We talk about mosquitoes all the time, but I think I’m also being bitten by what once would have been called gnats and midges - too small to be mosquitoes and silent.
I have solved the Tigre question after chatting with Marie in the coffee shop. Marie-Paule, misunderstood me, I wasn’t talking about mozzies (moustiques) but horse flies (taons).
The very tiny, almost invisible midges that @SuePJ was talking about irritated the hell out of me (without biting) while watching telly last night, but came to an abrupt halt when I went into the closed bedroom, and kept the door shut until the light was out and I settled down to sleep. Then I opened the door to stay connected with Jules but with no light, they didn’t follow. The wide open windows are protected by a permanent very fine mesh on the outside.
Hot as hell here again today and for the foreseeable future with no rain forecast anywhere down here, quelle surprise! Looked over rear fence this morning and the pool of the empty but sold house next door has lost a good third of its water and is dark green. It was full up and blue this time last week. The new owners will have some work to do
Apparently called Chiggers, 0.3 of a ml, they bite but you can’t see them.
1 Like
About this time of year Stuart and I always get bitten by chiggers - harvest mites - and we scratch away until we can stand it no more. Both of us have literally hundreds of tiny red bite marks over our bodies.
Stuart has the French version of Cetirizine tablets (antihistamin) sold over the counter in the pharmacie but I prefer Piriteze as they don’t make me drowsy. We call them the ‘aout mites’. I don’t think it helps as we have wheat/barley/grass fields all around us. Roll on October when the pesky mites have gone. 
Aoûtats in French, horrible things.
1 Like
Yep, that’s them .
It was 8 degrees here this morning, though it got up to 28 later.
The fields are green again and cows are eating the grass instead of hay as they were when we got here 3 weeks ago.
That’s what they were called in Brittany by the locals, never got bitten by mossies but these little “no see ums” were the worst.
I have noticed that fly strips capture them, even though they are not the most picturesque of items. Baygon (red) ones work here and seem to stay working the longest. The strips can end up with a fine carpet of them so you know they’re about.
The aoutats are not really biting me, too much else got in first 
. And the wasps at my place are very aggressive without any provocation this year. I’ve been stung at least 3 times by wasps just flying out of somewhere and stinging me as I was going by.
