MOZZIES

[guest5234]

Are mosquitoes a real problem in the dordonge or the charente-maritime?
it might seem a daft question,but i am allergic to mozzie bites and can get quite ill from to many at once.
is it on a par with say greece? where i can just about manage with sprays and citrus candles.

[Pete and Carol]

It's just pot-luck I'm afraid. Last summer we spent a week by the side of a river and not a single bite between us. However, we spent the last night in Poiters (it had rained there the previous night) in a good hotel and I had over twenty bites which I scratched to pieces in my sleep. Each bite swelled and bled and I was in a terrible state! The same thing happened when we holidayed in the Vendee near the beach. It rained a couple of days before we arrived and the mozzies were just hatching out - we were bitten to bits. I think the best thing is to smother yourself in anti-mozzie cream and just watch out for a few days after rain during hot weather. Also, we've since bought a battery ultra-violet bug killer lamp (like you see in butcher shops etc) in France for about a tenner which works very well.

Good luck

Carol

[gynfreeman]

Don't forget the mozzies are also in evidence in the early morning - we Brits tend to think they are only a factor to be considered at dusk.
I used a plug-in-with-a-bottle ('raid', I think) for the first time this year, it's really good in that it contains a timer chip which sets it going for 12 hours from the time you plug it in, and then off for the next 12, then on again etc. it also has a button to select a small room of a large one.
I use it in a caravan (on the small setting, obviously) and - even with the windows open last week in a futile attempt to get a bit of breeze blowing through in the opressive heat of the Vendee, I wasn't bitten, and none came in (I have radar hearing: even in an alcoholic coma, one buzz and I'm wide awake!).

[pat530]

Thanks for all the replies to my questions. I certainly won't bother with the noisy deterrents but might try coating myself with marmite.
Patrick

[Mjc]

As somebody else has written, there are several other insects and mites which bite. Here in Charente Maritime, and doubtless elsewhere, there is a microscopic creature called auott (I think that's how it's spelt) which lives in the grass and administers bites around the elastic area of pants in particular and bras. The bites, which are not felt, develop into large red and itchy spots, mainly around the waist. These creatures are more like mites and are microscopic. All chemists stock a repellent spray for these aotats as well as a soothing spray if you are too late!