Black fly distribution?

[sharki]

Hi.

My friend has just come in with her calf swollen after being bitten by a fly.

We've ID'd it as a type of blackfly but most internet searches suggest the Blandford fly (Simulium posticatum).

The thing is we're North east Scotland.

We've ruled out mozzies, midges and cleg.

What else could it be?

Thanks
Sharki.

[The Woodman]

I'd have thought it was too early to be bitten by the spp you mention in NE Scotland. The Simulium sp certainly aren't active here in Cumbria yet.

Did your friend actually see the fly as it bit?

[sharki]

Yes she did and after looking at various images online, she ID'd it as something the same size and shape as a blackfly.

Yes it's early.

She had felt hot and achy since.
Sent her to bed with some antihistamine.

[The Woodman]

Bad luck. Certainly sounds like blackfly but I wouldn't have thought that Blandford fly wouldn't have been in NE Scotland. I've had a brief look at the NBN distribution here....http://data.nbn.org.uk/gridMap/gridMap.jsp#topOfMap

[Endrick]

I was attacked by swarms of these on the River Don in Aberdeenshire a few years ago - but that was high summer. Another possibility is the Deer Ked.

[sharki]

Cheers woodman.

And also Endrick, it could be that, she did say it was beetle like. But ID'd the BF..

And having looked up the Deer ked, i now know what the little critters i had crawling over me on various Quantock hill walks, never bit me thankfully but literally had dozens on me at times.

[MFdave]

With the warm last couple of days it strangely may not be wise to rule out midges. The midge species in the East are quite different from the West and the most common is Culicoides obsoletus, rather than infamous Culicoides impunctatus.

In previous years our research into extended midge survival (of the farm based species in the East) in barns found that we would not find any indoors but after a couple of warm days such as we are having we would find a few C. obsoletus in the outdoor traps. This included several being trapped on Christmas and new years days on one of our site near Banchory.

[The Woodman]

So there's more chance of getting bitten in the west??

Do you use CO2 traps for midges?

[sharki]

This morning the Ked was discounted as it didn't resemble what she saw biting her. Maintaining it looked much more like a Blackfly, but perhaps with shorter legs.

She's was brought up in Fort William so is well used to Midge bites and what they look like and is positive it's not one of the two suggested Midges that MFDave suggested.


So it remains a mystery still.
Thanks for all the suggestions.

Sharki

[MFdave]

Originally Posted by The Woodman

So there's more chance of getting bitten in the west??

Do you use CO2 traps for midges?

Oh by far more chance of getting bitten in the West simply due the population sizes.

In the East a maximum catch on a farm per night would be around 100,000 but in the West its nearer the 800,000 mark - and we specifically avoided the really bad spots as I had to count them all!

For this trials we were using UV light suction traps into water to catch the midges. This obviously limits the effectiveness to the range of light can reach. Our CO2 traps can easily catch 1,000,000 midges per night with the greater range.

Sharki - Different midges species can cause different reactions. I am totally fine with the highland midge bites but another species which is from farms on the East (C. nubeculous) causes me to break out in horrific spots, its all due to the different saliva and each individuals immune response. But yes not likely to be a midge - but not impossible.