Everyone’s sensory profile is so different. I would rather have a hoodie on with the hood up, or a knitted cap, All The Time. I don’t do it in the summer because i don’t like heat stroke but… i like being covered.
I mean to make an “iNat and Neurodiversity” thread at some point, but just haven’t had time yet
I’m not sure I completely understand the term ‘neurodiverse’. I suspect I would fall into the category, but if you could define (as best you can), that would be helpful!
Sorry, i may be misusing the term slightly. Neurodiversity is the idea that all sorts of different brain types are important and valid including autistm spectrum, adhd, etc. (or at least that’s an oversimplified summary)… but the term for someone who is not ‘neurotypical’ is actually ‘neurodivergent’. as mentioned here: http://dart.ed.ac.uk/neurodiverse-or-neurodivergent/ . Neurodivergent includes neurotypes such as being autistic/on the autism spectrum, adhd, dyslexia, etc etc…
I hadn’t heard the term “neurodiversity” until I read this thread. In the sciences – and in my experience working with other biologists – divergent people might be closer to the norm than so-called neurotypical … whatever typical might be for humans. Any of us who become obsessive over organisms that most people wouldn’t pay a moment of attention to are certainly different. In a good way, of course.
I have to admit, that’s pretty funny! 
The same thing happened to me, but instead of turkey, I filmed myself grinning from ear to ear as I thought I was recording baby dear running around and playing in my yard!
I thought I was well-covered while hiking this summer with trousers, a long-sleeved shirt, cap, mask, and my eyeglasses. However, none of that helped with the annoyance of small flies buzzing around my ears for goodness knows how long. The idea did cross my mind of bringing ear buds to block out the noise but I didn’t want to miss any aural cues – Warbling White-eye calls, woodpeckers hammering away at tree trunks, snakes moving through the underbrush, and (potentially) wild boar.
It’s my home away from home too :) I felt a bit of an oddity as a young person, although that feeling eased when I got to university and I met other biogeeks!
I’ve never found that to deter mosquitos.
I have been bitten through jeans.
Darn. I suppose thats because the fabric is thin and porous enough for the mosquito to detect a meal and to be able to get it. My personal experience so far though was that I’ve never been bitten any place in my body that wasn’t exposed. I mean other factors could definitely come into play eg. type of ecosystem, geographical location, blood type(?) etc.
Glad I went down this rabbit hole!
RE: Mosquitoes–I wonder if O blood is their favorite type? My husband says I am the bait–he rarely gets bitten and his blood is AB.
I have thought it might be nice to have shorts with net lower legs added, or maybe to sew screen panels to pants to allow more air circulation. I will be using the face net that goes over the brim of a hat from now on–something likes my ears too much too!
And to help to avoid harrassment–My mentor gave me a sign he made to put into his car when he was out collecting. He used his computer to make a more professional looking sign. He made a green circle and labeled it Washington State Bee Survey with a nice photo of a bee in the middle. He added his name, address and phone number back then. It was all down with type, not handwritten.
I wear my PNW Bumble Bee Atlas Project t-shirt and/or my Oregon Bee Project hat to identify that I am somewhat official. It would be easy to emulate and make a shirt with a patch or sew something onto a hat that looks a bit more “Official” to give yourself some gravitas.
Worst experience in iNat–figuring out the proper etiquette. I have looked and looked for a beginner’s how-to. I just learned that I am not supposed to agree with the ID from other people and I have been in here for years. I would think a pop-up box or maybe a sidebar for the newest members that explains the way to do this best, that stays put until you are either vetted by someone or you have made at least some number of minimum entries would be most helpful.
Worst and best experience in Nature–finding B. californicus near the Troll under the Aurora Bridge in Seattle, but also finding that the little bit of wild there was being used by a homeless couple. They seemed nice, but before I met them, I nearly stepped in their latrine area by accident–biggest pile o’poo ever. If I had had a shovel in my car I would have donated it to them.
(and, don’t let anyone tell you these are not cool 
)
My worst experience is also mosquito related.
Last fall, I started photographing moths that came to my porch light. I had no clue what anything was, and while standing on a chair to photograph one that was high up, I dropped my camera. It survived, mostly. It’s now stuck in tungsten light mode which makes all daytime shots blue. That should have been my worst experience.
And then this summer happened.
Having finally caught the moth mania bug, I was out at the porch light every opportunity I could get. It wasn’t so bad in April and May as they were both cool, dry months and the blackflies were not bad this year. Unfortunately in June the rain started and the entire yard stayed damp for the next…well, it’s still damp as it’s still raining. The mosquitos loved all that damp and reproduced like crazy.
So in mid July, with temperatures in the high 30s, and the humidity making that feel like 45 degrees C, there was I, out on the porch trying to photograph moths. I was wearing 2 pairs of pants because the mosquitoes were easily biting through just one pair, my bee-keeping jacket with the hood up, and winter boots because they were the only footwear that was tall enough to fully protect my ankles.
I have spent a lot of time re-hydrating and even more time swearing at mosquitos.
At least I got a couple of observations of them out of it:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/57597952
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/57949767
Oof! That gallinnipper looks like it could bite through a raincoat.
I had to laugh when I checked the About section on the species page and learned that the species has a “tendency for aggressive behaviour”. They were relentless! Thus the two pair of pants. Still the mossies would swarm my hands as I was trying to take a photo of a moth that looked interesting.
Well, I’m a type O also, but I only seem to get bitten when I am out alone. If anyone else is with me, I hardly notice mosquitoes, but go to the exact same location alone, and suddenly there they are.
What’s worse, though, is when I go to North Carolina and the deer flies are constant.
Dropped my phone in a prairie doing a bioblitz and had to use Sam’s (sambiology) phone to find it. Also dropped my binoculars. I was easily distracted and flustered that day, but I found both.
In the UK, stinging nettles are Urtica dioica ssp. dioica; in California, they would be U. dioica ssp. gracilis, U. dioica ssp. holosericea or Urtica urens. All these taxa have stinging hairs. (Only one of the six U. dioica subspecies is stingless.)
Research from 2006 suggests that oxalic acid and tartaric acid are the main compounds that cause pain in Urtica species (previously, formic acid, histamine and serotonin were thought to be responsible):
HAN YI FU, SHIANG JIUUN CHEN, RUEI FENG CHEN, WANG HSIEN DING, LING LONG KUO-HUANG, RONG NAN HUANG, Identification of Oxalic Acid and Tartaric Acid as Major Persistent Pain-inducing Toxins in the Stinging Hairs of the Nettle, Urtica thunbergiana , Annals of Botany , Volume 98, Issue 1, July 2006, Pages 57–65, https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcl089
I couldn’t find any research comparing the pain caused in humans by different Urtica taxa, possibly because no one has been foolish enough to subject themselves to this voluntarily. In the 2006 study, the level of pain caused by various compounds in Urtica thunbergiana was assessed by injecting the compounds into the hind paws of rats, which seems unnecessarily mean.
I couldn’t find any research comparing the pain caused in humans by different Urtica taxa, possibly because no one has been foolish enough to subject themselves to this voluntarily.
Sounds like a job for Coyote Peterson. Getting bitten and stung by things and posting it on YouTube is his whole shtick (He pairs it with some good nature programming and some admirable conservation efforts, though, so it’s not as dumb as it sounds). I bet if he were on iNat, he’d have a few worst experiences to share.