wearing more when working in the garden ;(

soya

edged the lawn yesterday in shorts & flip flop.... got bitten and slapped the bugs dead on my feet. Put some insect bite lotion on last night, this morning it was so itchy that woke me up. Now my feet are swollen & itch like hell.... I'm gonna see the doctor this afternoon.

Whatever it was ... it wasn't horsefly, ant, spider or mosquito more like a large ant with bigger bottom with wings.

next time I got to remember wear jean & socks

katholicos

Sounds like a queen ant if it looked like an ant, only considerably larger but with wings. I detest them. Can you take an antihistomine?

diluvsdiscounts

Don't know whereabouts in UK you are but we had hundreds of flying ants about yesterday.Our four chickens made short work of them and were more than happy to clear them up.

katholicos

diluvsdiscounts wrote: »

Don't know whereabouts in UK you are but we had hundreds of flying ants about yesterday.Our four chickens made short work of them and were more than happy to clear them up.

That's another reason why I would like to keep chickens...

Coveredinbees!!!!

I got bit on the ankle by something and it took 3 weeks to stop itching, I had boots on so they can still get you.

kimmee

I was clearing a very shaded corner of my garden, had cut back lots of overgrown stuff and then started moving some slabs and digging over the earth that hadn't seen the light of day in I don't know how long, and when I looked down there were dozens of spiders about a centimetre round :eek:

I was wearing flip flops at the time, and there is NO WAY I'm going near that patch of garden again till I get myself some wellies :rotfl:

Lotus-eater

Spiders are really one of the teeny tiniest chances of being bitten in the UK garden, enjoy them because they eat the bad guys

Davesnave

Jeans & socks won't necessarily make much difference.

I'm often out in a fairly 'insecty' environment, so I usually cover up well, and I get bitten if I forget to put repellant on. I'm afraid some things that look fierce may bite and produce almost no swelling, while others one doesn't even see, get inside clothes and make some pretty neat patterns on the parts you might think they can't reach!

It's just nature and I think immunity builds up to some extent over a season, but I can't prove that. I'm just itching less than in June now!

Lotus-eater

Davesnave wrote: »

It's just nature and I think immunity builds up to some extent over a season, but I can't prove that. I'm just itching less than in June now!

I know nettles does with me, I get stung at the start of the year and I'm still inching and horrible next day. Yesterday I must have been stung hundreds of times and I can't even notice anything today and hardly noticed when I went to bed, even though I was working till about 9pm.

But I do know that wasp and bee stings can work the other way, you can build up more problems every time you get stung.

Coveredinbees!!!!

kimmee wrote: »

I was clearing a very shaded corner of my garden, had cut back lots of overgrown stuff and then started moving some slabs and digging over the earth that hadn't seen the light of day in I don't know how long, and when I looked down there were dozens of spiders about a centimetre round :eek:

I was wearing flip flops at the time, and there is NO WAY I'm going near that patch of garden again till I get myself some wellies :rotfl:

If you're lifting slabs you must put on something better than than wellies if you slip and drop one on your foot you will smash your foot.