Blue green dots

[menzies]

Anchored off St Michaels the last two nights and our boat got covered by small green/blue specks. They look like pollen or spores, and are hard to remove.

Any ideas?

 

[Chrisjs]

We had exactly the same experience when anchored in Solomons some years back. Did eventually wash off but never did find what (insect?) they were. Never saw the problem anywhere else.

 

[leeman]

Moth poop?

 

[dhays]

spores, poop or pollen. I know that pollen is really hard to get off but we have found that Simple Green works pretty well to wash if off with a little scrubbing.

 

[High Wire]

There is a type of mosquito in the upper Chesapeake Bay that leaves little green spots. It washes off with some effort and soap.

 

[ranger58sb]

We had the same thing down in Solomons this last weekend. I was beginning to wonder if it was residue from jet fuel (they were doing touch-and-gos at Pax River NAS most of the time)...

But then we did have a boatload of the small mosquito-like (but non-biting) bugs swarming all over the place, too. I forget what those are called...

-Chris

 

[Chrisjs]

In New England we use the Indian term "no see ums"!! They do not bite per se but they do cause skin irritation.

 

[Lou_tribal]

When we bought our boat, first night a the dock before departure we made the mistake to use a slip right below a big light. When we woke up in the morning the boat was fully covered with these blue/green dots left by kind of moth, it took us 3h to brush the whole boat to get the mess cleaned. First unforgettable boat experience

L

 

[ranger58sb]

In New England we use the Indian term "no see ums"!! They do not bite per se but they do cause skin irritation.

Heh... these are definitely "See-Ums"! They look like mosquitos and they're about the same size... and we really had swarms of them up on the flybridge each morning. Thought about sucking them up with a shop vac, but then decided trying to blow them away might work better... and our only shop vac on board just now doesn't blow. (Gotta fix that.)

The "No-See-Ums" I've seen are really tiny things, often not visible until after you focus on where it just started to hurt...

-Chris

 

[psneeld]

Heh... these are definitely "See-Ums"! They look like mosquitos and they're about the same size... and we really had swarms of them up on the flybridge each morning. Thought about sucking them up with a shop vac, but then decided trying to blow them away might work better... and our only shop vac on board just now doesn't blow. (Gotta fix that.)

The "No-See-Ums" I've seen are really tiny things, often not visible until after you focus on where it just started to hurt...

-Chris

Yep....not no seeums...

Big discussion awhile back on the Great Loop forum. NC and VA has some kind of midge or mayfly or similar that does this.

My buddy who ran tugs/barges through that intracoastal said they turn off every light,including nav lights as soon as possible to avoid these guys.

Assuming the dots are the same origin....but sounds like it.

 

[ranger58sb]

Ah Midge, that's it. The Mayflies are larger, not what we were seeing this last weekend.

And of course I had my "pimp lights" on the bridge turned on for some of that, so could well be I was partly at fault anyway. OTOH, there were also boatloads of the things even before I did the light show thing.

Seems to me the often show up in high humidity and low (no) breeze. Hence my thought about blowing them off from time to time with a shop vac or similar. I tried some battery-operated portable fans, but I think the result wasn't concentrated enough...

-Chris

 

[chc]

That is "midge " frass (poop). Midges don't bite, altho some of the swarms are heavy enough to suffocate you. Parts of the upper bay; Back River, Magothy, etc are known for the lil' devils. "Awesome" cleaner $ 1.00 @ Dollar General will dissolve the green specs easily. DO NOT get it on any glass surfaces, as it will etch them right away.

 

[boathealer]

That is "midge " frass (poop). Midges don't bite, altho some of the swarms are heavy enough to suffocate you. Parts of the upper bay; Back River, Magothy, etc are known for the lil' devils. "Awesome" cleaner $ 1.00 @ Dollar General will dissolve the green specs easily. DO NOT get it on any glass surfaces, as it will etch them right away.

Anchored in the Alligator River in NC, Sept 2015. Dead midges 2" thick over the ENTIRE boat. The pictures below don't do it justice.

Took 6 hours to clean. Blue/green stuff EVERYWHERE. I could hear the air from the 400,000 wings from inside the boat.