Really big skeeter ...

Gather App
Guns.com Vault
mc5aw

mc5aw

Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
5,223
Reaction score
8,587
City & State/Province
The free state of PA
This afternoon, I was relaxing on the porch with my laptop, scrolling through various threads on the S&W Forum. As I was reading, I heard a buzzing, that seemed to get louder by the second. Since we live between the Susquehanna and Chemung Rivers, bug season can get pretty bad, and with the dampness of late, I figured the skeeters are making an early appearance. I got up, went inside to get a can of bug spray, then returned to the porch ... the buzzing was very loud now, and Angus the Rat Terrier was barking up a storm while looking skyward. Following Angus' cue, I looked up and saw the biggest derned skeeter circling above. Never seen one that big, ever! Must be the dampness ... or the S&W Forum reading.

I know the unwritten rule around these parts is, "Didn't happen without pictures ..." so I snapped one for all you non-believers.

Back to my Forum reading ...
 

Attachments

  • BigSkeeter.jpg
    BigSkeeter.jpg
    74.7 KB
droneloads.jpg
 
Really? This may sound silly but why would that thing be flying around in PA with a missle attached to its wing? Why also would the landing gear be lowered? The marking on the side of it looks like a military insignia - do you live near a military base? That just amazes me!
 
PA Reb said:
Really? This may sound silly but why would that thing be flying around in PA with a missle attached to its wing? Why also would the landing gear be lowered? The marking on the side of it looks like a military insignia - do you live near a military base? That just amazes me!
Click to expand...

I have strong suspicion that's a file photo. Seems kinda perfectly framed and all that....;)
 
PA Reb said:
Really? This may sound silly but why would that thing be flying around in PA with a missle attached to its wing? Why also would the landing gear be lowered? The marking on the side of it looks like a military insignia - do you live near a military base? That just amazes me!
Click to expand...

Reb ... As a fellow Pennsylvanian, you should well know that those skeeters start circling as soon as we fire up the S&W Forum. Matter of fact, there's one hovering as I type. ;)
 
Packs quite the sting that one.
First thing i would be aiming for is the camera.
A blind skeeter can't get you.
You better try something stronger than Deet
to keep those pests away.


Chuck
 
Used to be a logger up here in northern Minnesota by the name of Paul Bunyan. Things have been tamed a bit since his day, but not by much. Have you ever encountered the Mosquito of the North Country? You thought they were pretty well developed animals with keen appetites, didn't you? Then you can appreciate what Paul Bunyan was up against when he was surrounded by the vast swarms of the giant ancestors of the present race of mosquitoes, getting their first taste of human victims. The present mosquito is but a degenerate remnant of the species. Now they rarely weigh more than a pound or measure more than fourteen or fifteen inches from tip to tip.

Paul had to keep his men and oxen in the camps with doors and windows barred. Men armed with pikepoles and axes fought off the insects that tore the shakes off the roof in their efforts to gain entrance. The big buck mosquitoes fought among themselves and trampled down the weaker members of the swarm and to this alone Paul Bunyan and his crew owe their lives.

Paul determined to conquer the mosquitoes before another season arrived. He thought of the big Bumble Bees back home and sent for several yoke of them. These, he hoped would destroy the mosquitoes. Sourdough Sam brought out two pair of bees, overland on foot. There was no other way to travel for the flight of the beasts could not be controlled. Their wings were strapped with surcingles, they checked their stingers with Sam and walking shoes were provided for them. Sam brought them through without losing a bee.

The cure was worse than the original trouble. The Mosquitoes and the Bees made a hit with each other. They soon intermarried and their off-spring, as often happens, were worse than their parents. They had stingers fore-and-aft and could get you coming or going.

Their bee blood caused their downfall in the long run. Their craving for sweets could only be satisfied by sugar and molasses in large quantities, for what is a flower to an insect with a ten-gallon stomach? One day the whole tribe flew across Lake Superior to attack a fleet of ships bringing sugar to Paul's camps. They destroyed the ships but ate so much sugar they could not fly and all were drowned.

One pair of the original bees were kept at headquarters camp and provided honey for the pancakes for many years.
 
My father-in-law was a pipe-liner from Mississippi working on a line through northern Minnesota back in the '50s. Met my wife's mother working in a cafe in Bagley. As the pipe line moved east, he kept driving back further and further to eat at Lee's Cafe. Anyway, he once said, "Who IS this guy Paul Bunyan? He must own half of Bemidji. His name is on everything!"

True story.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

NYlakesider
Gun sent to S&W, got quick turnaround!
Replies
13
Views
1K
Dvus
D
Faulkner
Daisy and black mamba
Replies
12
Views
1K
sureshotbob
S
NYlakesider
Passing on the Skeeter Skelton book!
Replies
28
Views
2K
jlrhiner
jlrhiner
bigmoose
Pops must be smiling. A Yuletide Story II
Replies
3
Views
831
joeintexas
joeintexas
steamloco76
Home Sweet Home-Still can't walk though
Replies
4
Views
2K
rwsmith
rwsmith

Latest posts

Back
Top