Mosquitos, Jews & Texas

1. mosquito problem, make sure you have a good breeze and you will be better off than those without. i go through stages with the monsters. after the hurricane it was really bad, now not so much. for when you get bit afterbite is great if you put it on right away and not wait. i use the scratch and apply method. you will want to try to avoid getting bit as we have dengue fever from mosquitos. good luck.
no help on your other questions

I live near the Synagogue. It is very close to the Mosque my landlord worships at....there are always vehicles parked at the Synagogue.

Marlene

We moved from Texas. Are you shipping your car? We can help you with the registration process here. Quite an event.

The mosquitoes were horrible where we were this summer (mid-island, near 5 corners). I think they are also better right now because it is winter..? But a breeze is essential, and screens on windows/sliding doors.

I don't know how the east end is for bugs. Does it have more centipedes?

Yes all in the same post and this not a "walk into a bar" joke 😉

1) Looking at properties and have found a few I like, wondering about the mosquito situation on STX though. Are they bad? Are they bad all year? Are they bad in certain areaas?

I live on the East end and during the wet season the mousquitos are bad but lately, hardly any. They're worse in flat areas that don't get a breeze or near guts.

2) I read that there is a reform synagogue there, I was suprised but they appear to have no web site and I'm trying to figure out if this is an active synagogue still or if I have to head to another island on Yom Kippur.

There is a synogouge in Beston Hill area. There was a thread by norman paperman about it. search

4) Any warnings about the East end that you would be kind enough to share?

No warnings, just good things. Teague Bay is a quaint little drinking village with a fishing and boating problem.
Thanks!

Lot more outbreaks of Dengue Fever this year on stx.

Synogouge is active but small.

From texas also no groups. If you go to someplace like sharkys when the big games are on you will make friends easily.

Warnings about the east end???? What do you mean??

Like attacks of giant centipeds. 😀

i have lived in downtown christiansted for about 3 years and have only seen one, though it did seem like he was following me

I've lived west center and east, no difference in centipede size, except west is the land of the giant spiders. But what do you expect when you live next to a rain forest?

I have been living West-Center and the mosquitos have been no better or worse than they were in Ohio. What I REALLY don't like, however, are the no-see-ums (which you can actually 'see' if you look close). They can bug you anywhere on the island. The solution is to spray your ankles after 4 p.m. and don't leave your bedroom window open (unless it has screens).

All this said, the bug situation down here has been MUCH LESS than has been advertised or expected. No big deal.

One thing many people don't know about Dengue Fever is that the mosquito that can infect you with it bites during the daytime. We all run for the OFF if the mosquitoes start swarming at sunset, but merely swat away the occasional daytime biter that comes our way. It turns out that you should take those daytime bites much more seriously.

I know this personally as I am just recovering from being extremely ill with Dengue Fever. It was NOT fun and I hope I don't someday come down with it again. There are four known strains of the virus, so being immune to one still leaves me wide open to the others, including the Hemorraghic version that can kill you. There has been a large, ongoing epidemic of Dengue this winter on St. Croix, but it hasn't gotten the press that the Xmas outbreak on Barbados received.

The symptoms for Dengue can vary from person to person and some people don't show much reaction at all while others are knocked flat for a week or more. It often mimics flu or strep throat symptomology (sore throat, fever, chills, pain, some nausea), but almost always results in the soles of your feet peeling at some point, which is a real give-away about what you have. You may also get a rash and it is common to be anorexic for a while. Dengue usually takes a while to get over and can include multiple relapses just when you think you're over it. There is no cure other than what your body can do for you by developing antibodies. Doctors will treat the symptoms with codeine for the pain and IV's if you get dehydrated. It's very important to drink constantly or you'll wind up in the hospital with more complications that can lead to organ damage.

In my case, the first installment seemed to be a traveler virus over the holidays that gave me a bad sore throat and a general "icky" feeling for 4-5 days and then went away. In hindsight I remembered my feet peeling some and thinking I hadn't realized I needed a pedicure quite so badly. LOL. It also left me anorexic for the next week... and then the relapse came and the big symptoms hit and wiped me out for 4 days of utter misery. Dengue is also called "bonebreak fever", because it can feel like you've fallen off a 2-story building and your joints hurt as well as other assorted painful areas.

Everyone on St. Croix should be taking this one seriously right now as the cases have hit people who live all over the island and the location on the island where people are getting bit and infected is uncertain. If an Egyptian mosquito bites an infected person before they develop immunity... and then bites another person... it will likely pass the virus. Consequently I quarantined myself for a while.

Is there no similar outbreak on STT? Why would it affect STX and not STT?

i have lived in downtown christiansted for about 3 years and have only seen one, though it did seem like he was following me

LOL

Did you run in a zig zag pattern? That'll throw 'em off :@)

Islandlola

Sorry you've been so ill, Alexandra. I wondered where you were but thought you might have been off-island. It's also important to note that if you have any of the symptoms to NOT take aspirin. If you have the hemorrhagic variety aspirin can cause you to bleed to death.

islandlola, thats exactly what i did

Is there no similar outbreak on STT? Why would it affect STX and not STT?

38 miles of open ocean between the islands means our mosquitoes aren't commuting in large numbers and the disease is only transferred via the bite of the Egyptian mosquito. If infected people spend time on STT, they could get bit while there and that mosquito could then pass the virus to someone on STT. Not all of these mosquitoes have the virus in their systems naturally, so the outbreaks flare up and then die out for a while as a mosquito population dies. Keeping infected people quarantined and away from mosquitoes until they are over the virus is about the only way to help stop an outbreak in its tracks. If the source breeding ground of the original mosquitoes can be found and eradicated, that can also help.

When the outbreak occurred in William's Delight a few years ago, they figured out the mosquitoes were breeding in a pile of old tires that was trapping rain water. They cleaned it up and there were no more cases. One child died from that outbreak before the doctors realized what disease they were dealing with. Several people were life-flighted up to Miami. This time around, I haven't heard that any of the cases developed into the Hemorraghic symptoms, but even with the lesser viruses, your gums bleed and that suggests things could go badly downhill quickly if you don't treat your symptoms.

Thanks Alexandra,
So I guess with all that travel between the islands, there is a reasonable chance someone may be a carrier and may begin an outbreak in STT?

This thread has taken an ominous turn for the worse 🙂

Epidemics of all kinds of things get spread by travelers everywhere in the world. Who hasn't gotten some kind of traveler's virus or flu after being on an airplane all day at some point?

Dengue is not the easiest thing to pass onwards to someone else and outbreaks are still pretty infrequent. If I were living on STT right now I wouldn't be worrying all that much about a localized cluster of cases on STX or Barbados making its way to STT. As the weather dries out here this time of year it usually wipes out much of the mosquito population and that may be enough to stop the recent outbreak in its tracks.

Posting info on Dengue was not supposed to be "ominous" or to scare anybody out of the thought of relocating to the islands or coming here on vacation. It's just important for people visiting or living in the islands to be aware of the virus and what its symptoms are so they respond appropriately if they do get sick.