Biting Insects of Ireland

Graces7

recedite wrote: »

Is there any faecal matter or dead bodies lying around there.
You are located in God's pocket?

Possibly both. why? Nothing that was not here last year though

And yes.

CJhaughey

Graces7 wrote: »

NB someone mentioned ticks and Lymes disease. Very few carry this in Ireland thankfully and these are deer ticks rather tnan sheep ticks. Had to look into this when we lived near tick ridden sheep and the cats used to come in with several and I got bitten several times.

Lymes disease is actually more prevalent than you would think, I know two people that have contracted it recently in West Cork/Sth Kerry.
There is lots of other nasties that are transmitted by Ticks as well, Tick bite fever is another one.
There is actually a charity called TicktalkIreland that helps people to deal with the after effects of tick bites.
Lymes is a bad dose, one guy has to use a mobility scooter now after it.

Birdnuts

Got buzzed by Ireland largest Horsefly once - a huge yolk the seize of a large bumble bee. They usually feed on deer and this lad was seen near Laragh in Wicklow

Geezer1000

Was bitten by a spider once. Not nice

babi-hrse

went camping and there were ants running riot in the grass everywhere. some were in the tent these were not the shy kind of ants that move around your shoes and carry along the ground. they'd as soon as scale ya as walk around you. ants in the tent a horrible nightmare. you dont care at first. then the sore wounds start. i have a bunch of extremely big bites that i thought were from mosquitoes however the bites have been with me for 3 weeks. it was the bloody ants i rolled over one in my sleep and not being overly happy with being crushed he must have bitten me once, twice, thrice and continued doing this until he died of suffocation.

V Bull

As a child I suffered multiple bits from Red Ants to my legs. As a result, both legs became severely swollen and extremely painful, an experience and event I will never forget. I’m cringing with the memory as I type this...ouch!!

LedZeppelin

I was bitten by something about two weeks ago.
Woke up one morning to find a small red itchy spot on my left shin.
Itched like mad but after a few days it stopped and I forgot about it. However over the last couple of days I noticed the area had swollen slightly and the itch has come back. Today I noticed the red area around the bite has significantly grown to roughly 2inches in diameter

Ive used a sting relief spray which has eased the itch but im terrified its getting worse. Should I get it checked out?

recedite

Interesting fact; a deadly form of malaria used to be common enough in Ireland, presumably transmitted by some species of mosquitoes or midge. They called it "the ague."
Poor old Oliver Cromwell contracted it while on a trip here in 1649. He had recurrent bouts of fever for the following few years and then died.
This particular northern form of malaria was thought to have died out, but perhaps it has just lain dormant, until now.......

V Bull

LedZeppelin wrote: »

I was bitten by something about two weeks ago.
Woke up one morning to find a small red itchy spot on my left shin.
Itched like mad but after a few days it stopped and I forgot about it. However over the last couple of days I noticed the area had swollen slightly and the itch has come back. Today I noticed the red area around the bite has significantly grown to roughly 2inches in diameter

Ive used a sting relief spray which has eased the itch but im terrified its getting worse. Should I get it checked out?

Get it checked out ASAP....you never know what might be (in) there..

Don't want to scare you, but did you ever see the TV series "Monsters inside me"....get it checked now.....:eek:

LedZeppelin

Doc took a look at it and told me I had bad reaction to a bite and said it should sort itself out. Didn't prescribe anything or send me to hospital. It's 4 x 4.5 cms in size though.
Guess ill just have to keep an eye on it.