Wind river bugs?

So if you've been in lately how bad were they?

I was there last weekend--they were pretty bad. When you stop moving yer gonna get tore up. Just wear pants, some sort of impenetrable shell, and a bug head net and youll be good. And deet.

I was in there for six days, just got out yesterday.  I thought they were bad but not nearly as bad as I had expected going in. 

 When hiking/climbing they weren't an issue at all.  At camp I used Bens 100 Deet, wore long sleeves, and hung out in the tent.  They are flying around everywhere in the Cirque but I probably got bit only 5 times in total in my 6 days there.  And I usually have a lot of problems with bugs.

In my opinion if you use preventative measures they aren't really an issue.  Definitely not a reason to stay away I didn't think.

Just peaked a couple of days ago. They're real friendly.

I was out a week ago, they were pretty bad.  I soaked pants and a tech hoodie in a .05% dilution of permethrin, and didn't use any deet once in a week.  The other two in my group were constantly spraying deet and still got a little torn up.

It's the Wind Rivers - there's always bugs except the dead of winter!

In fact, those of us who are Wyoming natives bring in extra mosquito larvae  to keep the meer mortals out! We've developed "mosquito zen" where we just tune them out...

They are worst when it is a wet summer or a heavy winter - so with 300% of normal snowfall they are going to be worse than normal.

It also depends on where you go. For example, I think they are worst going in Scab Creek entrance.

They can be managed by avoiding dawn and dusk - get your meals done outside of these times.

A prudent choice of campsite away from marshy and willowy areas helps quite a bit.   And if you pick a site that has a breeze that can help considerably.

I'm going in next week and will spread trillions of mosquito larvae, so it's best everyone else go to Colorado, Idaho, or Utah.  Unless you have "mosquito zen!"

I was in the general area a week ago (fly fishing on the Green River) and the mosquitos were pretty bad but the biting flies were terrible

I hope I get in there before you Arlo. :)  

thx all for the bugs updates.  The weather forecast looks like the real thing to track for next week.

Greg that's true, but I've never liked normal. I prefer nearly normal or less than normal.

The world has more than enough normal people already.

How well does the weather link on the wind rivers page correlate to actual climbing temps and conditions in the cirque? I'm traveling from Massachusetts to the winds and wondering if those forecasts exaggerate weather conditions or if they underestimate the weather in the mountains.

Thanks. 

The temps seemed pretty accurate. In the sun it can feel a bit hotter, it might've gotten into the 70s two weeks ago.

Plan for afternoon thunderstorms starting between noon and 2pm, and celebrate with another climb when they don't appear.

Not to derail the bug talk, but I'm hoping for feedback and firsthand reports on thunderstorm duration and intensity in relation to the forecasted percentage.i'm preparing for thunderstorms next week but the 50% chance forecast has me a little worried. Thanks

Thankyou. 

Does that forecast seem normal for this time of year? or is it worse than normal?

splitclimber wrote:

Not to derail the bug talk, but I'm hoping for feedback and firsthand reports on thunderstorm duration and intensity in relation to the forecasted percentage.i'm preparing for thunderstorms next week but the 50% chance forecast has me a little worried. Thanks

I saw storms that lasted only 10 minutes, and I saw storms that lasted 6 hours. But 50% is normal for this time of year.

Afternoon thunderstorms are to be expected, and the hotter the morning is, the worse the storm will be. If you tailor your plans to be off the summit by noon or 1pm, your odds of getting caught in a thunderstorm drop to 10 or 20%.

The little guys are still buzzin'.. Lotta places up high that are just now opening up, so the bugs are starting to come out of hibernation. Saw our first freezing night in town a couple of days back so it's been sporadically freezing above 10k. I would say the bugs will be friendly for the next week or so, then begin to trail off towards the end of August.

Reviving old thread, please forgive - on my trips to the Winds many years ago mosquitos were virtually nonexistent in the high talus camps we made ... however, on the walls there lived a different kind of pest ... it seemed to dwell in the small tufts of grass that otherwise were so pleasant to stand on ... they would crawl up your leg & into your sock or even the waistband of your trousers if you sat down ... their bite was excruciatingly painful & itchy & lasted many days ... my partners & I debated what these were ... chiggers? gnats? ... anybody know for sure?  Cheers, Mark

They're just mosquitos. Biting mosquitos.

DavisMeschke Guillotine wrote:

They're just mosquitos. Biting mosquitos.

Not to be quarrelsome, but these get into your socks & waistband - wherever clothing restricts - besides, there are no mosquitos in the Cirque of the Moon ...

Mark I've had a run in with those nasty little f'ers too. But only east of the divide. Specifically out of the St Laurence trail head. For sure they were not mosquitos. They left a bite that weeped and burned and scratched for weeks. I don't know what they were, some called them black flies, regardless of the name I avoid that area now.

Mark Dalen wrote:

Not to be quarrelsome, but these get into your socks & waistband - wherever clothing restricts - besides, there are no mosquitos in the Cirque of the Moon ...

Let me suggest that what got you was bed bugs and that you didn't get bit on the wall.  You got bit in a motel or someone's house, or maybe you brought them in your sleeping bag.  The thing that confuses people is that the bites usually take many hours to days to be noticeable.  

After 50+ years on climbing in the Wyoming mountains, I am 97.3% sure that there are no biting crawling insects on high mountain walls.  But I could be wrong.  Maybe global warming is changing things.  I recently saw a rattle snake at about 7000 feet which I would have sworn wasn't possible before, so maybe chiggers or fleas are moving in, and you are the first known victim in the entire history of the world.  But the symptoms you describe are typical of bed bugs, and having been bit by them once myself, I am very scared of staying in motels.