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Roatan and Bay Islands Discussion List Archive
| Posted On: | 23-Mar-2005 |
| From: | Sven Zoerner [s.a.z.....de] |
| Subject: | Re: [roatan] Re: Sand Fleas |
Hi to all, i canīt stand it anymore. have to repost it ;-) I wrote 18 september 2003: >>>>>>> However, Sand fleas is a term which is often used for the little biting insects which bother so many people in tropical and northern coast and wetland regions. This term is scientifically wrong. Sand fleas are amphibean crustaceans living at oceans shoreline, of the family Amphipoda. They donīt bite, they donīt itch and you donīt have to have any fear of them. They are just called fleas because they are so fast and seem to jump when you or a wave comes near to them. check: http://www.amphipoda.com/index.html The Sandflies are insects and belong to the family of Ceratopogonidae which spreade widly and most species suck on plants only.Nevertheless there are some which have especial females which are specialised on either birds, mammals or reptiles and suck their blood to get enough protein for breeding. Some of these are even vektors of viruses or other deseases(Not known for the Bay Islands!). The Term used by scientists is "biting midges". Commonly used is the term "sandflies" or wrongly and biasly "sandfleas" because of the flealike effect of there bite. check: http://www.belmont.edu/Science/Biology/cienews/cie.html This insects orientate by smell, temperature and CO2 and are mainly active in the hours arround sunset, especially when the weather is wet and not windy. The animals are to small to cope with strong winds. To protect against them you should where longsleved light-colored clothes when in sandfly areas or in the evening. Dark colored clothes are warmer for the temperatures sensors of the sandflies and signal for a warm blooded animal. You need a very fine meshed moscito netting which they canīt access. They canīt not bite through an oilfilm which is at least protective for some time. Not to bet sweated is not easy in the tropics but sweat helps the sandflys to find you. If you have been bitten please donīt try to scratch. Better use antihistaminic salves to relieve your pain or use cooling oils or H2O2 (Dont use the last two whith open scratched sandflie bites, it will hurt.) DEET is helpful against moskitos, sandflies will probably not be deterred so much by this poisson. Please understand that any insect, how much it will bother you, may play an probably unknown important role within the fragile ecosystem. They or there larvae might be a food source for birds, reptile or larger insects, fishes, etc. Other near relatives which would also be killed with general insekticides may play an important role in plant biodiversity or plant reproduction. Probably other insect populations like moskitos, tik, wasp etc. might be controlled by parasitic or desease vectors which are brought to them through sandflys. Controll-loops of Nature are to complicated to have them understood totally today any major impact through humans can have catastrophically consequences which we canīt predict. kind regards Sven Zörner http://www.roatanet.com To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/roatan/ roatan- : | |
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