flies and other annoyances

Australia is home to several million species of insects.

You will meet many of them.

In the tropics there are (small) bird sized moths, carnivorous green ants, long, long centipedes. Big spiders.

In the drier areas there are fewer species but what they lack in diversity they make up in numbers.

Flies are annoying if you let them. They don’t bite. They can, however, blacken the skies with their density of population. There’s one good point: being afraid of the dark they head home after sunset. And you get a couple of days respite during the daylight hours after a decent rainfall or cool spell.

Ants also go home but they come back again, night and day. They are a restless lot. They cover the Australian continent. There’s big ones an inch long that can give a good nip. Small ones can as well. Generally ants are just annoying crawling over your skin, tickling. Put all your food in the tent and keep it zipped up.

Mosquitos, or mozzies, are an issue. Your skin can itch for days after they bite and then can get infected. Not a good look.

In the tropical zones mozzies can carry Ross River fever, or Dengue fever, which would severely inconvenience your health. Life threatening, but you usually recover. Arrh, usually.

Long pants and long sleeves with some high strength repellant on any exposed areas is essential just before the sun goes down if you are anywhere near water.

Spiders and scorpions are not so common. You get used to avoiding them. Mostly.