CO Plateau nuisance flora/fauna conditions 2023

fossana

fossana

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Expanding our usual cedar gnat status thread.

Dates:
8-11 May

Location
Escalante/Glen Canyon, along rivers, creeks, and benches between 25M Wash and Upper Coyote Gulch

Biting insects
Cedar gnats, biting midges, and mosquitoes are starting to emerge on benches (Escalante escarpment), but still few in number. None encountered along the Escalante. Limited deer flies along creeks.

Poision Ivy
Leaves are out, but avoidable in all areas traveled, including Fools Canyon.
 
last weekend (May 5-7) I was camped along the waterpocket fold near CRNP and there weren't a ton of cedar gnats out, and it was fairly windy, but I still managed to get a decent number of bites. it wasn't even very warm! no other biters to be seen so far.
 
Anyone know how bad the bugs are right now along the upper Escalante? I'm planning on bringing my family next week to do a little backpacking trip from the town of Escalante to the Hwy 12 Bridge, and am hoping the bugs aren't too bad.
 
RyanP said:
Anyone know how bad the bugs are right now along the upper Escalante? I'm planning on bringing my family next week to do a little backpacking trip from the town of Escalante to the Hwy 12 Bridge, and am hoping the bugs aren't too bad.
Click to expand...

There are a number of recent reports about heavy mosquitoes around Escalante Natural Bridge. The cedar gnats are bad at home, but we're at a lower elevation.
 
fossana said:
There are a number of recent reports about heavy mosquitoes around Escalante Natural Bridge. The cedar gnats are bad at home, but we're at a lower elevation.
Click to expand...
We got back from our trip. There were no cedar gnats along the upper Escalante or Death Hollow. The mosquitos were annoying in patches near Escalante Natural Bridge, but otherwise weren't bad at all. Poison ivy is heavy in Death Hollow as usual, but we saw basically none along the Escalante. The Escalante was more silty and deep than when we went a few years ago, making travel in the river itself slow and difficult. Crossing it was no problem though (just knee deep or so).
 
Nudging this.
Anyone have any recent updates on gnats, deer flies, midges, no-seeums or any other wonderful early summertime pests?
There might be a canyon trip in my future in a little over a week.
 
Cedar gnats were really bad in the western San Rafael Swell (Moore Cutoff Road area) last weekend. Probably just as bad at similar elevations in the general area of the state.
 
Over the weekend, I hiked in Lower Hackberry Canyon and up to Yellow Rock. I don't know the name of the bugs that were biting me, but they were about 1/4-inch long, gray, and attacked in swarms (almost exclusively within a yard of the ground), and their bites really sting. They were ubiquitous in Cottonwood Creek and parts of Hackberry, and there were a few of them up at Yellow Rock, too.

The no-see-ums were bad around sunset and sunrise.
 
I spent a night in the at-large area just outside Torrey. It was windy and we were there only a short time that evening and an early departure... but there were only a few gnats.
We also hiked the Golden Throne at sunset and had zero bugs to speak of.

I also spent a few days in North Escalante/DH region and besides some blowflies we only saw 3 mosquitoes the last night. Seemed crazy nice for late June.
 
Yesterday I hiked Canaan Mt above Colorado City. There were a handful of biting flies at lower elevations, but otherwise it was all clear.
 
fossana said:
Yesterday I hiked Canaan Mt above Colorado City. There were a handful of biting flies at lower elevations, but otherwise it was all clear.
Click to expand...
Slightly off-topic question: did you see many filterable water sources on the mountaintop? I was thinking about exploring the valley north of the windlass ruins at some point over the next few days, and while I know of a couple of long-lasting pools and ponds, they're a bit out of the way compared to where I'd like to hike.
 
utahastro said:
Slightly off-topic question: did you see many filterable water sources on the mountaintop? I was thinking about exploring the valley north of the windlass ruins at some point over the next few days, and while I know of a couple of long-lasting pools and ponds, they're a bit out of the way compared to where I'd like to hike.
Click to expand...
I did Water Canyon to Squirrel Canyon. There was still some water in the potholes in the Water Canyon drainage. I didn't detour to the other springs up there.
 
Report from last week:
There were a few mosquitos in the Escalante River corridor, not enough to be a bother. The poison ivy is plentiful. Sleepy Hollow is extra thrashy with horsetails (Equisetum sp.) and some poison ivy. Potholes were full, but it hasn't rained much since and it was ~90F when I left.
 
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