I've seen my share of stingers, including mass formation attacks of mosquitoes. Still, I mostly operate in aspen parkland and mountain foothills. It's the folks in forestry and surveying and tree-planting who work in the northern Boreal forests of Alberta and British Columbia that are the real tough guys (and gals). They endure, and survive, mass-formation black fly attacks. These are, by every account, the devil's chosen instrument of non-stop torture. I have been known to time my northern trips with a first frost; no bugs, all those low hardwood shrubs in flame red, the birches and tamaracks in golden glory, and all the turistas have dragged their DEET-sodden, fly-bitten carcasses home. A little research goes a long way.