Harvest mites

[Renaud]

Following the Acte de Vente we drank champagne and strolled around our new grounds whilst the harvest mites strolled around our ankles and drank our blood. A month later they are still biting ...

Any ideas on how to ease the suffering and indeed deal with these unfriendly locals. Saturation napalm bombing?

[Patf]

What are the spots like? If they start off small and pink with a tiny blister in the middle, often found under the elastic of underclothes they are probably from aoutats or chiggers. If you search for chiggers on Google you will find advice how to avoid etc. I use a spray called Tiq'aouta which is soothing and preventative. It's good for other bites too. They should stop when the weather gets colder. Pat.

[Alcazar]

Could be an old wive's tale, but my dad always taight us as kids to tuck trousers into socks when going into longer grass in harvest mite season.

I only ever had them once, when I DIDN'T do it

 

Alcazar

[M]

Could these 'harvest mites' be ticks? If so, you need to be be very careful! While on holiday this summer, in Finistère, I picked up a tick which I didn't find until 3 days later. As a result I contracted Lyme Disease (Borrelia), which can be very unpleasant (and sometimes crippling or fatal if undetected). It's quite rare (about 6000 cases a year in France) but is still a risk you don't want to take! Luckily a doctor friend  spotted the symptoms and I was treated in the early stages - but I still have to wait six months to find out if I am clear of it. So - wear long trousers, abd tuck your socks in! Also, check for ticks after walking in long grass - the dangerous ones are tiny (about the size of a pinhead) and need to stay on you for about 24 hours in order to infect you.

regards,

Malcolm

[Millymollymandy]

aha! I had a bite on the inside of my arm this summer, and it was just like Pat describes above. Itched like crazy for about 2 weeks, and I knew it wasn't a mozzie bite. At the same time I had a bite on my face that swelled up a fair bit and kept coming back itching every few weeks or so. In fact it flared up again a couple of weeks ago. Could this be the dreaded chigger too?

We live in Brittany and were renting a farmhouse at the time literally surrounded by wheat/maize fields/cows. So harvest was going on all around..... looked on the net for chiggers, what a disgusting critter.

[Frenchy]

Hi Malcom, can you tell us what the symptoms of Lyme Disease are? I had a small tick that I had a hard time removing (yuk) a few weeks back while in France. Can't seem to get it off my mind.

[Joanl]

Did you know that dogs can have a hard time with harvest mite bites, my poor little westie is suffering again this year, another trip to the vets for some treatment to soothe her paws & tummy.  joan

[Bobdude]

Well, having just spent an enjoyable and informative hour reading up on everything you would ever want to know about chiggers..........it appears that the bites I have been blaming on mosquitoes are indeed chigger bites. One got infected resulting in poison spreading up my arm and a course of antibiotics. My husband's going to be out there first thing tomorrow mowing and weeding - or I'm refusing to hang out any more washing!

[M]

[quote]Hi Malcom, can you tell us what the symptoms of Lyme Disease are? I had a small tick that I had a hard time removing (yuk) a few weeks back while in France. Can't seem to get it off my mind.[/quote]

Hi, Frenchy,

The first and most obvious symptom is a red circular patch which starts to develop at the bite about a week after you get bitten. This patch is slightly raised, and hot to the touch - but it only occurs in about 70% of cases. Then there are 'flu-like' symptoms - slight temperature, bad headaches and pain in joints, tenderness in liver. Untreated, you will feel better in about 2 weeks, but the problem is, this bacterium gets into your central nervous system, and can reappear 5 - 10 years later with appalling effects (meningitis, cardiac arrest, crippling and untreatable arthritis). In the early stages it's easy to treat - big doses of antibiotics (doxycycline) for a month, but later on it is much harder to treat. It often goes undiagnosed, or gets mistaken for something else, because it is quite uncommon. I had to spend a night in hospital under observation and while hey decided what to do with me, and doctors kept coming in to see my rash, 'as we don't see this very often!', one told me. The infected ticks are found on Exmoor and in the Lake District in the UK, and in France mailny in Alsace (and Finistère, as I know to my cost!). Ther's loads oof info on the web - just type in 'Lyme Disease' in Google.

Stay well! I still love France,  in spite of the ticks!

Malcolm

[Frenchy]

Malcolm, thank you very much indeed for that information. I did have a red area around the tick but I think it was just from me trying to get the darn thing out. I also have a touch of flu-like symptoms at the moment but I think it's just a bug I caught from my husband. Oh dear, in any case off to google. Thank you again.

[M]

[quote]Malcolm, thank you very much indeed for that information. I did have a red area around the tick but I think it was just from me trying to get the darn thing out. I also have a touch of flu-like sympto...[/quote]

hello again, frenchy

This red patch (erythema migrans) gets bigger than the area of your hand - it gets bigger day by day, and is very red, and very warm, then it fades from the centre. It doesn't appear for 7 - 10 days after the bite, and the tick has to be on you for about 24 hours - time enough for it to pass the bacteria from its stomach to you! It's only the pin-head sized tick (ixodes) which spreads Lyme disease. So if you only had a smallish sore spot, I don't think you should worry too much.

[Renaud]

I suspect that these little beasts - aoûtats - are the reason that the French have moved into the towns and cities and left French country properties so reasonably priced for the unwary British.

We are re-thinking the idea of leaving part of our land as a ‘wild garden’ - tarmacing it over to be a skate-board park for our daughter seems strangely more attractive.

My imperfect translation of a French web posting suggests that the French traditional methods consist of using ‘Verveine Citronelle’ as a spray for the grass every day and sloshing essence of Citronelle on those parts that the aoûtats go for as a precaution. (What is this stuff)? Dabbing bitten areas with vinegar 4 times a day for 5 minutes also recommended.

I found antihistamine tablets worked for me to stop aoûtat bites itching. Next time I venture in the long grass, I will try Tiq'aouta as a repellent, (thanks Patf). I am told Synthol dabbed on bites alleviates itching. Keeping legs covered up with trousers tucked into boots when in the long grass seems a good idea but if the aoûtat get to you, they aim to get you where your clothes are tight against the body. A shower and change of clothes immediately after exposure seems a good idea to wash the aoûtat off before they get round to biting.

But the aoûtat pale into insignificance against the tics ...