Pests annoying me
 

I need some advice on my situation. I have not mentioned it before because it's a bit strange,and I was hoping it would clear up,but it hasn't.

Since this past July/August 2006, I have noticed that I am being followed/annoyed by gnat like bugs or fruit flies.

They seem to be flying around me constantly. When I go to work, they will be in my office... bothering me. When I am in my car at least one will have found his way there flying around me/on me.

I can actually go to a restaurant or cinema, and notice that one has found it's way there too somehow!

I don't understand how they have managed to attach themselves to me/on me and follow me from place to place. I know that they are attracted to smell,but I am not using any new shampoos/soaps.

Nothing out of the ordinary. I only take my normal vitamins and my BP meds as per normal.

I have no plants,and leave no food out, and my house is very clean.

I notice that they actually seem to fly around me specifically. Generally there is not more than 1 at a time. I will kill it,and ten minutes later I will notice another one flying around me. I do not want to give the impression that there are many like a swarm, as I said it's only one flying around,and then another at some later stage.

My co-workers have noticed this also,and have said that it's odd. I wouldn't suspect that I had something to do with it personally, but it's been going on for 10 months now,and they seem to appear wherever I am, ie, inside my car,my house,my office,at restaurants.

Any ideas anyone?

I Know Exactly What You Are Going Through!!!
 

Years ago, if I went to visit relatives who lived out in the country, bees would follow me everywhere. No one believed me (and no, I wasn't wearing anything yellow). I said "watch this, and I moved from where I was, and they followed me. I didn't wear any particular perfume. I was very young, like 14 or 15.

This happened so much, I stopped going in their backyards. I once went to the park with some friends and sure enough, bees came around me.

Maybe we give off an aura or something in our bodies are attracting them.

But I just read that bees are dying off.

I hope you get rid of the gnats. Try spraying on some OFF or something that is sold in your neck of the woods, some bug repellant or something with Deet.

Jeez, gnats and fruitflies. boy oh boy


Melody

Thanks Mel
 

I thought maybe because I snack in my office,and I'll eat a piece of fruit,and throw the core in the bin.

But let's say I leave the office to go to the bathroom,or another office, it will actually follow me. So why doesn't it stay with the fruit core?

But this will happen all day long weather i eat or not, and regardless of where I am. I just went into a co-workers office to speak to him, and one was all over me in there.

He said he has been showering twice a day because he thought it was him, but since seeing how it was all over me, he know thinks it's me They Want!!:eek:

Just to mention I shower in the morning and use Dove unscented soap,and at night I take a hot bath before bed to help relax my muscles so I can sleep better.

As I said I was just going to deal with this on my own,but 10 months is a long time to have a problem like this,and not have had any sort of advice. I also posted on the Rare conditions forum too.

I am trying to think of all the reasons this may be happening. Like does it have anything to do with my PN?

This is the time and year we get them in Mo. You open the door there
waiting to greet you at the door. The love fruit never leave a core
laying around,and some of the juice from the fruit may be getting on
you,it happens. There really bad now since we are haven't floods,poor
people are loosing there homes and so much farm land..:( Sue

Mel are you sleeping??

I have no idea why they are attracted to you but just taking a wild guess, perhaps one of your neighbors has a one or more fruit trees that is attracting them, or a composs bin close to your fence that you may walk past every morning and perhaps they jump on you then and then the little buggers come for a ride to work with you.
I would be very tempted to lay some bait in plastic containers for them along the neighbours fence that you may think there coming from, and also bait in your car so their attracted more so to your bait, than you, i found this on the net were people had a big problem with fruit flies.
.................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ............................

I work in a restaurant and we get them bad in the summer, and we use a mixture of cider vinegar, and water. about 70 percent vinegar, and 30 percent water, in a glass, and set them where you have the most fruit flies. a few days of that, and your glasses will have fruit flies floating on top. But make sure to use CIDER vinegar. The cider attracts them. change the mixture everyday, and do it for a couple weeks. It may not be the most pleasant smell, but hey, No fruit flies. Give it a try! It really works! Good luck!

good luck anyway
Brian :)

Oh, yeah. My son has always had that same problem.

He could be standing in a field with 100 other people and there would a cloud of bugs flying around his head and none around anyone else.

I've actually seen wasps follow him for yards. They don't bother me at all. As a matter of fact, I'm sort of the neighborhood "wasp lady". There's one place on my balcony where the paper wasps like to build a nest -- I let them. They don't bother me.

It's probably got something to with chemicals -- a combination of the products that you use for washing clothing and bathing and shampooing together with your own natural body scent.

I'd try something 'simple' first like Avon's Skin-so-Soft. It's supposed to be a good repellant (http://heritage.scotsman.com/ingenui...?id=1819182005). It that didn't work, I'd try something stronger. But, I'd talk with the pharmacist and get something 'gentle'. You don't want to be lathering yourself up with some kind of horrendous chemical.

If you're not using scentless detergent and fabric softener to clean your clothes, I'd give that a try too.

Barb

I dont have bugs following me, but i am usually starting to get bitten by mosquitos or no see ums long before other people are in the same place.

Sue:

I have suffered from insomnia for most of my life. I now take some Alprazolam (only because it relaxes me enough) and I go to sleep at around 11:30 p.m. and I get up at around 8 a.m.

I would take Ambiem if I could afford it but my insurance plan doesn't. I had samples of Lunesta. It worked for exactly 2 days then it did NOTHING!!!

So I must have a hyper nervous system or something.

When I was a baby, I NEVER SLEPT, or so my mother threw that fact up to me most of my life. Maybe that's why she never could stand me. I must have drove them nuts bouncing in the crib.
They tried a teaspoon of wine one night (as per doctor's instructions) and I slept for 14 hours straight. My parents were in heaven.

The next night they tried giving me a TABLESPOON of wine and I danced all night. Can you imagine being the parent of a kid who doesn't sleep normally. No wonder my mom became a bitter mean old lady. I wonder why she never took a sleeping pill. She would take naps during the day. They both did. It's amazing what one remembers as one gets older.

She would always say to me "I only hope your son keeps you up all night like you kept me up" He didn't (only because he slept in our bed till he was 5). I know, not a good thing, but I had to get my sleep. I used to fall asleep holding his little foot. I remember reading about how in Europe it's not uncommon to have something called a Family Bed where everybody sleeps together. It's kind of a bonding experience and the kids feel secure. Actually, if it works for ya, I see no harm. When my son was a baby, putting him in my bed (while not the smartest thing for a marriage), well, I got to go to sleep, so to me, it was just fine. I will never forget when Frank turned 5, Alan got so disgusted he said "enough is enough, you are sleeping in your own bed from now on". We had a few bad nights but it worked.

So who knows who is right and who is wrong? The people with the Family bed, or the people who never let their kids into the beds in the first place????

I'll never know. (But at least I got my sleep).

Now I just take my Alprazolam and sleep like a baby.

Melody

I just read why insects are attracted to us!!!
 

Here's what I just got off the internet!!!!

Scientists think that insects may be attracted by body odor or perhaps by pheromones-the natural odors that attract people to one another. Insects do possess the senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. People with allergies or eczema/atopic dermatitis appear to be more prone to bites as well as to complications like bacterial infections from scratching.


So we are either giving off pheramones, or sweat, or something!!!!

mel

Kids who don't sleep much
 

Hi Melody:

My daughter and only child, who is now 50, didn't sleep much for the first two years of her life and I of course, was exhausted all the time. When she was an infant, an older lady, who had been a nurse, told me that "the smart ones don't sleep much." Now, I don't know if there is any truth in that, but my daughter is very smart, said her first word, "thunder" at seven months, and is still a very smart woman successful in her work.

So, I am inclined to believe the old nurse - and you are another proof of
a smart one!

Shirley H.

sleepless kids
 

Sleepless kids (gifted)
 

Hi coachV:

Thanks for your input. I had forgotten when I wrote my posting that my stepson also kept his parents awake when an infant. There was a grandmother living with them too, and all the adults took turns trying to get this infant to sleep by walking him, etc. He is now a grown man and very knowledgeable about computers and systems. He became a member of MENSA while in highschool - took the test at my urging.

I am glad to know about the speaker asking parents about non sleepers. This topic has interested me for decades. I have always suspected that the smart babies hate to go to sleep and miss anything.

Thanks again CoachV.

Shirley H.

Thanks you all
 

for your input. Maybe I do have some sort of aura or something that they like. I think I will start off with the traps and see how I go.

Thank you

Just had another thought, perhaps they may be attracted to hair spray or gel.

Since this is a thread about pests, I just had to share what happened to Alan and I yesterday when we went to Kings Plaza Mall in Brooklyn.

Our podiatrist is located in the mall. So we had a few minutes to kill so we decided to walk around the mall. Well, I never in all my life saw such exhibits.

Every once in a while, someone will set up a display of art, or of jewelry, or SOMETHING from another country and you can view it or purchase it.

Well, Alan and see this tremendous exhibit and you will never in million years iimagine what the guy was exhibiting!!!! INSECTS!!! From various parts of the world, like Rain Forests, Afraica, Central America, you name it, there was a creature on exhibit. And I'm not talking your average two inch creature here. Each specimen was encased in glass. They were preserved. After I realized what I was actually looking at, I just stopped dead in my tracks and said "Alan, get over here, you have to see this giant Beetle". He walks over and there we both stood mesmerized, looking at the biggest beetle in the whole world. Must have been over 10 inches long. All the creatures had amazing names. I never saw things with wingspans like these things. They had something called a stick creature (or something like that). It looked like ordinary twigs but it was an insect. And it was over a foot long. And they had scorpions, dragonflies the size of something you would see on the SciFi Channel.

But nothing prepared me for when I walked to the other side of the exhibit. When I saw what I saw, I started to back away (and remember, these things were DEAD....... There was a guy in another stand selling cosmetics and I whispered to him "Do you know what is directly behind you?" and the guy whispered back to me "You mean the centipede, the one that's 3 feet long"??? Then he said "I am NOT TURNING AROUND".

So Alan comes around to where I am standing and he is face to face with the biggest bug you ever saw and he has his nose pressed up against the glass and I simply said "Alan, just glance down and look to the right". You never seen a man jump so high in your life. He said "Holy *****". What is that thing, a centipede???" There were two specimens and one was bigger than the other.

I simply moved backwards and said "let's get out of here, these things are giving me the heeby jeebies. Then I run into the guy who is showing the exhibit and I say "where on earth did you get these things?" Are you ready for his answer???" He said "Why, we grow them on a farm". I said "You do WHAT????" Do you mean you grew these things on purpose?" and he said "oh of course". and I said:... "in a lab"??? And he said: "No, on a farm". And I said "AND YOU DO THIS WHY?????" and he laughed and said "for scientific purpose and teaching". I just looked at him and said "you do know these big flying things must be descendants of the teradactyls??? The guy burst out laughing.

I grabbed Alan and ran out of there. When we got to the podiatrist, when Alan got in the chair, I said to Dr. Baird. "There's an exhibit in the mall that is right up your alley (because he grows plants in a hothouse, I figured he would be fascinated, right). Well, he goes, "Melody, if you are talking about the giant bugs in the mall, NO THANK YOU, I DON'T LIKE BUGS, ALIVE, DEAD OR BEHIND GLASS.

I mean, if anybody can get to Kings Plaza, the exhibit is on the first floor.

Bring some smelling salts. I almost needed them myself.

Heebe Jeebies, believe me!!!!

Aussie, how did you get on the those annoying fruit flies.

It's a bit embaressing....
 

Ok I'll confess!!!:wink:


I cut down on eating fruit in my office and the fruit flies have not been bothering me as much. So next week I am going to try to not snack or eat any fruit in the office and see how I go??

:D :D fair enough & good luck ;)

No more fruit!! no more snacks.

Now won't you be a skinny thing!!!!!!

lol
Mel

There you go
 

I'm a old nurse,never could sleep at childhood or old lady hood and
right from the get go i told you not to eat fruit in your offic. So this
makes me a sleepy genius and a wise one at that..:D Sue

Too funny!
 

Gees Sue, can you beleive that fruit flies have been bothering me because of eating too much fruit in my office!!:D

Although I still think that you have to have a desirable "Aura"

Hey Aussie, be careful about using insect repellant: the chemicals in them are neurotoxic. Maybe a fruit fly isn't so bad.

Ya know...that's a good question. Nerves function by synapse which is pretty much a just a fancy word for an electrical impulse, if you will. I wonder if it has something to do with it such as it alters a persons normal, natural magnetic fields? Does this even make sense?

Or try this: Immediately bag up the core from the fruit you were eating so that it's sealed in an airtight manner. Make sure you wash your hands and around your mouth when you get done. That might be part of it. You could be leaving enough of the scent of the fruit on you that the flies can still 'smell' it even though you can't or aren't even aware of it!

What if I "love" to sleep and am still smart?
 

I'll admit, I didn't graduate at the top of my class, but was in the top 10%! I still love to sleep! Took naps as often as I could as a kid. Sleep until 10:00 on weekends if no one bothers me... and take naps on weekends if I have the chance.
Sleeping is my "treat" when I have extra time on my hands. Some would go for an ice cream, some would go to the mall, some would go for a walk, me, I would go for a pillow and a blanket and curl up on the couch if I had 20 minutes!
At least 2 times a week at lunch I'll go out to my car and set the alarm on my cell phone. I have my granddaughters blanket in the back seat and I'll take a 30 minute nap.

incoming
 

I have a problem with vultures. Seriously, every time I ride my bike, I see vultures circling. Now maybe they are there all the time and I only notice them when I ride my bike...never the less, the ugly warty, red headed beasts, which are actually quite regal flyers, seem attracted to me. (In my prime, I always thought my friends got the good looking guys.) :D

One of my former riding companions was bitten by a sandhill crane....she is lucky she was just bitten on the calf...they can kill a person with one peck....I guess I will take the benign vultures circling overhead then the lovely sculptural cranes hiding in the tall grass. At least I can see them coming....

Now beware of brood XIII of Cicadas due to be 'born' over the next few weeks in the midwest!!! They are 17 year cicadas and are supposed number in the billions....I have heard they will be dripping from trees and making tremendous noise.

well lucky for me...
 

I live in Australia. I only have to worry about flying bats over 1 metre long. Deadly spiders the size of a large man's hand, sharks at the beach, and the odd crocky.

Yikes!! Spiders the size of -- holey mackerel :eek:

I keep my eye on several different blogs. This is one of my favorites:
http://www.roundrockjournal.com/

On May 18th, he wrote about a tick:

The "athletic bouquet" is the part that stood out to me. Could it be... :confused: :D

Hugs.

Barb :hug:

PS: If you want to read the original post, you can. I just saw how the Crazed Asterisker modified my typing http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9.../killingme.gif

Aussie, this mite sound silly, BUT
 

Does this only happen in your office? Does the office have 'decorator plants'? Does a service 'do' the plants, or a well-meaning person in the office. Go around and check the plant's water trays, and if one is always soggy [stick your finger on top of the dirt and if you get dirt particles on your finger 3 times -Mon, Wed, Fri] I will be you'll find gnats or fruit-fly like critters living in the dirt...and the plant won't look to healthy. Plant is overwatered, roots are rotting and bugs are attracted - until a more tasty morsel comes along, such as you! Move the plant, and water it less and Maybe, that will help. I have been the company plant doctor in prior lifes...and rarely ever had to use pesticides...just good care.
Well, It may seem far-fetched, but, I have known it to happen!
Worth a try I guess!
May we soon hear you are bug-free! - j

batter up
 

Aussie-
I would flip out in Australia! I love creatures, but you sound like you have some creatures even Noah would not take on, lol.:eek: I would carry a tennis racket!

I cannot believe I am reading about Vultures!!!!
 

And cicadas waking up after 17 years, and numbering in the billions and falling off of trees???? I would die of a heart attack if I ever saw a vulture, let alone billions of any kind of insects.

Thank God, I can stay inside my apartment, where I can spray my bug spray into the crevices (every few months I do this, and I do it very carefully),and the worst thing I'll get is a stray ant or two.

I was looking at TV the other night and they had a movie called Pacific Heights on. There's a seen where Melanie Griffith opens up the cabinets under the kitchen sink and hundreds of roaches are swarming. I thought I would die. I turned that off in no time.

Give me no bugs, no vultures, no cicadas. Imagine if I lived in a swamp? I'd never survive. I am NOT A BOY SCOUT, BELIEVE ME.!!!!!


JEEZ. VULTURES, CICADAS, HOW DO YOU PEOPLE DO THIS????

Mel

Melody
 

Then I wont send you a picture of a pet I had to get rid of last year because everyone was afraid of her - "Charlotte" - my tarantula! One of my cats I lost last year would spend hours watching her (yes, I kept her in a terrarium) but she was tame enough to walk around on me if she was in a good mood....) (tarantulas arent venemous to people - just hurt if they bite cause they do have some big teeth!)

I've heard that Australia has some of the nastiest spiders - no thank you! (dont you have one that will come in the home and attack a person? - keep em down under!):eek:

Spiders... you haven't seen a spider until...
 

Ok I will tell you what happened. I am sure Brian probably has a simlilar experience.

I was lying in bed watching television and I felt something crawling on my legs,lifted the cover and saw a big hairy hunstman spider the size of my hand (open), in my bed. Just think of a turantula and then double it's size.

Another time one jumped on my head when I was in the loo!

At night when I walk my dog, now and again, I accidentally walk into spider webs and I have had spiders get stuck in my hair.

I have had 2 bats ram into me late at night,and the bats down here are ugly!!! No they don't look anything like the movies. Just think of the most horrible looking creature you can imagine with wings,and then think of him in your bedroom! LOL!!:D

I am still speaking of a bat, by the way!! I'm killing myself laughing right now cause this sounds a bit funny, but they can get into your house through the chimney and believe me they are scary.:D

I live on the east coast in OZ, redbacks seem to like it down here in Victoria, but only ever seen them outside, they seem to like getting underneath things and if you disturb them :eek: ya gota move quick.:D :D

The biggest spider i have seen down here was one day when my nephew was washing his car on the front lawn, he stuck the hose in the back wheel arch and this spider come out :eek: :eek: this thing was a monster, much much bigger than a mans hand, like a crab , i never seen anyone move so fast i my life :D :D
i couldn't stop laughing, my poor nephew got a hell of a shock, he turned white and all, i grabbed a long shovel and chased it to try to kill it but it was to quick for me, but from that day onwards he only took his car to the car wash.
So yeah there around but don't bother us unless we happen to bother them.

Brian :)

In Virginia we have poisonous snakes as well. Tons of bees and not the mostly mild-mannered honey bee either. All kinds of bugs everywhere. It's almost like living in the tropics at times in the summer when it's been real hot and humid. I got used to most of it over time. At first it freaked me out terribly....but you do get used to it.

This is the beast that was in my bedroom!!
 

Holy SMOKES....
 

I can barely deal with the little spiders we have up North!

I don't think I could handle those monster ones at all! EEEEUUUUUWWWW!:p

Aussie, talking about those Hunstmans :D , one really hot night i happened to leave my car window down all night & parked under a tree at friends place, in the morning we drove for 2 hours until we got into the big smoke and were driving through peak hour traffic in Melbourne and i happened to see something move out the corner of my eye, on my window, so i looked around and about 2 inches from my face was one of those great big hairy huntsmans crawling accross the drivers side window :eek: i was in the middle lane and traffic and cars were every were, i could not get over to pull up for a few minutes whilst this horrible looking thing crawled back and forth across my dashboard, anyway i got a break in traffic and got over to the curb, we jumped out and this thing was going crazy running all over the inside of my car, i managed to get a news paper out of the back seat and i tried to brush him out the car, i got him to the edge then he ran up the paper at me, so i dropped the paper and luckily it fell into the gutter, thank god , it then ran down the gutter and easily skipped over the kerb on to the the pavement, were some ladies started screaming when they seen it, it was a big one, anyway it found a nice hiding place in someones front yard.
I haven't left my window down again since :D :D

Well, Brian & Aussie,

I guess you've pretty much guaranteed that you two won't be getting many visitors :D

I kinda like the bats :p

Big flying insects and cockroaches of ANY KIND freak me out. Isn't there a Stephen King movie about cockroaches eating their way out of a man's chest :eek: http://chocolate-moose.p5.org.uk/MINIS/smile33.gif http://chocolate-moose.p5.org.uk/MINIS/faint.gif

Thanks for sharing :NOT: :D

Barb

:D :D its really not that bad :D :D