Midges...

Moon_Eyes

Hi there,

I live in an apartment with a river flowing out back, which my windows open out onto. It's not like the river is directly underneath but it's near enough for these little black tiny flies (dunno if they're the common "midges" or not, but they are so annoying) to come in my window and fly around the light and crawl on the walls, loads of them, and last night I got bitten on the face and the leg. If anyone could give advice I'd be forever grateful. I've tried leaving the light off but sometimes it's warm and you wanna read etc so if anyone knows tricks to deter them, I'd be grateful. Thanks.

Alun

You could always get a screen to cover the window. Otherwise Citronella plants or citronella oil candles might work. I use citronella oil when I'm out hillwalking to keep the little buggers at bay and it's quite effective .. smells nice too

Roen

I know it's off topic, but does anyone else call midges midgets? Or is it a peculiarly Waterford thing?

Alun

Roen wrote: »

I know it's off topic, but does anyone else call midges midgets? Or is it a peculiarly Waterford thing?

I hear them called midgets all the time, mostly by fellow Wicklow folk ... well, they are quite small, after all

Roen

Alun wrote: »

I hear them called midgets all the time, mostly by fellow Wicklow folk ... well, they are quite small, after all

Phew! Cheers

@OP I know DEET works, but it's kind of overkill for what you need and not very pleasant stuff. The little feckers are such a pain. They mainly hatch from still water, but there's probably no end of pools near the river.

Moon_Eyes

Thank you folks

The midgets thing made me smile (off my own topic but, has anyone seen "In Bruges" yet?...they're all depressed of course!) I'll try the citronella if I need to open the window, and the screen may have to be the final word if that don't work. I actually found a fly in the room yesterday and it wasn't one of the little dudes, and if this guy was the one that bit me, well, I nearly got very girly sick and eeked out. He looked like a mosquito or a manure fly, he was a brownish green very strangely shaped fly same size as a house fly with longer wings like a mozzie and buzzed a bit. Anyways he's gone now so here's to biteless nights sleep from now on. Thank you for your kind replies. Damn rivers! M

Alun

Could it have been a Horse Fly? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_fly

If so, keep an eye on that bite ... they can turn nasty sometimes

Moon_Eyes

How do again

Oh don't be telling me that! Actually the bite on my face went rather big for an insect bite, but very like a mozzie bite. I think it was too small to be a horsefly unless they come slightly smaller than a house fly? He was too small to see all that detail anyways. Thanks again I wil hopefully live, hols to look forward to in real mozzie land next week!