How can such a small fly cause such a bloody pain in the a...

[CanIDigIt]

....ankle. My fucking arse it hurts.

Blandford Fly. It's 2mm big for fucks sake.

I got bitten last year too and still have a scar. Anyone else seem to ridiculously over react to these little buggers?

gets off sweary high horse to curl up cause it hurts

I don't think I've ever been bitten by anything in this country. Apart from once by a bunch of midges when horse riding over the west coast.

I'd take the midges if I were doing something as much fun as horse riding.

Mowing the lawn (last year) and walking the dog (this one) are too mundane for this level of pain !

Midgies. I react to them really badly. Only me, no one else.

Is that like one bite or a cluster though from midges ? I never get bitten by them. Only blandford flies

Something bit me on the hand and after a day scratching it the pain woke me the night and my hand swelled. Stayed like that for a day and now it’s gone down. Some little buggers out there! Hope it calms down soon, OP.

I get bitten by midgies all over, but if I get one(or two or more!) on the face, it erupts like small volcano. Painful rather than itchy. I still have some scars on my body from last summer.

I think I'd rather take a wasp sting - pain at the start but at least it stops after a couple of hours!
This is day 2 and getting worse.

I will get proper antihistamine tomorrow. Over the counter doesn't cut the mustard

I got stung on my foot by a dead wasp when I was 14. My whole foot swelled to twice it’s normal size and took almost two weeks to go down. The first week was half term, and a good thing too because I could only wear flip flops. My mum had to write me a note so I could wear my trainers to school for the second week. I think I had to take the lace out completely to get it on. It was agony. And 25 years later, the big toe joint on my right foot still hurts and doesn’t have the same range of movement as my left. Bastard dead wasp.

One the other hand, mosquitoes aren’t interested in me at all, as long as there is someone else nearby to eat.

I got stung on the knees by wasps going down a slide as a child. My knees hurt every time I got in the bath for years after that. Odd that, I mean wasps don't leave the sting in do they?

I was bitten by a tick a few years back- ended up with cellulitis and my entire foot swelled and then turned grey (bruised), to top it off, I ended up with Lyme disease and ended up having a lengthy course of antibiotics.

All from one teeny (buggering) tick!

I'm marginally back pedalling from these horror stories

If anyone was thinking of telling me their spider stories STOP RIGHT THERE

Oooh my sister got bitten by a spider in the jungle in Honduras. Ended up with a crater in her leg where they had to scoop all the dead skin and muscle out. I had a much less serious wasp sting that almost ended in sepsis and hurt for actual weeks

We had lots of blandford fly in the area a few years ago and me and a few friends got really bad bites like you describe. You have my sympathy!! Where are you?

2 words.

Mango fly

Garden of England! And annoyingly nowhere near water which is thee natural habitat for Blandford. They don't even fucking fly so why are they in my garden???

I'm quaking whilst I type mango fly into google.....

RETCHING

Scarred for life. Physically and emotionally.

Ok so feet at bedtime. It's throbbing and hot and tight. It's pushing on the joint when I walk. If it keeps me awake I will be annoyed.

I will try and remember to take a pic in the morning when I hope it has decided to shrink.

Had never heard of it so went to mr google. I’m sure you have to but for anyone else that encounters it this is from NHS Oxfordshire who are seeing a rise in cases

www.oxfordhealth.nhs.uk/news/miu-update-patients-with-blandford-fly-bites/

Don't want to worry you but maybe have a look at this thread.......

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sporner_corner

I got bitten by a blandford Fly actually in Blandford.
My ankle swelled up and there were big liquid filled blisters forming all over my foot before my eyes.
It was so painful, I had cellulitis and had to take time off work.
For years after it itched.
Bastard things.

How do you know that's a Blandford fly bite?

I react badly to all bites, just like my Dad. Mosquito bites scar every time, and they like me... I have so many scars now.

Horseflies are rife where we are, but I've learned that wearing pale (ideally white) clothes reduces bites significantly. It's shit having to wear tropical DEET to go for a bloody dog walk.

My worst horse fly bite resulted in a lump on my thigh the size of a dinner plate, with coloured rings running out from the centre, and the lump was a good 2" deep. That was awful for days.

We have birch flies. They saw into the skin. Small flies but they bite as ferociously as clegs/horseflies.

Oh ! I haven't come across a birch fly but I suppose that could be the culprit but they supposedly live near water too.
It's a small black fly. I saw it both times. Really small. I thought this year I'd flicked it off the moment it landed. Obviously not.

I had no idea what sporner corner was. Not sure I have the stomach for it.

The swelling is down but the red hot stabby pain hasn't gone.