Mosquitos in Ireland???

crackity_jones · 11-05-2011 11:45am

What a stroke of luck finding this thread. I was wondering where I could post this comment.

Starting last Thursday I have been eaten alive in my house here in Dundalk. When I got home that night I started to scratch. Everywhere. There were some of those small moth-like bugs in the house but that was all I could see. That night I didn't sleep a wink for the itching.

The next day I stocked up on the fly spray and got some insect repellent. Slept pretty well that night. Probably because I was hanging from the night before. I was away for a few days so that was fine. Last night it was as bad as ever. Very restless sleep and lots of scratching.

Now, I'm only guessing that this is insect related as I can't see anything on me. No bites. No marks. I rubbed my eye once or twice last night and I could swear I felt a tiny, sand grain-sized ball on the end of my finger which might have been a bug. And the weather has turned to this horrible, overcast, muggy and damp condition that is a feature of the Irish 'summer' and I'm told the flies and bugs go a little nuts during it.

Someone suggested I get some of those bug repellent candles and let them burn in the house for a few hours. I'm one of those lucky people that when abroad seems to dodge all those hungry little critters while those around me are eaten whole. I guess this is payback!

Anyone else experiencing anything like this right now and if so what are you doing to combat it?

Thanks,

CJ

zenno · 11-05-2011 12:02pm

I have just exterminated 10 mosquitoes last night they are everywere.

Believe it or not, the mosquitoes are out there, even in winter. They're just hiding so we don't notice them. Absent unseasonably warm weather, mosquitoes remain inactive through the winter months.
Some mosquitoes lay winter hardy eggs which lie dormant in the soil until spring. In late summer or fall, the female mosquito lays her eggs singly in areas where the ground is moist. The eggs hatch when conditions become favorable again, usually in the spring when temperatures begin to rise and sufficient rain falls.
Certain mosquitoes can survive winter in the larval stage. All mosquito larvae require water, even in winter. As the water temperature drops, it induces a state of diapause in the mosquito larvae, suspending further development and slowing metabolism. Development resumes when the water warms again.
Many mosquito species live through the winter as adults. In fall, the mosquitoes mate and the males die. Only females spend the cold months hidden in protected places, such as hollow logs or animal burrows. When warm weather returns, the females must first find a bloodmeal to develop her eggs. Just when you're outside enjoying the spring weather, the newly awakened mosquito moms are out in force, looking for blood. Once they've fed, the female mosquitoes lay their eggs in whatever standing water they can find.

warm and cuddly little fellers they are.

bythewoods · 12-05-2011 4:41am

Not the best thread to wander into after you've just studied Malaria pathology and anti-malarial drugs. OMG HYPNOZOITES EVERYWHERE. Or something. We're all going to die. Oh God. Drain the bogs.

Victor · 14-05-2011 12:09am

crackity_jones wrote: »

Starting last Thursday I have been eaten alive in my house here in Dundalk. When I got home that night I started to scratch. Everywhere. There were some of those small moth-like bugs in the house but that was all I could see. That night I didn't sleep a wink for the itching.

They sound like midges, no mosquitos.

crackity_jones · 18-05-2011 12:24pm

They sound like midges, no mosquitos.

Hi Victor,

Yes, I figured it was midges from the beginning as there are no bites on me and I can't actually see anything on me when I'm getting bitten.

I was away again for a few days and had hoped things would have settled down but they were back with a vengeance last night. It's driving me nuts as I'm not sleeping.

I'm going to hoover the house out tonight and wash all the floors. I'll pick up some of those candles that act as repellents, also. Anything else I could do?

Thanks.

WeeBushy · 18-05-2011 10:47pm

Close all the doors and windows, liberally douse your room with insect killing spray (hold your breath while your in there

) and get out of their. Leave the fcukers to die!

spider77 · 21-07-2011 8:13pm

Just got my first mossie bite of the summer. I live in cork city and it def was a mossie. I have travelled alot and know the noise they make a mile off. It's all swollen now where I was bitten. Hate the buggers. People laugh when I tell them it was a mossie bite. Why do Irish people think we have none?

Spread · 21-07-2011 8:30pm

Saw mosquitos in Kerry about 15 years ago. Had been living in a hot climate before and could recognise them. Out here they're ubiquitous in the evenings/early mornings. Too hot for the fukcers at other times. Have a nice bump on my shin now

bakerie · 20-06-2012 3:11pm

Time to bring this thread back to the top. I found a pool of them in an old bucket at my Girlfriends house in Dundalk. I checked a water fountain at my dads house that hasn't been turned on in a while (other side of Dundalk) and is is FILLED with them.

Check any stagnant water people! They are in the larva stage at this time of year and are very visible.

Again, here's a page with a good image of what you are looking for:
http://wisteme.com/question.view?targetAction=viewQuestionTab&id=496

locum-motion · 20-06-2012 6:29pm

Now that it's back on top, would anyone like to run a sweepstake on how long it will take for the first "Don't be silly, we don't have mosquitos in Ireland" comment?

Or for that matter, how long will it be until someone - having seen only the "???" in the thread title and not read the thread - says "Don't be silly, of course we have mosquitos in Ireland"?

opinion guy · 21-06-2012 1:20am

Funny to spot this thread - I noticed a bite on my arm yesterday and thought - weird looks like a mosquito bite.

westerlywonder · 21-06-2012 10:30pm

bakerie, that was a great find.
I see those god dam wiggly larve everywhere. I have never before known what they were, and for some reason was happy enough to just believe that they were just wiggly things. Great to finally know how the mossies start out.

locum-motion · 21-06-2012 10:37pm

westerlywonder wrote: »

bakerie, that was a great find.
I see those god dam wiggly larve everywhere. I have never before known what they were, and for some reason was happy enough to just believe that they were just wiggly things. Great to finally know how the mossies start out.

Now for the important questions;
How do you kill them?
If someone has a stagnant pond behind their house, for example, can they save themselves a summer of scratching if they kill the larvae in the pond?
Or do they fly far enough that ones from further away would just fly in to fill the gap?

bakerie · 22-06-2012 12:31pm

I'd like to know this too. I've just emptied the old bucket, but I don't know what to do about the water fountain. I can't add posion to it, as the dog drinks from it sometimes.

J6P · 25-07-2012 5:12am

Was out Monday evening in my shorts..am now riddled with bites from my knees down:(

AngryHippie · 25-07-2012 5:43am

I use this stuff in Brisbane if I'm going anywhere after dusk, DEET ain't real good for you, but neither are tropical diseases

Capt'n Midnight · 25-07-2012 12:45pm

AngryHippie wrote: »

I use this stuff in Brisbane if I'm going anywhere after dusk, DEET ain't real good for you, but neither are tropical diseases

DEET is an organic solvent so it's not good for plastic. You are not made out of plastic.

It's irritant to your mucus membranes all right, but most people kinda clue in to that before they go wild with the stuff.

It's not toxic to mosquito's it just interferes with them smelling the lactic acid from your skin. It's not an insecticide.

8 deaths in the US out of 8 billion doses and 3 of those were from ingestion.

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/consultations/deet/health-effects.html

The U.S. EPA estimates that 30% of the U.S. population applies DEET every year. In the more than 45 years that DEET has been used in the U.S., reports of adverse effects in humans associated with the dermal application of DEET have been relatively rare, given the billions of applications of the repellent.
...
From 1961 to 2002, eight deaths were reported related to DEET exposure. Three of these deaths resulted from deliberate ingestion of DEET (Tenenbein 1987) (see above). Two deaths were reported in adults following dermal exposure to DEET (Bell et al. 2002). The remaining three cases were all female children, with ages of 17 months, 5 years, and 6 years (Zadikoff 1979; Osimitz and Murphy 1997). All three children had been described as having "heavy, "frequent" or "nightly" applications of DEET. The 6-year-old had congenital ornithine carbamoyl transferase (OCT) deficiency, a potential lethal hyperammonemic condition, which may have contributed to her death. DEET did not inhibit human OCT in vitro (Rej et al. 1990)

If you use a bit of common sense - stop using if a rash develops (why do people need to be told this ?) - and don't use above ~30-40% and don't massively OD or eat the stuff

DEET is probably safer than sun cream.
http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/info:doi/10.1289/ehp.11269

josip · 25-07-2012 2:40pm

When I was Australia I swore by 35% Bushman. We travelled all around and spent a bit of time up around Darwin and Kakadu during the build up. The best tactic with the Bushman was to keep it just for yourself. If anyone asked me for some repellant I'd give them some useless Autan stuff. The mozzies will go after the least repugnant smelling individual for blood. If everyone had bushman it was counter productive. You need a decoy/victim/stooge nearby to draw them off.

lukejr · 26-07-2012 1:25am

I've killed 4 tonight in Limerick, and yes they are Mosquitos I know their sound and what they look like when I squash them.

We had them last summer too.

mcmoustache · 30-07-2012 7:59pm

There are plenty here. I've caught them in the house (glasnevin), caught them sucking my blood and have lots of bites to show for it. Next time I catch one, I'll take a picture and post it here. Oh, we have stagnant water out the back so that's probably where they're coming from.

I also get bitten regularly playing football in the Phoenix park but I don't think that these are caused by mosquitoes - midges most likely.

I absolutely hate mosquitoes.

chutney50 · 01-08-2012 1:29pm

There definitely are mosquitoes in Ireland.

This lady (attempting to attach a photo) tried to sucker me in the bathroom yesterday 31st July. Glasnevin again (but no stagnant water out the back!).

It's a BIG mosquito, about twice the size of a normal one. First the stripy legs made me think it might the Asian Tiger (scary mozzie not yet on our shores) but it's most likely Culiseta annulata (Banded House Mosquito) which is common in Western Europe, often mistaken for the tiger, and seems to breed just about anywhere and have a go at just about anything. :eek:

WildIreland · 01-08-2012 9:32pm

This entire thread seems to echo surprise at finding mosquitoes in Ireland.

As far as I know they've always been here. There are actually a total of eighteen mosquito species recorded in Ireland five of which are relatively new arrivals / discoveries (or at least that was the position in 1991 -- there may be more now).

You'll find more details on all of them in this Irish checklist of mosquitoes and their known distribution published by the Royal Irish Academy in 1991 (PDF Link)

Doge · 01-08-2012 11:08pm

Not a mosquito,

but I was walking down by a stream recently, and some beige/brown/grey coloured fly, drew blood from the side of baby finger, just like a mosquito!

Not sure what species it was, but it was slightly longer than a common fly,
and of equal width / more rectangular in shape

_coinin_ · 01-08-2012 11:20pm

I was on a pack train from Dublin to Waterford, I saw a mozzie land on this guys neck and suck his blood :eek: A good few people saw it too. That was about seven years ago in Summer.

AngryHippie · 01-08-2012 11:33pm

waveform wrote: »

Not a mosquito,

but I was walking down by a stream recently, and some beige/brown/grey coloured fly, drew blood from the side of baby finger, just like a mosquito!

Not sure what species it was, but it was slightly longer than a common fly,
and of equal width / more rectangular in shape

Horsefly aka Clag

Little buggers.

Desmo · 01-08-2012 11:39pm

WildIreland wrote: »

This entire thread seems to echo surprise at finding mosquitoes in Ireland.

As far as I know they've always been here. There are actually a total of eighteen mosquito species recorded in Ireland five of which are relatively new arrivals / discoveries (or at least that was the position in 1991 -- there may be more now).

You'll find more details on all of them in this Irish checklist of mosquitoes and their known distribution published by the Royal Irish Academy in 1991 (PDF Link)

They certainly have always been here; I have seen them in bedrooms in hotels and houses I have lived in and I used to be in a lab with Paddy Ashe (one of the authors of that paper) so I knew they were around. What is surprising, I guess, I why so few people get bitten by them here. They do seem to get noticed repeatedly in certain places like Malahide but overall, they rarely seem to occur in sufficient numbers to really get noticed and when they do get noticed, they cause a stir. The worst mosquito bits I have had recently were in Cambridge (UK).

r3nu4l · 02-08-2012 8:23am

Much of the surprise stems from the fact that until yesterday this thread was in the Health Sciences forum and as such many of the posters may have been less knowledgeable about insect species in Ireland as some of the folk here

So a question for those who are very knowledgeable about mosquitos. I've noticed when abroad that mosquitos there seem to produce a very distinct high-pitched whine (probably from wing vibrations) and yet in IReland I've never heard that same noise. Is it only a few species that produce it or just that I've been more aware of it abroad, possibly because it's been at night and in the middle of nowhere with no background noise?

looksee · 02-08-2012 8:46am

I lived in the tropics and the only issue I had with it was that mosquitos loved me, dish of the day. I came to Ireland, and whaddya know. Mozzies. Not malarial or other disease carrying but still mozzies with sharp teeth.

Presumably they are in the UK too, but until then I had never noticed them, or been bitten to any extent. While I was abroad I would get loads of horrible blisters on my legs that would turn septic sometimes, when I came back to Ireland the local mozzies did the same thing, but gradually over the years this has got less and less till now I only get an occasional bite and they do not swell as dramatically. I have no idea why this is or what it proves.

There are mosquitoes in Ireland, it is not a new phenomenon, they are not malarial (its not warm enough I think) and if you have any stagnant water near your house, even a small container, they will breed there.

They do not like citrus oil, I use Mosi-guard which has just citrus oil in it, no chemicals, and find it effective.

Half-cocked · 02-08-2012 9:18am

Got bitten on the leg in my garden the other evening by a big mozzie. Had a huge lump the next day - I've been eaten alive in Africa and this little bugger was as bad as anything down there (minus the malaria worries of course). Is it just me or are the Irish mozzies getting more common?

dbagman · 09-08-2012 12:55am

r3nu4l wrote: »

Much of the surprise stems from the fact that until yesterday this thread was in the Health Sciences forum and as such many of the posters may have been less knowledgeable about insect species in Ireland as some of the folk here

So a question for those who are very knowledgeable about mosquitos. I've noticed when abroad that mosquitos there seem to produce a very distinct high-pitched whine (probably from wing vibrations) and yet in IReland I've never heard that same noise. Is it only a few species that produce it or just that I've been more aware of it abroad, possibly because it's been at night and in the middle of nowhere with no background noise?

Funny enough mate you talk about the mozzie "whine".I woke up last night (was only half asleep) coz I swore I heard one by my ear.Lived two years in OZ and used to get destroyed.Is one of the reasons I didnt stay.I thought I was dreaming and started to doze off again only for the same "whine" noise to whizz by my ear and sure enough I woke up this morning to find 4 big bites.One on each arm,one on my back(which is huge) and one on my face of all places the little git!!lol.I was convinced we didnt have mozzies here and thought I was going mad when I heard them last night.Like I said I get ruined when away but have never been bitten here.Worse part is we had a stagnant pond in our back garden for years and was only 4/5 months ago I filled it in and suddenly Im getting bitten.

Mosquitos in Ireland???

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