Bites around the ankles.. ?

[suein56]

[quote user="odile"]start taking Vitamin B complex about 5 days before you go - [/quote]

or else eats lots of garlic - which apparently has the same effect.

Sue

[joidevie]

I've now been told by several people here (I've only just started to

try and find out what these blighters are) that they are fleas

(puces).. Yet I have not pets at all..

I can only guess that there are a lot of them around as there are a lot of feral cats.. ?

Some spray next time me thinks..

[Just Katie]

[quote user="joidevie"]I've now been told by several people here (I've only just started to try and find out what these blighters are) that they are fleas (puces).. Yet I have not pets at all..

I can only guess that there are a lot of them around as there are a lot of feral cats.. ?

Some spray next time me thinks..[/quote]

As I said earlier, if you had pets they probably would not bother you, only felix and bruno would get bitten.  It is probable that because the pets have left the house, they are feeding on you.

[Jackie]

Find this stuff works from the local chemist providing I remember to put it on. http://www.monguidesante.com/cinq-cinq-tropical-lotion-antimoustiques-spray75ml-prID=895.html  Not sure if it supposed to repel other bugs but it seems to...........J

[cassis]

Aoûtats are also puces (de jardin).  But the result of bites from aoûtats and house animal fleas is the same, regardless, and indistinguishable the one from the other. [:(]

[Quarmby]

Désolé, Cassis, but the bites are not the same. For a start aoutats are not after blood, but moisture, which they need to develop into their next stage. They tunnel under the skin, which is why their "bites" are often up to 1cm long. Google "jiggers" which is what the Americans call them and you will discover all.

[cassis]

Thank you - I have been misinformed in the past.  So the little blistery bites that I pick up behind the knees etc. after working in the garden each year in August must be due to something else. 

My doctor is clearly not to be trusted!  [:@]

EDIT

I've done a search for chiggers (seems to be a more common term) and on this forum

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f38/unidentified-bug-bites-36175.html

someone posted pictures of the two.  They are clearly different.

Fleas

[img]http://www.y2khealthanddetox.com/graphics/flea_bite_3.jpg[/img]

Chiggers

[img]http://www.medhelp.org/Medical-Dictionary/graphics/images/en/2046.jpg[/img]

Mine definitely looked more like flea bites - can you get fleas in the garden?  We have no animals of any sort and I've only ever had bites after working in long grass and undergrowth.

Thre again, another USA site shows this as a chigger bite

[img]http://i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto/Articles/2186502/chiggerbite-main_Full.jpg[/img]

and another one shows these as chigger bites

[img]http://citybugs.tamu.edu/FastSheets/images/Chigger_bites.jpg[/img]

both which look more like the first pic of flea bites. 

Blimmin' doctors!  Blimmin' Internet! 

[Cat]

Flea bites are scratchy but generally don't ooze unless infected.  Aoûtat bites itch like mad, ooze at first and are very hard and slightly raised afterwards, they also seem to last longer than flea bites.

I know that this year is a very bad year for flea infestations.  My friend works at our local vets, and says that even Frontline doesn't seem to be as effective as before.  My in-laws up in Northern France have just spent more than 400 € trying to eradicate fleas carried by semi-feral cats from their farm and house.

[Patf]

Cassis - those pictures are horrible[:'(]

Having sufferred something similar from gardening in long grass I now wear trousers tucked into socks, long sleeves tucked in to gloves and spray around the neck.

I think flea bites are bigger than aoutats, and they tend to come in groups of three.

[Just Katie]

[quote user="Cat"]

I know that this year is a very bad year for flea infestations.  My friend works at our local vets, and says that even Frontline doesn't seem to be as effective as before.  My in-laws up in Northern France have just spent more than 400 € trying to eradicate fleas carried by semi-feral cats from their farm and house.

[/quote]

Have they had fumigation from professionals?

[Cat]

No Katie.  They went out and bought enough "bombs" to treat the barns, and also each room in the house (as the fleas were carried into the house from the barn, on the legs of everyone that crossed their courtyard).

The first treatment failed to kill the fleas and their eggs in the barn, and so more fleas were carried into the house. They went out and bought more bombs, but with  a similar lack of success.  So they went out and bought yet more bombs for the house, and treated the barns with some heavy duty farming chemicals.  That did the trick.

 

[Just Katie]

I had the professionals in when I had them in my house after my dog went to my mother.  I asked if they were discrete and was assured that they did not have "Fleas R Us" on the side of their van.

However when they arrived, they were like someone from the cast of Ghostbusters!!.  Which led me into an immediate Hyacinth Bucket impression to get them off the doorstep and into the house.

After speaking to them, I now realise it is no big deal and that most houses with pets unfortunately have them, there is nothing you can really do about it but they are really of no nuisance to us, so long as the pet remains in the home.

Like rats and headlice, they are getting more and more resilient but are less of a hazard to our health than the chemicals to kill them.