Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Ferocious Biting Insects
When I moved to the area two years ago, I was clearing my overgrown garden and was bitten by very small fly like insects, which was followed by severe swelling and itching.
After a hiatus last year, they're back. Apparently our warm, muggy and wet summer has created a 'perfect storm' for biting insects, and I'd have to agree.
So far, I've been bitten around half a dozen times. Where I hadn't noticed them before they had their fix, on my arm, leg and foot, the swelling is impressive, the itching has been phenomenal. This time I wasn't gardening, just sitting out in my garden and for the first time I was bitten elsewhere - in Fairland Park.
Fortunately at the weekend I was able to catch a few and I'm posting them to Haringey's Pest Control Team for identification. I've attached a poor photo of a few of them.
I've heard from someone else that a child was bitten in the leg and couldn't attend school as the swelling was so bad. Has anyone else been bitten?
Tags for Forum Posts: insect bites
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mark Smith on
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And the popularity of garden water features certainly doesn't help.
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Permalink Reply by Protheroe O'Shea on
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And the new river. Now if Thames water cleaned it up a bit and added some fish.....
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You wouldn't need to add fish if you cleaned it up. There have been times I've seen plenty of fish in the bit behind Wightman Road. The water itself doesn't usually look too bad, so maybe it's a lack of oxygen or something.
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Permalink Reply by Seema Chandwani on
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Yes.
Not sure if I've been bitten by the same thing in your picture, but got badly bitten all over my leg. The right calf got it the worst, it was a wed night, by Thursday the bites grew in diameter and the itch was beyond anything Ive ever experienced. After days of Salvon/TCP/Sudocream nothing stopped it or made the redness go.
By Sat my calf swelled and went rock hard I could not walk. I had to go to emergency, was given antibiotics, antihistermines and prescription cream. I also had to go doctor every 2 days to check pulse in feet, blood pressure, heart rate and measure calf daily just incase of Deep Vein Thingbob.
I was stunned how a bite could do this, in England. Ive been India, Africa and the States and never been bitten.
That was last week of June, it is now 8/9 weeks later and I still have to use salvon and it still itches a bit. They arent red, swelling gone but it still itches. It also looks like it will scar. I now wear insect repellant every day.
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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What you had was cellulitis, which if untreated is dangerous. It's the tissues under the skin that are infected. I had this last year from what I keep insisting was a spider bite (so still hoping for secret spidey powers to arrive). Hardly noticeable sting/bite/something in the garden, swelled up overnight and went bright red and drum-tight. Took myself to GP who put me on heavy duty antibiotics that took it down over the next few days. I still have a scar at the puncture wound. He said that it can lead to gangrene and amputation. Yes really.
So pass it on, if a wound gets that tight swelling and redness, act fast. Could have been an insect, or even a scratch - it's not poison from the bite, it's that the open wound then lets bacteria in which is what causes the infection.
[Just one more reason not to waste our precious antibiotics on meat production....]
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Permalink Reply by Nick G-T on
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I spoke with the council's Pest Control Team and they've been unable to identify the sample. They have sent them to an Entomologist for identification. This will take several more weeks.
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You could try posting the photo here and seeing what response you get: Natural History Museum ID Forum
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There might be more to this than meets the eye. I live close to Crouch End and regularly get bitten by some form of mosquito that is truly miniature @ 5 mm length. I have found that when I get bitten on the left ankle, it swells enormously and the condition is called cellulitis which can lead to blood poisoning. It does not affect other joints in the same way. Odd??
What I am starting to figure out is there is a problem with my ankle joint - plantar fascitis - aka contracted tendons. My point is the flies might be one problem, the swollen area near a joint could be another.
I have heard of similar experiences of bad bites in this area. I have tried to reduce pools in the garden area because I have sen they contain very small midge larvae.
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Any identification yet, Nick G-T? After a few chomps this summer by truly ferocious insects which looked a lot like these, I'm looking forward to reading what the entymologist has to say!
The insects which have bitten me are definitely not mosquitoes (I swiped them off before I could catch them), hang around in our garden at dusk and seem to bite when I'm doing a bit of veg harvesting - bothering their patch, probably. They leave the same bite with a red pinprick centre that someone else mentioned, which has swollen to an itchy 10cm+ patch on my calf before, and it's not much fun on an eyelid either. Antihistamine + hydrocortisone cream (eg Eurax) helps bring the itching + swelling down, though this might not suit everyone (particularly not the other symptoms described). This is what the pharmacist recommended too.
Perhaps the blighters will be killed off if we have a really cold winter!
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No, not yet Lucia. I have followed this up, however as the service is provided free by the Entomologist (which would usually cost £350 per request), the Pest Control Team cannot chase them. Once they receive a response, they will provide me with the results.
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