After sympathising with others who have had health, fitness or injury problems, I thought I would add my own tale of woe.
This week I activated Seager Hill G/WB-022, an unassuming little 272M high 1-pointer near Hereford and one of the closest to my home. Because of the small climb, I took a camping chair and settled in for a late afternoon SOTA session. So far so good and the activation was fun.
I noted some clouds of small flies but they were the non-biting kind of midges that aren’t any trouble. What I missed were the Blandford Flies which bite your ankes and cause much pain and grief and are a particular local pest. They stay low, climb your leg and bite the first flesh they encounter, usually at the top of your socks.
We sometimes get a bite in the garden, but this time I have literally a dozen bites on each leg. Luckily they don’t seem to have got infected. I’ll spare you a photo …
Take care and tuck your trousers into your socks !
Rick
I’ve used NOBITE spray for clothing with good results. Just spray lightly (it’s hand-pumped) on lower trouser leg and socks before setting out from the car, and the little critters won’t touch you. We have a lot of ticks here which carry a range of horrid diseases, so something like this spray is a godsend.
My leg after a midge attack at the Linn of Dee, August last year. That was the damage done from the time taken getting out of the drivers seat to getting to the load space, putting on shorts and applying Smidge. They avoided my arms and face as that was Smidged first. I know to keep the Smidge in driver’s door pocket now.
Can you guys in the UK get permethrin? I prefer that to any “repellent” as it will kill the insect on contact rather than hopefully drive them away. You treat your clothing, let it dry, and it’ll kill insects through multiple washings. It won’t stop insects that can fly and land directly on you, but any that have to contact your clothing first will be stopped.
The clegs at Applecross on the way to GM/WS-178 go for inside your elbow on the downwind side. They went left arm on the way up and right arm on the way down.
Andy
MM7MOX
We have small bush flies here in OZ who drive me mad but a fly vail in the SOTA bag is standard kit. The ones who get behind me sun glasses and suck at the moisture in the corner of my eye are the worse ones. You swipe away and knock your glasses off.
Ian vk5cz …
