2016 -- summer of the mosquito revenge?

[pdxgene]

All this rain and snow is bound to bring back something that I at least certainly didn't miss last year.. Do they come back with a bad attitude after taking last year off?
Or at least it seemed that way since I made it thru Jeff Park, Canyon Cr Mdws, Paradise Pk and Vista Ridge with maybe one bite total in wildflower season. I don't think that'll be likely this summer?

[BurnsideBob]

bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt bzzzzzzzzzzzt bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!

Translation: Coming, wanting, waiting-----for you.

[kelkev]

Oh yeah! A normal, healthy skeeter season is on the way....

[miah66]

Interesting. I was thoroughly harrassed on most of my summer backpacks this year. If they took a year off, they didn't bother informing me.

[drm]

Then you chose the wrong places. Most places I backpacked had a brief mosquito season months early and that was it. Even Indian Heaven. Adams and Rainier both missed their normal season. It's too early to say what this year will be like. The snowpack doesn't normally peak till early April so by then we should start having some idea what to expect.

[kelkev]

Hiking in May at 4500-5000' elevation in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, no mosquitoes, no snow. Hiking in Jefferson Park in mid-July, no mosquitoes and very few wildlfowers or snow melt tarns. Crazy year last year.

[retired jerry]

I don't think it makes that much difference if it's a low or high snow year

The couple weeks after the snow melts they'll be mosquitoes

That point in time will be delayed in a high snow year

If you don't encounter mosquitoes on a particular trip, it has more to with your timing

[-Q-]

I agree with jerry. Timing is everything with bugs.

The hatch was there last year (albeit small), but it was 2 months ahead of schedule. And it didnt last long at all.

Can't remember 1 hike last year where bugs were a factor. I hiked 122 days. Pure bliss

[VanMarmot]

The Sky Lakes Wilderness is infamous for its mosquito swarms - on par with those in Indian Heaven. But last year, except for a few pathetic buzzes at the THs, bugs weren't an issue. In fact bugs weren't an issue on any of the trails we hiked last year in S Oregon / N California.

But 2016? I'm thinking we're going to get sucked dry...

Fortunately, we scored a pack of repellant wipes at the Meet-n-Deet raffle...

[BigBear]

Too early to tell. In really heavy snow years, the mosquitoes haven't come out until the end of summer when enough snow has melted.

I'm still not sure which is worse: the mosquitoes from a wet winter or the biting flies on a warm day. The mosquitoes respect the deet.