What's biting me in the garden?

fryup

riffmongous wrote: »

Ankles and incredibly itchy could be grass mites (chiggers) imo. Worst few days of my life with them after I napped in some grass one sunny morning

grass mites never knew they existed, you learn something new everyday

plastic glass

fryup wrote: »

^^^^^^^^^^

could be fleas, check your bedsheets and the inner lining of your trouser legs

So I only get fleas for 2/3 weeks a year? Maybe!

riffmongous

fryup wrote: »

grass mites never knew they existed, you learn something new everyday

If you ever get them, you'll wish they never existed :pac:

NomadicGray

Do Harvest Mites go for humans? My dog used to suffer a lot from them when we lived in Kildare, i never knew if he got them in our garden or along the canal walks

riffmongous

NomadicGray wrote: »

Do Harvest Mites go for humans? My dog used to suffer a lot from them when we lived in Kildare, i never knew if he got them in our garden or along the canal walks

Yep they are the more or less the same mites that go for humans as far as I can tell

Pandiculation

Almost definitely mosquitos, especially if at dusky type hours.

If you've a lot of them, just try and eliminate stagnant water. They tend to breed in that kind of environment.

Also if you get some insect repellent and just apply it to the ankles and other exposed spots you shouldn't' have much hassle.

There are a whole load of types of mosquito native to Ireland. We seem to imagine that they never existed before, but in a lot of areas near water in particular, we have several annoying biting insects.

I have had REALLY nasty mosquito bites (big flat throbbing wheal on skin) in recent years and have actually bought the plug-in devices you'd use on the continent - managed to find some three pin versions for use in Cyprus and they worked a charm.

Black garden ants don't really bite. Red ants can do though, and are present on the south coast e.g. around parts of Cork City.

fryup

mosquitos?? i don't know ..is the temperature high enough for them at the mo? its usually at the height of summer you get them

midges - yes seen plenty of them about esp at dusk

i still maintain the numero uno culprit is the flea, so check your bedsheets folks

^^^ and most common fleas to attack humans are from pets. They don't particularly like humans, but will in a pinch ( bad pun intended).

Pandiculation

Mosquitos lifecycle is fairly rapid and they’ll activate in short bursts or warm weather.

Despite the myth, we’ve a lot of mosquito species native to Ireland and they’re adapted to short bursts of good weather and changeable conditions.

You can get them in one particular location, and not another. So for example in southern areas, south facing hills with a lot of sunshine, damp / boggy soil, areas with water features, proximity to rivers and urban “heat islands” with a lot of shelter and concrete surfaces, notably central Dublin and Cork, you’ll get them.

Cork City for example has all of the above conditions.

I’ve encountered and caught mosquitoes in my house in April and as late as November and they’re definitely mosquitoes. Often it’ll be just a solitary individual and I’ll wake up a big wheal on my foot or similar exposed locations.

We had it so bad last year they the only solution was to get mosquito plugs and operate them for about 2 hours before using the bedrooms.

Because they’re not as prevalent as continental Europe and the USA, we’ve a bit of a myth that they never existed here or that they are recent arrivals due up travel. It seems they’ve been here all along.

muddypaws

I've had a few bites recently and had bad reactions, there is a theory that if you have haemochromatosis, which is common in Ireland, that the iron you store makes you very attractive to the little biting creatures. I've been advised to take B12 supplements, hopefully it'll work, as my forehead currently looks so bad that I'm having to constantly wear a hat.

Pandiculation

There are a lot of theories on why they pick certain people, but the most plausible ones I've heard are that simply some people have more accessible capillaries and small blood vessels close to the surface of their skin than others and they're basically an easy meal.

If you typically run warmer, you've been doing hard work in the garden or it's a warm day you'll quite likely have dilated vessels closer to your skin surface as it's part of our cooling mechanism.

Certain very commonly used modern blood pressure medications e.g. ACE or ACE2 inhibitors, that work by relaxing your blood vessels and may make it easier for mosquitoes too.

The reaction that you get to blood sucking insects is to an anticoagulant they inject into the skin. They don't just bite, they actually inject a biological agent that temporarily prevents a clot forming, so they can access the blood more easily. That's what some people react to and some people become more reactive to it with exposure, as your immune system identifies it and mounts a defence.

There are lots of reasons, but mostly it's just that you're an easier target than, say a bird as we're fairly hairless and definitely fatherless.

blackbox

Pandiculation wrote: »

we're fairly hairless and definitely fatherless.

Speak for yourself!

Pandiculation

blackbox wrote: »

Speak for yourself!

Well, yeah .. but I mean in comparison to an animal with fur or a thick coat like a dog, fox, squirrel, rodent etc that might be in the vicinity. We're all just a big slow moving mosquito buffet.