Insect bites

[Jurek]

I currently have 40 of these on my body, all acquired in the course of one night.
I have applied Anthisan cream to these and necked a couple of Piriton Antihistemene tabs.
Anything else I should be doing?

[rogerzilla]

We are getting mozzies in the hotel room in Austria and SO was roundly bitten last night.  I usually get bitten first but somehow escaped.  SO recommends tea tree oil.

[ravenbait]

Ice held on any bothersome ones might help? I can never remember whether hot baths are for midges or jellyfish.

Sam

[Pickled Onion]

You have my sympathies, 40 is a lot!

I got bitten all over my legs on Saturday, was in some long grass on the towpath and suddenly noticed loads of pinpricks, all bleeding. Midge/mosquito bites don't normally bleed so I'm guessing these were ticks? They are now weeping yellow pus quite alarmingly. Do I need to be worried about Lyme disease? This was in London so I'm guessing (hoping) not.

[Kim]

Find someone who always gets bitten, and use them as a sacrificial anode for the beasties.

I am not volunteering.

[Nuncio]

A timely thread.

I was stung by a bee on my eyelid this afternoon. I usually react pretty badly, with severe swelling. So far this time it seems OK. Ish. We have Piriteze in the house so I was about to neck one of those but the list of things it is useful for does not include insect bites or stings. My wife was able to pick up some Piriton on the way home though, so I had one of those within an an hour of the attack, and had applied a bag of frozen peas while I was waiting (recommended by the NHS site - well not peas specifically b YKWIM). I don't know if it was the Piriton or the heat that resulted in a very deep snooze.

[Kim]

Yeah, Piriteze is just overpriced cetirizine, not to be confused with Piriton which is good old-fashioned chlorphenamine.  The former is non-drowsy, but only really effective for hayfevery things (see also: loratadine).

Hydrocortisone cream may also be useful.

[lissotriton]

I got bitten all over my legs on Saturday, was in some long grass on the towpath and suddenly noticed loads of pinpricks, all bleeding. Midge/mosquito bites don't normally bleed so I'm guessing these were ticks? They are now weeping yellow pus quite alarmingly. Do I need to be worried about Lyme disease? This was in London so I'm guessing (hoping) not.

Doesn't sound much like ticks. I've been bitten by plenty, and rarely noticed any bleeding. Also, if the ticks had bitten, they would remain attached to your legs.
Maybe horseflies? Or thorns from some sort of plant.

[chrisbainbridge]

A timely thread.

I was stung by a bee on my eyelid this afternoon. I usually react pretty badly, with severe swelling. So far this time it seems OK. Ish. We have Piriteze in the house so I was about to neck one of those but the list of things it is useful for does not include insect bites or stings. My wife was able to pick up some Piriton on the way home though, so I had one of those within an an hour of the attack, and had applied a bag of frozen peas while I was waiting (recommended by the NHS site - well not peas specifically b YKWIM). I don't know if it was the Piriton or the heat that resulted in a very deep snooze.

Cetirizine is just a relatively non-sedating H1 anti-histamine exactly the same as Piriton and equally used for insect bites https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/cetirizine/

[TPMB12]

Once while wildcamping I got bitten while I had to boil water outside my tent. Once food ready I zipped into tent and ate dinner,  never to leave it again until dark, cooler and midge free.  Next day m on top of a hill I counted bites on me. I decided to stop counting at just over 40. I still had to count bites on my thigh, whole of other leg,  both arms,  head,  neck,  hands and a few other places. Let's just say you could probably measure the bites by weight lost due to missing flesh!

Seriously I was a midge magnet back then.  That night I had a bit of fun writing my name in midges using insect repellent as the pen! It was really that bad, the midges covered part of my tent in a black cloud trying to get the mesh to me!

[TPMB12]

PS what are the midges like on Arean, Kintyre,  Islay, jura and bute area right now? First two weeks of August we'll be there and I'm worried the midges will few too bad.

[Pickled Onion]

I got bitten all over my legs on Saturday, was in some long grass on the towpath and suddenly noticed loads of pinpricks, all bleeding. Midge/mosquito bites don't normally bleed so I'm guessing these were ticks? They are now weeping yellow pus quite alarmingly. Do I need to be worried about Lyme disease? This was in London so I'm guessing (hoping) not.

Doesn't sound much like ticks. I've been bitten by plenty, and rarely noticed any bleeding. Also, if the ticks had bitten, they would remain attached to your legs.
Maybe horseflies? Or thorns from some sort of plant.

Thanks, that's reassuring. Definitely insect bites of some kind, they've taken 2 days to swell up and start oozing pus. No thorns about. And I would have surely noticed horseflies!

[Kim]

Blandford flies?

[Pickled Onion]

Blandford flies?

I reckon you're right. I also had the joint pain/stiff legs this morning.

Never heard of them before, but as this was on the towpath and mostly leg bites all evidence points at them.

[Mr Larrington]

Find someone who always gets bitten, and use them as a sacrificial anode for the beasties.

I am not volunteering.

This ^^^^.  In The Nether Regions in the summer of 1995 we were on a campsite surrounded on three sides by water and four of the local mossies could pull a brewers' dray.  The spiders were the size of cocker spaniels.  Miss von Brandenburg and I remained un-nibbled while my grate frend gNick, right next door, got et so badly his back was effectively one huge bite.

I remain unconvinced by Miss von Brandenburg's theory that bitey insects prefer exotic FOREIGN food to the domestic variety – she reckoned that the combination of BRITON plus German in the same tent confused them and made them go a-hunting elsewhere.

[TPMB12]

Among my walking friends there was a theory based on the small sample size studied that ppl who were midge magnets were not tasty for ticks and vice versa.  I lad one friend who could part a huge cloud of midges but every walk follows with a tick hunt, often in very intimate places.

I once took a tick home. I saw it walking down my bare arm onto the arm of the sofa. Didn't know what it was at first but guessed. It was too small to have fed so it seems it landed on me but thought better of feeding off me. I however could be trusted to find midges in winter I was that much of a draw to them. The best sacrificial anode you could possibly find.

I met a scot from the southern uplands once who said that how you treat the first midge you see of the year determines how they will treat you the whole year. Swat it you'll be bitten badly,  leave it be and they'll leave you.  He said year worked for him for 4 years.

Now I get ticks but not too badly bitten with midges. My flavour no longer appeals so much.

[jiberjaber]

Blandford flies?

I reckon you're right. I also had the joint pain/stiff legs this morning.

Never heard of them before, but as this was on the towpath and mostly leg bites all evidence points at them.

I'd recommend a pen and mark the extent of swelling and monitor tomorrow. Keep the areas elevated if you can can.  I suffer from recurring cellulitus from any kind of insect bite that draws blood or wasp/bee sting. Every time without fail I end up on antibiotics (mozzie & midges seem fine however).

I'd give 101 a call just to be on the safe side, Lyme is a worry but I'd be more concerned about Weils last thing you want is to be dealing with Leptospirosis which can be common near water.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/leptospirosis/

[mrcharly-YHT]

PS what are the midges like on Arean, Kintyre,  Islay, jura and bute area right now? First two weeks of August we'll be there and I'm worried the midges will few too bad.

I'm a bit further north; it is too windy for midges here.

Woolly and Peli are on Mull right now, and haven't complained about midges.


If you have open (bleeding or oozing) bites, be careful to apply the antihistamine cream around the bite and not over the broken skin.

[Wowbagger]

Blandford flies?

Would also be my suggestion. AKA blackflies, but not to be confused with aphids.

They are weak fliers and struggle to get above thigh height, which accounts for the legs being attacked and nothing else. I was badly bitten by these little sods some years ago when we attended a tai chi class and our instructor decided to hold the class on the school field - it was hot weather, about this time of year. I wore shorts, the only one who did, and I was mauled.

The bites are really nasty. They weep, cause swellings and can easily become infected.

https://www.deddingtonsurgery.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/New-ajc-Blandford-Fly-Bite-Advice-Sheet.pdf makes cheerful reading.

[Nuncio]

My optimism was unfounded. I woke this morning to some pretty bad swelling, such that I can't open my right eye and the right side of my face is a fair but larger than my left.

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't mind the drowsiness and I won't be driving for a while so I think I'll stick with the Piriton. Not that it seems to be doing much. I was going to ask my wife to get some hydrocortisone cream - mainly for the itchiness - but the NHS site says never to put it on your face without medical advice and I think the pharmicist refused to sell it yesterday. I think I'll just sit it out with ice, and occasional salt water bathing.

I know bees are supposed to use their stings as a defence but it does make me wonder if my sweat is  particularly threatening to them in some way. I don't think I'm particularly flappy when they're around me but I do get stung fairly frequently. On the Mille Cymru there were 85 riders and as far as I know I was the only one stung; and I was stung twice.

Oh, and GWS Jurek.

[T42]

Blandford flies?

Blandford sounds so bloody innocenty too. Wot me? 

Something or other got me during a pause pipi last Wednesday and it still itches on & off. Pharmacist gave me some cream containing i.a. lidocaine & hydrocortisone.  Works OK for a few hours at a time.

[Wowbagger]

What were you doing immediately prior to being stung, Nuncio?

Some years ago I was cycling and an insect found itself lodged momentarily between my glasses' ear-stem and my temple. It couldn't have been there more than a second, but it found the time to sting me. It was either a bee or a wasp, but the sting didn't stay in. If it had had the time, a bee would have driven its sting in so far that it would have been ripped out of its abdomen, but with such a glancing blow it was blown away from me before it had the chance.

[Pingu]

Scotland's dry weather devastates midge numbers

[mrcharly-YHT]

Scotland's dry weather devastates midge numbers

Dry?   

Dunno where they are looking. We've had roughly double normal rainfall each month.

[hellymedic]

Scotland's dry weather devastates midge numbers

Dry?   
Dunno where they are looking. We've had roughly double normal rainfall each month.

I think some areas in the north-east are very short of water but I'm a Londoner who only reads about these things.