anybody had sand fleas?

hollywallydoodle · Post by **hollywallydoodle** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 1:28 pm

a friend of a friend (i know...not real reliable) came back from brc with sand fleas...anyone else experienced this? and if so, any preventative measures?

http://www.fishingthesurf.com/sand%20fleas.jpg

BitterDan · Post by **BitterDan** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 1:32 pm

Hmm, I have never heard of sand fleas on the playa and I definitely have never seen any (and I've spent plenty of time at ground level). From what I understand, there are NO native insect species living ON the playa itself; It's far too dry and harsh for that.

oneeyeddick · Post by **oneeyeddick** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 2:01 pm

Did your friend run along behind the water truck ?

ragabashpup · Post by **ragabashpup** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 2:19 pm

I have seen those critters before. Normally they live along ocean beaches. I have never heard of them being on the playa before and that size I am sure someone would have noticed them.

Did your friends stop by a beach on the way home?

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 2:46 pm

It's not that kind of playa.

Low tide.

REAL low tide.

There were bugs at BM 97, but that was Hualapai.

fciron · Post by **fciron** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 2:49 pm

I used to spend summers at the beach and sand fleas where little translucent bugs that lived under the sand in the surf zone. They were between 1/4 and 1/2 an inch long. They had no interest in people and were too damn big to hitch a ride unnoticed.

I would blame bedding and housing materials before a bunch of bare sand. Parasites need a food source and the playa is pretty inhospitable. Sounds like regular fleas to me. (I am not sneering, I have had them and it sucks.)

hollywallydoodle · Post by **hollywallydoodle** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:47 pm

the fleas apparently vary from normal teeny flea-size up to 1 inch...yikes. i have no idea if they stopped at the beach, but they are from sf so they can't be further than 3.5 miles from one. they probably got them in sf and blamed brc. OR maybe they got them in one of those sofas everyone cozies up on...the fleas kept cool under there and had a little brc experience of their own.

i, like bitterdan, thought nothing survived on the playa...except us crazies.

phil · Post by **phil** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 6:33 pm

holly, have you met eri2000?

ibdave · Post by **ibdave** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 6:53 pm

phil wrote:holly, have you met eri2000?

LOL

hollywallydoodle · Post by **hollywallydoodle** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 6:57 pm

no, but i haven't really met anybody...i'm new. i have been through every burning man photo i could find on flickr though (maybe i've seen him or her)...i'm obsessed and i haven't even been before.

doh, based on the LOL...i'm guessing that was a joke i didn't get.

Post by **AntiM** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:04 pm

Hang in there. Besides there can't be sand fleas because there is no sand.

ErrI2k? How about Chief or Apok or Mr. Opportunity or Queue?

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:33 pm

There is a small red spider that likes to hichhike in sleeping bags.. The little bastards will bite you as many time as you roll on them in your sleep..

aranryan · Post by **aranryan** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 8:15 pm

If you hitchhike in my sleeping bag, I'll probably bite you too if you roll around with me. . . .

LOL

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 10:30 pm

There are a few arthropods out there, usually nothing serious, try antihistamines if you get bit, go find the med tent if it has a red hourglass or you swell up like a zeppelin.

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:03 am

Bob wrote:There are a few arthropods out there, usually nothing serious, try antihistamines if you get bit, go find the med tent if it has a red hourglass or you swell up like a zeppelin.

Some little bastard was waiting for me this morning.. Was hiding in my robe sleeve.. Gold Bond will do the trick once again..

MozyBonz · Post by **MozyBonz** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:26 am

hollywallydoodle wrote:a friend of a friend (I know...not real reliable) came back from brc with sand fleas...anyone else experienced this? and if so, any preventative measures?

[img][img]http://www.fishingthesurf.com/sand%20fleas.jpg[/img][/img]

Hahahahaha hollywallydoodle I think you are a ringer.
You know too much to be a virgin burner.

But youâ€™re defiantly a burner.

Those sand flees live under the sand in salt water. I have used them for fishing Hahahaha

Is your friend trying to say they got desert crabs at BM. LOL.

Hope to see you playa side.

Hahahahahaha haahah ahhahahahaha

Now the wind scorpions..... they were bad last year

phil · Post by **phil** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:52 am

unjonharley wrote:There is a small red spider that likes to hichhike in sleeping bags.. The little bastards will bite you as many time as you roll on them in your sleep..

Spider bite on the playa. More photos, info at

http://civex.smugmug.com/gallery/144714 ... 5284_eM9Jd

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:04 am

They're actually small crabs. Once you get enough of them together they fry up rather nicely.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:41 am

Sand fleas are amphipods, not decapods.

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 11:44 am

Just figure your going to be within two feet of a spider any where you are..

Antihistamines come in a cream/lotion form.. be a good idea to have with you on camp/playa trips..Antihistamines caps if a bite starts to get away from you.. Like the one in phil's picture above.. That one calls for a med station run..

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 1:23 pm

Bob wrote:Sand fleas are amphipods, not decapods.

Depends if you're lucky enough to get Emerita spp.

Unless the OP meant "sand flies" which could refer to any number of edible species, probably Ceratopogonidae.

Oh, did you think this was a serious thread? Sorry.

hollywallydoodle · Post by **hollywallydoodle** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:20 pm

"Hahahahaha hollywallydoodle I think you are a ringer. You know too much to be a virgin burner."

i am a virgin burner, but my unfortunate upbringing in the bible belt has left me with an unquenchable thirst for information. i sold my car for money and drove a u-haul to sf in 2005. i've been to nearly every event, neighborhood, and festival in sf, but somehow burning man has escaped me...until now.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:45 pm

FYI, although "playa" translates to "beach", the lakebed at the Burning Man site is mostly silt and clay, with less than about five percent sand. So, sand fleas are unlikely, but if you're lucky you'll see brine shrimp monkeying around.

phil · Post by **phil** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 9:57 am

> That one calls for a med station run

That's where I took the picture.

phil · Post by **phil** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 9:59 am

> i sold my car for money and drove a u-haul to sf

What was your gas mileage on the u-haul? :->

phil · Post by **phil** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 10:10 am

Although the Spanish word for beach happens to be playa, I think that's just a happenstance. Our use of the word is unreleated to beach. The BLM's definition is

PLAYA: A dried-up, flat-floored area consisting of thin, evenly layered sheets of fine clay, silt, or sand, and representing the bottom of a shallow, undrained desert lake basin in which water accumulates and is quickly evaporated, usually leaving deposits of soluble salts.

http://www.blm.gov/nhp/Commercial/Solid ... ssary.html

If you google
define:playa
you'll find a few dozen similar definitions from various sources. Here
http://www.if.uidaho.edu/~johnson/ifiwr ... gloss.html
for example.

I don't know the source of our word playa, though.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 10:37 am

That has little to do with the Spanish, who discovered innumerable dry lakes in the American southwest and called them "playas" simply to distract the tourists.

I've tested a sample of Black Rock playa soil, and it was only about two percent sand.

BitterDan · Post by **BitterDan** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 10:48 am

In spanish, playa means "beach".

In geologic definition, playa means "a dry akali lake bed"

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:13 am

Ya'll seem to ignore that it was early Spanish explorers who coined the term, not 20th century hydrogeologists. Like John Smith in New England, they were trying to market the American southwest as habitable, full of flowing waters and abundant pastures.

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 12:31 pm

A beach is not necessarily sandy.
Of course, Tahoe's "Sandy Beach" is littered with rocks.

1: shore pebbles : shingle
2 a: a shore of a body of water covered by sand, gravel, or larger rock fragments b: a seashore area