A very late submission to this thread, but as it comes up quite high in a Google search on 'recurring midge bites', I thought it worth my wee input.
We were on the west coast of Scotland eight months ago and I got well-bitten by midges (not cleggs) and had a decent reaction to them - raised red and fluid-filled bumps. No effect on the rest of the family, so only very low levels of sympathy there.
It took at least three weeks for the bites to stop itching and for the swelling to drop.
Now - back in New Zealand and it's our summer. I just had a decent collection of bites from our native black fly (which we call sandflies) around my ankles, to which I don't react - a little itchy for about 12 hours. But this time, almost all the midge bites I had in Scotland have returned in exactly the same sites as eight months ago (and nowhere near where I was recently nibbled).
How do I know? I took a photo of my right hand and forearm in Scotland with the various bites on it (when a tourist, one takes photos of everything) and I can verify that they are in exactly the same locations (too many and too perfect to be a coincidence), and you'd think that I was bitten only yesterday. Itchy - and nothing like the few creatures that bite in Nelson, NZ (black flies and mosquitoes)!
So - in support of Five Cats - this is nothing to do with cleggs or poor pet hygiene. It seems that some of the unlucky ones, like me, are rather sensitive to midges - allergic or hyper-sensitive to some degree - and the effects last quite a while.
I hypothesise that my current reaction has arisen because the latest round of black fly bites has resensitised those old bite sites (but it could be a complete coincidence). Very odd. Very annoying.
Love Scotland. Hate its midges!
We were on the west coast of Scotland eight months ago and I got well-bitten by midges (not cleggs) and had a decent reaction to them - raised red and fluid-filled bumps. No effect on the rest of the family, so only very low levels of sympathy there.
It took at least three weeks for the bites to stop itching and for the swelling to drop.
Now - back in New Zealand and it's our summer. I just had a decent collection of bites from our native black fly (which we call sandflies) around my ankles, to which I don't react - a little itchy for about 12 hours. But this time, almost all the midge bites I had in Scotland have returned in exactly the same sites as eight months ago (and nowhere near where I was recently nibbled).
How do I know? I took a photo of my right hand and forearm in Scotland with the various bites on it (when a tourist, one takes photos of everything) and I can verify that they are in exactly the same locations (too many and too perfect to be a coincidence), and you'd think that I was bitten only yesterday. Itchy - and nothing like the few creatures that bite in Nelson, NZ (black flies and mosquitoes)!
So - in support of Five Cats - this is nothing to do with cleggs or poor pet hygiene. It seems that some of the unlucky ones, like me, are rather sensitive to midges - allergic or hyper-sensitive to some degree - and the effects last quite a while.
I hypothesise that my current reaction has arisen because the latest round of black fly bites has resensitised those old bite sites (but it could be a complete coincidence). Very odd. Very annoying.
Love Scotland. Hate its midges!
