Sand Flies in Roatan...

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

I was just there in September and both my wife and I were chewed up.

She wore 100% Deet and I used nothing. Both of us had the same number of bites. However, I didn't suffer the itching that my wife did.

FWIW, the TSA at Roatan took all but one of our 4 three ounce bug spray containers away from us when we left.
 
TSA at Roatan? WHAT? Pack it in your dive bag! They were importing Nematodes until 9/11 and TSA the real on in the USA would not allow them to be shipped! (Biologicals)???!!! I have never known the people at Roatan to stop you from bring in bug juice! The Flies are back and it is worse during flower blossom time and when the fruit is ripe the regular flies are bad! I suggest cover every inch of skin and stay underwater!
 
I have never known the people at Roatan to stop you from bring in bug juice!

He was talking about TSA taking it on the way out of Roatan. They search everything, especially since everyone has a dive bag. They take the bug spray. That's why they look so un-bitten. There's a thriving market for 1/2 bottles of bug juice. Guess where it is headquartered?

What, you got no videos of this? :eyebrow:
 
I've always found that I get a lot more bites when I still have salt on my body from the ocean. So I don't have anything to back this up with except personal experience, but wash up with freshwater as soon as you can when get out of the sea and maybe that will help.
 
TSA at Roatan? WHAT?
:shakehead: I liken it to saying "Would you like a Coke?" or "Do you need a Kleenex?" I do not know the correct name for the security screening people (and could not find it when I searched the web), but I believe my point was conveyed.

And yes, our bug spray was taken when we left Roatan (to go home). Not when we entered Roatan.
 
Had we not laid out on the beach on two separate occasions, I don't think we would have been bitten.

It really wasn't that bad. Then again, I live in Minnesota...the home of mosquitoes as large as Volkswagen Beatles.

My wife didn't say much about the itching. Our legs looked spotty for a few days and then it went away. It wouldn't deter me from returning.
 
Had we not laid out on the beach on two separate occasions, I don't think we would have been bitten.

It really wasn't that bad. Then again, I live in Minnesota...the home of mosquitoes as large as Volkswagen Beatles.

My wife didn't say much about the itching. Our legs looked spotty for a few days and then it went away. It wouldn't deter me from returning.

OK, cool. That's my wife's one big reservation about going - well, that and I'll be underwater the whole time!

I'll put our Sconnish skeeters up against yours anytime! Actually, I'm sure they're equally as bad!! The worst are the deer flies whatever they are - the ones that look like they have blood in them when (if) you do squish one, are black and have clear wings w/ dark marks on them. When they bite you swell up in that spot like crazy.

These buggars:

240px-Chrysops_callidus.jpg
 

Back
Top Bottom