Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,
Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
Speaker 1: First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
Speaker 2: which is brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about dealing with
Speaker 2: insects while you hunt. This is a weird one, but
Speaker 2: you gotta bear with me. The truth about what we do,
Speaker 2: whether that's I don't know, thinking solely about white tails
Speaker 2: twenty four to seven, or turkey hunting or antelope hunting
Speaker 2: or whatever, is that there are a lot of elements
Speaker 2: to any hunt, and really any preseason scouting or prep
Speaker 2: work that we kind of just gloss over. One of
Speaker 2: those is the presence of bugs, a category into which
Speaker 2: I'm gonna lump spiders and scorpions and just about anything
Speaker 2: that sucks in as gross and could potentially bite your
Speaker 2: sting you. This episode is all about those creepy crawley
Speaker 2: bastards and how to deal with them in the preseason
Speaker 2: and throughout the season. Picture this if you will. Your
Speaker 2: life is as a lab mouse, pretty rough right. The
Speaker 2: odds are you're gonna be injected with some disease or
Speaker 2: put through some tests that probably I would venture to say,
Speaker 2: are not much fun, not as fun as hanging out
Speaker 2: with a bunch of lady mice and eating cheese or
Speaker 2: whatever mice daydream of. Nope, you're a lab mouse, and
Speaker 2: one day some white coated human takes you and puts
Speaker 2: you in a panic and do like maybe showing you
Speaker 2: a video of a snake staring into your little mouse
Speaker 2: cage all of a sudden. Also introduced into this situation
Speaker 2: is a cherry blossom, a sweet, smelling, entirely totally innocent
Speaker 2: cherry blossom. Now, imagine that they do this to you
Speaker 2: several times over the course of a study. And while
Speaker 2: you don't know what the hell is going on, because
Speaker 2: you're a mouse, you know that every time you see
Speaker 2: a snake, you smell a cherry blossom. Now, before you think,
Speaker 2: I've totally lost my marbles, and some of them have
Speaker 2: rolled under the couch, and some of them are rolled
Speaker 2: into the driveway and eventually into the storm drain, to
Speaker 2: never be seen again. What I'm actually describing was an
Speaker 2: experiment real scientists did to see if genetics play a
Speaker 2: role in our fear responses. Specifically, can one generation pass
Speaker 2: down a fear of something to another generation or several generations.
Speaker 2: What one experiment nature neuroscience study showed was that a
Speaker 2: terrifying experience that changed the genetics of mice in such
Speaker 2: a way it actually manifested itself as a phobia. And
Speaker 2: what's wild is that it passed down through a couple
Speaker 2: of generations of mice. So even the offspring of those mice,
Speaker 2: when they smelled cherry blossoms, without being exposed to panic
Speaker 2: inducing situations at the same time, still exhibited a real
Speaker 2: and measurable fear response. Even mice that were created with
Speaker 2: in vitro fertilization from those original mice inherited the same
Speaker 2: fear response. In other words, through a traumatic experience, an
Speaker 2: echo of fear was created that several generations could hear. Now,
Speaker 2: this is just mice, you might be thinking, and those
Speaker 2: scientists probably don't know what the hell they are talking about,
Speaker 2: and blah blah blah. But the truth is that's pretty wild,
Speaker 2: and it's prevalent in us humans too. If you don't
Speaker 2: think so, ask yourself, why are you so scared as
Speaker 2: snakes or maybe heights, small spaces? What's your phobia, my friends?
Speaker 2: Because I bet you have one, and if you don't,
Speaker 2: I bet you know a lot of people who do.
Speaker 2: And also you're probably lying. Now ask yourself, why would
Speaker 2: someone I don't know living in New York City where
Speaker 2: chances of exposure to wild, venomous snakes are probably almost zero,
Speaker 2: Yet you could find plenty of people living there who
Speaker 2: have lived there their entire lives, who are terrified as snakes.
Speaker 2: It's not rational, which is the cornerstone of a lot
Speaker 2: of our current phobias. Or I don't know how about
Speaker 2: public speaking. I ever stood in front of a large
Speaker 2: crowd and had to address them sober. That sucks for
Speaker 2: most people, even the repercussions for a bad speech or
Speaker 2: saying something dumb, you know, even they're pretty small, But
Speaker 2: the fear is large, so large, in fact, that it
Speaker 2: creates a real metabolic response, a fear response. Or I
Speaker 2: don't know how about spiders. That's my big one, and
Speaker 2: I freaking hate it. I hate them. I can't describe it.
Speaker 2: I don't know why it is but I hate spiders. Snakes,
Speaker 2: no problem, heights, mild problem, big cats, bears, whatever, fine,
Speaker 2: But spiders, uh no, thank you. I know, and I
Speaker 2: mean I know this, even if I can't prove it.
Speaker 2: Somewhere way back in my bloodlines, some of my ancestors
Speaker 2: had some rough run ins with spiders and that made
Speaker 2: a scar on our genetics that is visible today. They
Speaker 2: are gross and dumb, and I know they eat a
Speaker 2: bunch of bugs and are mostly gentle and whatever, but
Speaker 2: I just don't care. I don't like them. Of the
Speaker 2: places I want to visit in the world, Australia is
Speaker 2: super low on my list, mostly because of their spider situation.
Speaker 2: But if you hunt, you'll deal with spiders. If you
Speaker 2: set stands in the summer or just live down south
Speaker 2: in general, you're going to run into some eight legged buddies.
Speaker 2: They're going to show up at your party at some point.
Speaker 2: It just happens. In fact, if you do this stuff enough,
Speaker 2: you'll probably deal with all kinds of creepy crawlees that
Speaker 2: can bite or sting or just generally ruin a good time. Hell,
Speaker 2: there are even caterpillars out there that should be cartoon like,
Speaker 2: fun loving, slow movers that should pose no harm to humans,
Speaker 2: but some, specifically one with a name that I can't
Speaker 2: say on here because people think I'm making it up,
Speaker 2: are covered in soft hairs that actually cover spines that
Speaker 2: will break off in your skin and cause severe pain.
Speaker 2: This is one of the reasons why when I travel
Speaker 2: to hunt Southern States, or maybe to catch some fish
Speaker 2: down there, I'm always leery of all the bugs, even
Speaker 2: the cute ones that look like they should be in
Speaker 2: a Disney cartoon. You never know which little caterpillar or
Speaker 2: fly or whatever is going to send you to the er,
Speaker 2: or at least make you very, very uncomfortable. But they
Speaker 2: are out there and we have to deal with them.
Speaker 2: In fact, if you go out this month to scout
Speaker 2: or hang some stands, or hell crawl across the prairie
Speaker 2: to try to arrow an antelope, you will find yourself
Speaker 2: dealing with bugs and spiders and bees. I have bad
Speaker 2: luck with bees, and I can only attribute it to
Speaker 2: the reality that I spend a lot of time outside
Speaker 2: disturbing the world around me. As I read this, I'm
Speaker 2: fighting the urge to scratch and scratch and scratch. Some
Speaker 2: spots on my legs and some spots way up on
Speaker 2: my legs that might make it look like I caught
Speaker 2: some kind of venereal disease recently. The truth is I
Speaker 2: mowed right over a yellowjacket hive, and those satanic bastards
Speaker 2: took it upon themselves to not only me a few
Speaker 2: times on my lower legs, but also to work their
Speaker 2: way up into my shorts. And this is only speculation
Speaker 2: on my part, so take it for what it is.
Speaker 2: But I think they might have been trying to sting
Speaker 2: me on the old knackers because they got a little
Speaker 2: too close for comfort. Late summer and early fall that's
Speaker 2: bee time. And if you're out hanging stands and maybe
Speaker 2: running a chainsaw to clear out some trails on your
Speaker 2: deer ground, pay attention. I average a couple of stings
Speaker 2: out there a year. And while most situations are just
Speaker 2: painful and leavey, shaking your fist at a dumb insect
Speaker 2: with a weapon on its ass and a poor attitude,
Speaker 2: you can get into trouble you. Obviously, if you're allergic
Speaker 2: to bees, you should know how to keep yourself safe
Speaker 2: and how to get your EpiPen in your hands if
Speaker 2: you need it. But getting whacked a bunch of times
Speaker 2: can cause non allergic folks to have bad reactions too.
Speaker 2: My personal record for one encounter was eight bee stings
Speaker 2: while I was hanging stands and my black lab found
Speaker 2: a ground nest that didn't take kindly to a black
Speaker 2: bear looking dog poking her nose into the entrance hole.
Speaker 2: I've had a couple other close calls, like when I
Speaker 2: went to hang a stand one time and I realized
Speaker 2: that there was a ground nest below me at the
Speaker 2: base of the tree. So when I figured that out,
Speaker 2: I was like eight feet up, and I realized that
Speaker 2: if I descended in normal fashion like we would all
Speaker 2: get down from our tree stand, I'd have to go
Speaker 2: right through a swarm of perturbed bees. So I executed,
Speaker 2: in at least my assessment, a near perfect dismount out
Speaker 2: of the tree, complete with a barrel roll at the end.
Speaker 2: Think about it this way. They are all over out there,
Speaker 2: and they won't take kindly to you messing with them.
Speaker 2: And what's even more annoying is how often you're in
Speaker 2: a stand minding your own dang business when a couple
Speaker 2: of bees just take a keen interest in you for
Speaker 2: some reason. At least caterpillars never do that shit. You'll
Speaker 2: also deal with mosquitoes, which, according to a lot of people,
Speaker 2: are the deadliest bug out there, since they are vectors
Speaker 2: for bad diseases like malaria. Here in the States, we
Speaker 2: have plenty of mosquitoes, and they can mostly be dealt
Speaker 2: with by wearing clothes that they can't poke through. Sure,
Speaker 2: they're annoying, you know when you hear them buzzing in
Speaker 2: your ear or watch them flying in front of your
Speaker 2: face over and over and over again. But mostly mosquitos
Speaker 2: are pretty easy to handle, at least until they get
Speaker 2: to the point where they are overwhelming. Now, I've had
Speaker 2: this happen down in the Everglades of Florida, and here
Speaker 2: at home in Minnesota, and across the river in Wisconsin
Speaker 2: on those big wood situations where the mosquitoes can be
Speaker 2: a pretty special experience. But I'll tell you what. One
Speaker 2: of the worst mosquito situations I ever found myself in
Speaker 2: was in western South Dakota, of all places, while I
Speaker 2: was hunting antelope. As you may well guess, there isn't
Speaker 2: a ton of standing water in western South Dakota. You're
Speaker 2: as likely to see a bunch of small cactus growing
Speaker 2: than you are to see a wall. But boy, oh boy,
Speaker 2: when you do find standing water at the right time,
Speaker 2: you find every mosquito in the county. And those prairie
Speaker 2: mosquitoes are built with a little extra armor and a
Speaker 2: tenacity that no big woods mosquito can match. I've found
Speaker 2: some of those same style of mosquitos on early season
Speaker 2: velvet hunts in Nebraska too. They are kama Cozi mosquitoes
Speaker 2: that come in hot, and they don't do a whole
Speaker 2: lot of courtesy laps around you to figure out where
Speaker 2: a good spot is to land. They see skin, I guess,
Speaker 2: and they go for it. Mosquitoes can be managed pretty
Speaker 2: good with clothing, as I've said, and a thermicell unit.
Speaker 2: Now they don't pay me. I don't even really know
Speaker 2: anyone who works for the company. I just know that
Speaker 2: if you deal with mosquitos and you need some help,
Speaker 2: that Thermoicella is legit and there isn't a better product
Speaker 2: on the market. Seriously, they're incredible, although you probably wouldn't
Speaker 2: want to use one in an enclosed space, I don't think.
Speaker 2: And yes, the deer can smell them, but they can
Speaker 2: also smell you. If they can smell a thermosol, so
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter. There's also I don't know the gnats
Speaker 2: and no sums that make early season hunts no fun.
Speaker 2: Oftentimes I end up with itchy gnat bites on my
Speaker 2: forehead and my ears and my hands for my early
Speaker 2: season hunts, which is annoying but not super bad. They
Speaker 2: do have a knack for flying right into your eyeballs,
Speaker 2: which is also real annoying, and no sums can be
Speaker 2: almost worse because well, you can't see them. Do you
Speaker 2: wish we named other critters that way? I do. No
Speaker 2: sums are a pain, and while I've never experienced them
Speaker 2: horribly on any hunt, I have had the displeasure of
Speaker 2: fishing close to mangroves in Florida at first Light, where
Speaker 2: the largest free ranging population of those minuscule blood sucking
Speaker 2: bastards live. And while they made me itch like crazy,
Speaker 2: they made my little girls swell up like little blonde balloons.
Speaker 2: I bet no matter where you live and hunt, you
Speaker 2: probably have some kind of bug in your region that
Speaker 2: causes you fits at certain points of the season. Maybe
Speaker 2: it's scorpions, which I know aren't really a bug, and
Speaker 2: I also have had very limited experience with him. And
Speaker 2: I'm not too sad about that. I've been stung exactly
Speaker 2: one time by a scorpion, and that was enough to
Speaker 2: get me to cross Texas off my list of places
Speaker 2: to live now. My cowboy hat wearing buddies from the
Speaker 2: Lone Star State are pretty nonchalant about scorpions and other
Speaker 2: gross critters because they deal with them all the time.
Speaker 2: Oh they shake out their boots before putting them on
Speaker 2: and look real closely at the ground when they sit
Speaker 2: on it to call turkeys or try to shoot a
Speaker 2: pig or a deer. I do too now when I'm
Speaker 2: down there, but one time I didn't, and I leaned
Speaker 2: right up against a scorpion that probably holds the world
Speaker 2: record for largest stinger. At least it felt that way
Speaker 2: when he shoved it right into my back, which was
Speaker 2: pretty rude. That feeling a throbbing pain and the uncertainty
Speaker 2: of knowing whether I was going to die for a
Speaker 2: really terrible axis deer hunt was not my idea of
Speaker 2: a good time, But it happened where it usually does
Speaker 2: in the outdoors when you're in Texas or quite a
Speaker 2: few states. Now you also have to consider fire ants. Now,
Speaker 2: I've been lucky. I've never had a run in with them,
Speaker 2: at least to the point where I got to learn
Speaker 2: firsthand why they are named as they are. But I've
Speaker 2: seen plenty of them, and honestly, if spiders are on
Speaker 2: my list of creepy crawleys that I really hate, ants
Speaker 2: are probably close second, or maybe third, after bees and wass.
Speaker 2: I don't know what it is about ants, but if
Speaker 2: you've ever had the displeasure of getting bit by them,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. Now. I know we aren't
Speaker 2: dealing with bullet ants here in the States, at least
Speaker 2: not yet. Probably if we give it enough time, they'll
Speaker 2: make their way to Florida or somewhere, but we do
Speaker 2: have plenty of ants that can ruin your day. I've
Speaker 2: been stung or bitten by a lot of ants a
Speaker 2: few different times, and I'll bet you if I was
Speaker 2: a mouse, my offspring would have a real fear of ants.
Speaker 2: In fact, my one daughter does, so maybe it already
Speaker 2: changed my genes. My worst experience was while I was
Speaker 2: hunting blacktails in California. And this is an estimate on
Speaker 2: my part, but at least a million big black carpenter
Speaker 2: looking type of ants crawled up my legs in the dark,
Speaker 2: and they all waited for the go ahead signal to
Speaker 2: bite me at the same time. It was horrible mooey
Speaker 2: or eblay and made me really appreciate Minnesota winters in
Speaker 2: the five months of brutal cold that comes with them.
Speaker 2: Bugs and spiders and creepy crawleys, they're all over. They
Speaker 2: are a part of our lives as outdoorsmen, and can
Speaker 2: actually even be a positive part. Just think about how
Speaker 2: much Mark Kenyon loves pollinators. Without them, we wouldn't have
Speaker 2: all kinds of food and stuff, and also Kenyan wouldn't
Speaker 2: have anything to weirdly obsess over. Now, a lot of
Speaker 2: those creepy crawleys out there, they're actually not They're not
Speaker 2: really threatening at all, and they're mostly welcome around us.
Speaker 2: Butterflies are a good example. I've never felt threatened by
Speaker 2: a butterfly ever, draggonflies or another. I spent quite a
Speaker 2: few hours watching dragonflies hunt over high country water holes
Speaker 2: last September while waiting on a bull elk, and if
Speaker 2: there is a more impressive hunter out there, I'm not
Speaker 2: sure I've seen it. Sometimes bugs can be entertainment, and
Speaker 2: sometimes they can just be a part of the whole
Speaker 2: experience well without causing us extreme pain or multi generational phobias.
Speaker 2: They aren't a reason to stay home, obviously, but in
Speaker 2: certain environments, at certain times, they can be a reason
Speaker 2: to be super cautious. Think about that as you head
Speaker 2: out with the best intentions to watch a bachelor group
Speaker 2: of bucks as the clock winds down to the most
Speaker 2: wonderful day of the year, the deer opener. Or maybe
Speaker 2: you aren't quite there yet, but know that a bunch
Speaker 2: of trees have fallen down across your favorite access trail.
Speaker 2: It's time to fire up the old chainsaw and get
Speaker 2: to cutting. Maybe it's as simple as taking a pole
Speaker 2: saw on your favorite ladder stand to trim up a
Speaker 2: few trees around those stand and open up some shooting lanes.
Speaker 2: Make sure there isn't a paper wasp nest in one
Speaker 2: of those shot blocking limbs. Trust me on that one.
Speaker 2: Or maybe you have a hunt book to a new state,
Speaker 2: a new environment, and you're laser focused on killing whatever
Speaker 2: animal happens to be on the menu. That's great, develop
Speaker 2: a good plan, work with what your outfit or advises,
Speaker 2: or whatever the DIY forums tell you to do, but
Speaker 2: also remember that if you're from Pennsylvania or Wisconsin or
Speaker 2: somewhere and you decide to go hunt I don't know
Speaker 2: Arizona coups deer, you better check your sleeping bag for
Speaker 2: unwanted snuggle buddies. You don't want to start a cuddle
Speaker 2: puddle with a scorpion, and if you do, go seek help,
Speaker 2: professional help. Please and please keep listening to this podcast
Speaker 2: because I'm going to talk about more stuff next week.
Speaker 2: Stuff that might help you kill a deer, for example,
Speaker 2: or to put it in another way, stuff that might
Speaker 2: help you kill a big buck early in the BO
Speaker 2: season or later in the BO season sometime maybe gun
Speaker 2: season two, whatever. Just listen. This has been the Wired
Speaker 2: to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which is brought to you by
Speaker 2: First Light. I'm your host, Tony Peterson. As I always,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for checking in and for listening.
Speaker 2: We hear a meat eator. We really appreciate all your support.
Speaker 2: I can't thank you enough for it. If you want
Speaker 2: some more content, whether it's podcasts, whether it's videos, whether
Speaker 2: it's articles, themeeedeater dot com has you covered, go there
Speaker 2: and you'll see everything we produce, which is a lot
Speaker 2: of content. Trust me,