The great "Do you get bitten?" survey!

[Fallout]

Thought I would conduct a survey on the mighty org:

My Mrs just recovered from a nasty horsefly bite on her leg. Needed hardcore antibiotics. She also gets bitten by midgeys all the time. One of her friends now has two nasty bites from a walk in the local forest, and one of her other mates is apparently always getting bitten when she walks the dog.

I walk the dog in the forest every day, and have just returned from a bushcraft style weekend where I spent my days up to my neck in bracken building shelters. I've never had a tick and hardly ever get bitten. Can't remember the last time.

Apparently some flying insects have preferences over their host, but I don't know if it's the same for ticks and other insects. Either way, I'm really curious to know what the split is on people that don't get bitten much and people that do. Seems odd to me. Cast ye vote! :)

[pookie]

I either have tasty blood or a sign on my forehead that says bite me... I reckon mozzies are like thieving scum , they go for the easy option. I guess what I'm saying is I'm like an unlocked garage :)

[Geodude]

I grew up coated in a layer of calamine lotion, so much that i cracked when i moved. I still get bitten by everything so guess i must be tasty ;)

[Messie]

I've heard that people who eat marmite don't get bitten

[Fallout]

You poor poor tasty buffet carts. :D

[Geodude]

I live on marmite and still they get me even tried garlic and that just chases away the humans :(

[pookie]

I drink Gin and am still alive not sure about the tonic ;) .. my understanding is you need to stand next to someone tastier that you.

[kaivalagi]

With the midges and mosquitoes if spending a lot of time outdoors I don't bother with repellent and let them bite, after a few days and resisting the scratching you'll not notice it anymore...I just spent 7 weeks in Fiji and did just this with no bother....I suspect everyone gets bitten by the little buggers and it's more down to their reaction to the bite than anything. Giant centipedes are another story though, seen the misses get bitten by one on the shoulder when putting on a cardigan when out and about, not nice at all!!

Never been bitten by a horse fly, unlucky, rather painful I am sure!

[Geodude]

What i find strange is the places i get bitten. How doe's a bloodsucking critter think i know i'll bite him right in the crack of his backside or right on the end of his BLEEP :( and no i dont run around in fields naked.. much

[Bri w]

Scotland - love the place but hate the creatures ;)

I'm out and about loads but are rarely bitten apart from when I venture north of the Border.

[Fruity-ya-ya]

I get bitten loads when they are out to play and put it down to my O- blood type.
Mates of mine have the same blood type and seem to get bitten more than my other mates.
Maybe the little blighters can tell?

When i remember to take orderless garlic I find i don't get eaten alive.

[missyburd]

I get bitten but don't react with swellings the size of golf balls thankfully. I recently got munched in the small gap between my fleece and the waistband of my trousers (while stretching up to extract a robin from a net so had my hands full)...the blighter proceeded to bite me 4 times cos I couldn't squish the git, itched like buggery for a few days and I now have 4 pretty little spots in a perfectly straight line :rolleyes: I had a mossie bite on my arm a few weeks ago and had a nasty reaction...I don't think I'm as immune as I was. Doesn't help that I keep forgetting to take my Skinsosoft with me!

As far as I know I've not ever had a tick and I've spent a lot of time in long grass. I also spend a lot of time handling wild birds and the worst bite I've had so far was from a Great Tit :-P

[Owenski]

I love a tit bite... not what you meant?

As for been bitten, Ive had a spider bite whilst doing some major out doors work at my old house.
Took a couple of days for it to go through the spectrum of colours before it started turning deep purple. Dito I needed some bowl destroying AB's for that.
I ALWAYS keep score with mozzy bites when on holiday, its something my dad used to do and i sort of carried on. I keep score of how many I knowingly swot and compear that to how many bites I get... I've never lost even at the Nairobi coast when I fell asleep under a tree and woke up practically covered in the *******s. Wife grew up in Kenya and never seems to get bitten, her Dad on the other hand gets super swollen from any bite. He got stung by a wasp the other week and he turned up with an arm like Popeye.

[Paul the 6th]

I've heard that people who eat marmite don't get bitten

This is true.. Midgies: they either love it or they hate it.

[tigersaw]

I grew up at a farm, playing in muck and worse from a toddler. I slept with dogs on my bed and washed every week whether I needed to or not.
Now I dont get bitten much and if I do it doesn't really show, and I'm not allergic to anything at all, maybe you can be made resiliant

[dizzyblonde]

I don't get bitten.
Or should I say, its very rare for me to get bitten. Even when I had two dogs and three cats, there was never a bite from naasty beasties.

Peg however is a bite magnet, he must taste reaalllllly good! I swear its that puffy aftershave he wears :D
Hes got a scar on his arm, where he had a tick burrow under his skin as a kid. He did spend his later childhood in the wilds of Scotland though!

[BoltonSte]

I get bitten loads, but don't react...I've had my hands black with midges and mozzies in the past and all I get is red dots of mozzies before.

The wife will swell up with the mozzies in the states, I've even watched here running round me with the tiger mozzie in question chasing her and ignoring me...yes it was that close I could see the markings on it.

BTW...the wife sticks that disgusting stuff in her mount and she still gets bit (Marmite that is)

Ste

[monkey]

I received 4 mosquito bites on a garden in Dalston the other night, most of which swelled up pretty badly. I hate them. I've been done THROUGH jeans too.

[Woogie]

I get quite literally eaten alive, Mowed the lawn the other day and had to stop 3/4 of the way through and my girlfriend took over. I had been bitten 9 times on 1 leg, 12 on the other, 5 on my left arm, 7 on my right arm and about 8 times on my back. It was absolutely ridiculous. Saying that even if we sleep with a window open I get bitten about 3/4 times a night. :( I hate it.

I have also been known to have a reaction to some of them and the bites swell up to the size of golf balls.... :(

[LankyIanB]

Depends on the creature doing the biting....

Mozzies and the like seem to struggle to get through the fur. However if the cats bring fleas in the house I get pasted, assume the little sods feel at home on me!

Prize for most spectacular bite - adder.... The bruise on my leg was rather large and had "interesting" rings of colour, looked a bit like a mis-shapen RAF roundel for a while...

[gruntygiggles]

I don't get bitten very much.

I remember Stretchie looking at a horsefly on his finger (right on the middle knuckle) a few years back. Not being a wasp or bee, he didn't panic, but I told him to get it the hell off.

He had never heard of horseflies and didn't really believe me when I said how bad they were. Luckily for him, they are not the same as wasp stings, so didn't cause anaphylaxis, but 6 weeks later when it was finally going and he could use his finger normally again, he understood my hatred of the things.

Horse flies are really bad this year too. Luckily only one has got me and he died for it...he also only got me for abobut 2 seconds so a week of itchiness and all ok. They are MASSIVE this year though. I can honestly say I have never seen them this big. The horse is lucky too as she is only affected by the midges.

I start applying fly spray to the horse...actually called Fly bless her, at the beginning of the season. Always have done and have always fed garlic in the hard feed of horses I have had. Nothing was working against the midges, so I thought I would stop everything and see how bad it got before asking the vet for some FLYPOR (very strong long lasting repellent for cattle).

Within days the midges stopped bothering her so she has now had a few months of no bites :-)

I really don't get bitten very much at all and I spend so much time outside...around horses and their poo, horseflies, wasps, bees etc. Even midges in their billions on the west cost of scotland at dusk on a balmy summer evening seem to ignore me :-)

Shame my dad can't say the same...they LOVE him...lol

[Spank86]

I don't often get bitten, almost never.

Maybe you should grow a load of orange or lemon trees.

[Bibio]

i get bitten a lot by the little midge blighter's but only get little red dots to which i can play dot-to-dot later on that night.

antihistamines are the key to midge free life or stay drunk. for those that have ever ventured north you will notice that the locals drink a lot. this is to A, relieve the boredom and b, to stop the little blighter's biting and if they do then you don't care as your pizzed :-)

ooohhhh and Fallout have you had a full body check to make sure that you have no ticks attached after messing about in bracken? as that is their breading/hiding ground.

[Fallout]

Yes I have mate. I stood naked in front of a full length mirror, lifted up the todger and looked myself up and down for half an hour, winking now and then and uttering the words "Hey beautiful" and "Delicious". Then the shop owner asked me to leave.

[yorkie_chris]

i get bitten a lot by the little midge blighter's but only get little red dots


Same ere.

Off up to Mallaig next week (woop!), however it's forecast to be blowing force 9 so I don't think the midges will be too bad :)

Whether we manage to get in the water and back onto boat or not is another question.

[Mark_h]

I am a mega-bug-magnet. Just take me with you and stay 4 feet away from me and you are guaranteed a bug-free day.

[Bibio]

Yes I have mate. I stood naked in front of a full length mirror, lifted up the todger and looked myself up and down for half an hour, winking now and then and uttering the words "Hey beautiful" and "Delicious". Then the shop owner asked me to leave.

if you suddenly get piles then it might not be piles :D

most common places. hair, tadjer and sack, crack, ankles and arms. on the baw sacks are no fun when your 5.

[missyburd]

I get bitten loads, but don't react...I've had my hands black with midges and mozzies in the past and all I get is red dots of mozzies before.


Aye, that's same here, sometimes the red dots itch like buggery though! Bloody things. I remember Orose at one of the GMs, he had massive golfballs all over his arms cos of 'em!

[pookie]

they are out in force tonight..I think i'm 4-1 up but I'll let you know how spotty I am in the morning

[The Idle Biker]

I don't get bitten much even in countries with exotic climates and nasty insects. I always make sure I have a good ol' booze up before bedtime. I sleep soundly and the bugs stay away.

Seems to work for me ;-)

[Fallout]

if you suddenly get piles then it might not be piles :D

most common places. hair, tadjer and sack, crack, ankles and arms. on the baw sacks are no fun when your 5.

Ouuuch! When you're 5 you probably can't tell your ball sack from an inflated tick either. :D

[Bibio]

was my youngest when we were on holiday. comes running into the caravan and shouts 'av got something on ma baws' then proceeded to drop his kegs point and say look.

[Spank86]

Isn't it rum supposed to keep the midges away?

[Milky Bar Kid]

I get bitten like mad! Hate it if I am standing out an incident in the summer. I try and keep a bottle of skin so soft in my kit bag but sometimes I forget to put it on!

[Jayneflakes]

I am a midge and mozzie cafe, which I hate. I swell up and look like I have diseases which causes my friends to point and laugh, but then they love a good freak show. This summer has been rally bad. One night we over forty of the blighters in our bedroom, so I went mad with the electric tennis bat. They smell really nasty when that thing chucks 5000 volts through them causing them to pop! Wife bought it in Thailand a couple of years ago and it works a treat on the gits. :D

Wifey also smokes and never gets bitten, well why would they bite her when I am laying naked next to her? I got so badly bitten a while back I looked like tart from the original Total Recall! :-(

[Geodude]

I got so badly bitten a while back I looked like tart from the original Total Recall! :-(
The three Jugged one :p thats just greedy or lucky for carol ;)

[Dabteacake]

I dont get bitten tbh. My wife is like the bait at home and the other lads get eaten when on tour so no probs for me I have A+ so I do think it is to do with blood types

[Amadeus]

Just to be pedantic, I'm pretty sure everyone in the sand situation will get bitten roughly the same number of times but some people react more than others.

I used to react badly when I was young (in that they would go all red but not really itch), now I hardly react at all. Wife reacts very badly - Barbados a few years ago she really suffered - had to keep getting her back to the room, stripping naked and then I spent hours covering her in soothing balm. Had a terrible time.

[Spank86]

Not necessarily true, i think they're attracted to the salt in sweat, or at least it's something to do with sweat and body odour, so big people, men, and sweaty people get attacked more... Even if others may not notice that you tend to sweat, mosquitoes are harder to fool.

[missyburd]

Not necessarily true, i think they're attracted to the salt in sweat, or at least it's something to do with sweat and body odour, so big people, men, and sweaty people get attacked more... Even if others may not notice that you tend to sweat, mosquitoes are harder to fool.
If you're on about midges, they're attracted to the carbon dioxide you're breathing out...not sure sweat has owt to do with it but certainly a feasible factor.

[Littlepeahead]

I got eaten alive at a BBQ last night. Worst one is on my thumb.

[Dabteacake]

Not necessarily true, i think they're attracted to the salt in sweat, or at least it's something to do with sweat and body odour, so big people, men, and sweaty people get attacked more... Even if others may not notice that you tend to sweat, mosquitoes are harder to fool.

Not sure on that as I am sweatier than a sweaty thing when I put my kit down or after PT lol