Are some states or cities worse for them or is it an Australia-wide problem?

Laura_TheGoose_Davies

That's the only downside for me; the mozzies! I didn't have issues with flies as I've heard that's more central Australia, but I do badly react to mozzie bites. It hasn't stopped me from applying for PR tho. I spent most of my time in Perth and Sydney in the past, I found that mozzie repellant was a must especially early evening sitting outside or camping.

billy0911

Hiya
Being the middle of winter and a perishing 23o there are no flies or mozzie's to speak of

but when it gets a bit hotter they are a pest you just have to adapt
for instance you can't just go outside for a wee sit in your Garden you have to prepair you have to light the reppelants etc wait for about 20/30 mins then you are covered and the mozzies generally keep away HOWEVER
one or two always gets through the barrier
And then all you have to worry about are the bloody ants

but you do get used to doing all this

Billy

quoll

Not bad at the moment but once it heats up then they are a real P*I*T*A!

Not so bad in the cities but as soon as you move further out especially into areas where there may be farming then they will both annoy the heck out of you. The flies were bad this summer because the drought killed off the dung beetles and allowed the flies to repopulate - not as bad as they were back in the 70s but still much worse than they have been for years. Just dont open your mouth to speak and develop a regal wave thingie going and you should be fine.

Mozzies - worse if you live near water and dont have any standing water in your yard because they will love it. It isnt just the bites with their itchiness that you have to worry about it is that Aussie Mozzies actually carry quite unpleasant diseases (not malaria but Ross River Fever and a couple of other similar ones) that make them unpleasant dinner guests. Make sure that your fly wire screens are intact and that everyone knows they have to SHUT THE DOOR! and you should keep them out of your house. And start taking mega VitB before you even arrive.

bcworld

I react badly to mozzie bites too, but I've found that after a while you do develop some level of tolerance - I guess your body gradually learns how to deal with it??

Hutch

I live in an area with lots of dairy farming and I can't say the flies are a huge issue - no greater an irritant certainly than wasps were in the UK. Mossies can be annoying but I'm lucky enough not to react to the bites so I can't say it affects me. Where we live we were told the sand flies were the worst thing, but I can't say even they bother me much either - and I spend the summer patrolling the beaches as a lifeguard, so I'd know. In fact the only bugs that annoy the **** out of me are those flying rhinoceroses the Xmas Beetle - thousands of the bloody things all going at it on the floor, walls, ceilings ...

asprilla

If you live up Cairns way, you also have the march flies to deal with. They are about the size of a sparrow, and their bite is like having a red hot needle poked into you.

bcworld

They are rife on the bay islands as well.....been attacked by em on North Straddie. And don't even get me started on Fraser Island!

Cheetah7

I remember taking my malaria tablets last Sept and I had to stop as they made me so ill. I was so glad I was in a low risk area and had smothered myself in DEET as the thought of going back on the tabs was awful.

I felt so ill taking the tablets, sick, swollen glands, even the smell of food made me throw up. I had raised liver enzymes for some time after stopping those buggers.

Sorry for sounding ignorant though, what is Ross River Fever?

thedons

Sorry to hijack thread, the wife and i also had to stop talking the MALARIA tablets.
Both really sick and thought if I/WE get it so what, it can't be as bad as these tablets, food for thought

TraceyW

Crikey....thank God I wasn't here in the 70's!!! We find them awful where we live because there's horses quite close by and Inghams chook farm (which smells fab when the wind's in the right direction!)

Cheetah7

Well I had some girl on our trip say to me 'Oh Malarone are fine, you get no side effects with them and its better than malaria'.

Fine, SHE has no side effects but two others in our group apart from us got side effects as well.

I won't dispute malaria is worse but we were both so ill on them that we would have flown home we felt that bad. We went to the malaria 'hot spot' in the low risk season and smothered oursleves in DEET, we used DEET/citronella wrist bands and covered up at night.

I got two bites - both in Windhoek where this is no risk or minimal.

I had to have blood tests when I got back to see if my liver enzymes had got back to normal.

The best thing about Malarone for me was the incredible and vivid dreams I had - bloody marvellous they were.

worzel

Perth is bad for flies but really only October / November. The dung beetles are born after that and eat their food source. After a while you develop a sub-conscious wave of the arm to shoo them away (the "Australian Salute").

Mozzies do bite occassionally but Aerogard, Bushman spray etc is effective. Be careful around water especially stagnant water and after dark as Ross River fever and a few other such diseases are really nastly, but they are very rare. You are far more likely to be in a car accident than get struck down by these things so don't let it put you off Australia or Perth.

Mandurah (with its canals) is particularly prone.

rabsody

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_River_Fever

A very nasty virus contracted by mozzy bites - takes a loooong time to get over usually.

A guy I worked with last year had contracted some kind of virus by mozzie and had gone from being a very fit marathon runner to only being able to work a few short days a week, very frail and tired etc. Poor bugger, really felt for him. I don't think there's much they can do about it when you have it.

Cheetah7

I wonder what Freo is like for mozzies?