One of our viewers had a question about a story that got a lot of people’s attention this week: all those bugs at Burning Man! Some are smelly, while others, according to the Sonoran Desert Naturalist field guide, “may seek moisture by inserting their proboscis into the skin – i.e. they bite and can be rather annoying!”
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And, he says unseasonably wet weather has brought stink bugs, some mosquitos and gnat-like seed bugs. “The plant-feeding bugs generally have no interest in feeding on anything else except their preferred plant, but they’re so stupid that when they land on something or stand on something, they might sample it”. The week-long event was attended by nearly 66,000 people previous year . “So, actually it’s gotten better in the last few days”.
Debra Bautista wrote in asking what the local industry is doing to prepare for the bugs when Burning Man is over. It appears that this event offers one radical shindig!
Rich Pollack, a public health entomologist and senior environmental public health officer at Harvard University, said he thinks the insects shown in pictures are stink bugs and that the smaller flying insects are a kind of seed bug. Though, these bugs don’t want to feed on human beings.
The bugs do not seem to be life-threatening, even if people are stung by them.
Burning Man officials are saying a man working to set up the site died of natural causes overnight. They get up and in you…
So why are the bugs invading this year’s Burning Man when they’ve not infested the festivities in the past? They crawl all over you.
Recently, there have been a rumors about the bug on the internet. He says he first noticed the bugs at a gas station near Black Rock. While the bugs were dispersed throughout the area, it is the bright lights, which are the only lights for miles around, which beckoned the bugs to the Burning Man location as the crews are setting up for the event. Sheehy also recommends bug spray, particularly a type with a good amount of DEET.
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“They’ve been feeding on mustards and mustards contain mustard oils”, Yanega explains. “When these crops begin to brown up, they’re going to disperse or die”.
