Herne Hill Black Flies

from Wikipedia:

They feed in the daytime, preferably when wind speeds are low.

Think you'd better ride a bit faster mike?

DEET-based insect repellents may attract greater numbers of black flies; permethrin products designed for ticks are effective but can only be applied to clothing, limiting their utility.[2]

DEET based repellents won't help!

There's some funky spiders in Brockwell Park too, a friend got bitten last year, and had to take an A&E trip after a horrific reaction to the sting / bite.

Yup, they are black flies. I always got weird ill after a bite. The swelling is always fun too.

Mike - pop to a chemist and ask for horse strength antihystermine (sp?).

antihipstermine.

classic.

New Zealand sandflies ( a type of black fly) have a native Māori legend wherein "the god Tu-te-raki-whanoa had just finished creating the landscape of Fiordland, it was absolutely stunning...so stunning that it stopped people from working. They just stood around gazing at the beauty instead. The goddess Hinenuitepo became angry at these unproductive people, so she created the sandfly to bite them and get them moving.

When i saw this thread i thought the Herne Hill Black Flies was the (super-cool) name of a track racing team...

When i saw this thread i thought the Herne Hill Black Flies was the (super-cool) name of a track racing team...

And now it is

Rollapaluza Team Sprint aka The Black Flies

noseeums.
the technical name
[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceratopogonidae[/ame]

^ Is this satement universal?

'Females of most species are adapted to suck blood from some kind of host animal.'

noseeums.
the technical name
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceratopogonidae

Wrong ones

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_fly[/ame]

Rollapaluza Team Sprint aka The Black Flies

Brilliant... :D

Looks like a kind of wasp.

The world is full of fucked up wasps that do mad things like lay their eggs inside your skin and then the grubs eat your testicles. Or something.

a mate won a free trip to africa through his work... got bit by something, thought little of it at the time... two weeks after he's back he's sitting watching TV and his arms starts itching like fuck, so he scratches it... then he sees movement under the skin... then a few minutes of freaking out later a big nasty fuck-off grub-thing pops out... at which point he starts dry retching and has to collect the fucker in a jar to take it to a+e with him.

nightmare scenario. really one of the things that puts me off going to 'exotic' places-I'm like mozzer sex pheromones as it is without playing mummy to some stinking alien-like carrion fly.

i've been ahd by one of these fuckers too! About a month ago my wrist swelled up like crazy! It was weird, because that evry evening I'd been talking to Robin about how he gets really bad reactions to mosquito bites and I was saying I never do. I was then really shocked to next day have a really swollen wrist! Must of been one of these. Am I now immune to them?

a mate won a free trip to africa through his work... got bit by something, thought little of it at the time... two weeks after he's back he's sitting watching TV and his arms starts itching like fuck, so he scratches it... then he sees movement under the skin... then a few minutes of freaking out later a big nasty fuck-off grub-thing pops out... at which point he starts dry retching and has to collect the fucker in a jar to take it to a+e with him.

nightmare scenario. really one of the things that puts me off going to 'exotic' places-I'm like mozzer sex pheromones as it is without playing mummy to some stinking alien-like carrion fly.

that just made me get sick a little in my mouth.

URGHHHHH.

is anyone else having some crazy Attack of The Killer Moths in their house?? The last day or two, maybe it is the heat, but jeebus!! I was literally fighting with a giant moth for about 15 mins in my room last night. The fucker kept flying at me and it's erratic flight path made it impossible to kill the thing. Got two of them, closed my window, went to sleep and next thing I know there's a little mini moth flying around.

Creepy things.

a mate won a free trip to africa through his work... got bit by something, thought little of it at the time... two weeks after he's back he's sitting watching TV and his arms starts itching like fuck, so he scratches it... then he sees movement under the skin... then a few minutes of freaking out later a big nasty fuck-off grub-thing pops out... at which point he starts dry retching and has to collect the fucker in a jar to take it to a+e with him.

nightmare scenario. really one of the things that puts me off going to 'exotic' places-I'm like mozzer sex pheromones as it is without playing mummy to some stinking alien-like carrion fly.

My Dad had this upon returning from a visit to Africa. He got done by a bot fly and something like this happened to him. I guess these fuckers like our bood :(

this happens in brazil too. is a fly that lies eggs and then grow inside you. is horrible

if it ever happens to you-
get some vaseline, rub it on for like a day or so- stops oxygen from reaching the larvae and they'll surface.
get scalpel/ knife, and yank em out yourself.
easy peasy.
savlon the wound up and tell stories of your adventures.

they put a bit of bacon on them in brazil and they come out too . horrible, countryside medicine...

I'm never going on holiday again. Unless its Devon.

They put clotted cream on the wound there.

Isnt vinegar supposed to work too?

YouTube- Christopher Hinton - Black fly [1991]

This is fantastic. I've done a lot of work in Northern Ontario and the black flies clouds are so thick they block out the sun. Honestly.

Ahhh Canada

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick[/ame]

Got gotted by them last night, not only have the bites swollen up, but bruised too!
ffs, I knew there were other reasons apart from being slow that I don't do track league.