not exactly a diving question......but

[Hank49]

Gaz, I think that's true about cleaning and raking the sand. They are "sand" flies after all.

I remember when you were building your resort north of Journey's End. (2000) I used to pass you quite often on my way to Bacolar Chico, Nova's Hatchery.
I have a lot there now where you have to vere outside around those buoys to avoid the rock piles.

 

[Gaz]

You have a lot by the shrimp hatchery or near to where my place was ???? if its near to my place and oceanfront your in the money LOL

 

[Hank49]

No, it's third row back, near your place. Just where you come back in towards shore after you pass those buoys (if you don't take the short cut through the rocks inside) I've made that trip at least 400 times 9 years ago. But when I was up there last year to buy parts of the hatchery for here, I didn't recognize it anymore. I used to know where I was by the buildings. Not anymore.

 

[Gaz]

Ok so your in the Mata Grande area, nice area and developing fast as is everywhere on the island.

Yes I bought my house 15 years ago in the Playa Blanca area and used to navigate those rocks without the buoys and lights of today.

First few times going up at night was at a crawling pace asking the wife wheres the rocks wheres the rocks then BANG ahhhhhh there they are LOL

Got real good at it in the end could do it in the pitch black if it was full moon it was a piece of cake

very few houses and buildings up there at the time it was resal remote How times have changed on the island.

 

[underseasian]

Baby oil/Skin so Soft works much better than DEET and is nowhere near as harmful...

 

[Gaz]

I agree its harmful but its still the most effective repellant out there

I have a funny story about alternatives to Deet

About 8 years ago my x wifes sister and husband came to stay at my house in the Playa Blanca area we got to talking about the local wildlife and I was telling him how I went out hunting Tarantulas and snakes in the surrounding area of my house.

He really wanted to give it a go so I said ok lets do it, I said make sure you put on plenty of repellant as we will be going into the bush where there is no breeze and the mozzies will be really bad.

He started putting on Citranella oil and I said thats no good you will get eaten alive, Now he is a dutch guy and a bit of a know it all and said this is the absolute best stuff and guaranteed to repel insects.

I smiled and started applying a heavy deet based repellant and off we went

As we headed off the beach into the bush, within 1 minute there were CLOUDS of mozzies trying to eat us they were flying around me but not landing on me, he on the other hand was being eaten alive and his repellant was absolutely useless.

I had to smile as he could not take it and we worked our way back to the beach for instant releif with the breeze.

Based on the hundreds of guests that visited my resort, Baby Oil seemeds to work for a very small amount of people and then they beg for one that works.

Deet is still the king and until they come up with a natural repellant as effective as deet I am afraid people will continue using it.

These days I dont use deet unless they are really bad I seem to have become immune to there bite or its my B O not quite sure LOL

 

[Downing]

When we stayed at Turneffe Island Lodge (now "Resort") summer before last we were pleasantly surprised that bugs were not an issue. TIL raked the sand every day, which we assumed took care of any potential problems.

Until the what had been constant steady breeze died one night.

Yow!

I don't know if they were sand flies--don't know my tropical bugs--but we were swarmed with what looked like small black flies that bit hard enough to draw blood. It hurt way worse than a mosquito bite.

Luckily, that happened only twice in two weeks, both times in the evening, and we just stayed inside.

The only time we had to put on DEET was when we visited Altun Ha before catching our flight home. I wouldn't say we were swarmed with mosquitos but they were certainly out in force.

 

[Hank49]

All sandflies aren't created equal here. Or at least the anti coagulant is a slightly different chemical composition. I live in a bad area, as mentioned, and am pretty used to being bitten about 50 times a day. All I get is a small red spot for a little while, although as you said, it's an irritating sting when they bite. But, if I go out to say, Moho Caye or even Southern Long up here and pull up just upwind where the little buggers can sense me and fly against the breeze, they come to the boat. I'll get a larger red spot and it will itch, just like a newly arrived tourist, for a few days.