to think that mosquitos should not be a thing in the UK?

[DonMosquiote]

I've lived in England for many, many years and may have the odd midge bite. This year for the first time ever, there have been mosquitos - yes actual fuck off mosquitos with the high pitched wine and everythign - in the garden and as it turns out in the house.

This is why I am posting. One of the bastards got in my bedroom unnoticed and had some kind of major banquet on my upper hip when I was sleeping without a sheet. I don't know if it's a pile of bites or a bite on a bite on a bite - but it's a bad scene. It's so itchy and the centre (which is massive) is virtually hard with the multiple hive reaction. The sporners would wet themselves with excitement to see it.

How did this happen?

I've never known mosquitos in the UK. certainly not in suburbs.

As a realted qu - how can I find the culprit? I've tried a light on a night to lure it out but no joy. Where would it hide in a bed room

I am a happy meal on legs for the little bitey fuckers.

Plenty of mosquito breeds in the UK. We should just count ourselves lucky that they don't carry all the nasty diseases the ones in Africa and South America can. Over 600,000 malaria deaths in 2021, about 80% of which were children under 5. The new vaccine, which is an mRNA one incidentally, looks quite promising.

I have an expert in the house…

It doesn’t work like this. DH and I would be both in the room him even sleeping sheetless and me wrapped up closely in a duvet but the beasts would still be over me.
Mosquitoes only like the best.

I woke up on Monday with 13 bites across my back. My husband had none so I must have been the all you can eat buffet on Sunday night (I went to bed with a T-shirt on but must have ditched it in the night 🤦‍♀️)

Bastard mosquitoes

FWIW DD2's advice:

• Don't drink alcohol
• Shower more often (sweat attracts them)
• Wear lighter (in colour) clothes, they can see dark clothes more easily
• Don't get pregnant
• Don't breath (carbon monoxide attracts them)

I'll leave you all to decide for yourselves which of these are practical… 😂

Could we just stick to mosquitoes for today and keep the evening nice? I just had some Merlot with cheese in the garden and DH promised to show me his new swimming trunks later…

Sleeping under one of those mosquito nets does the trick. I am from a country with quite a few mosquitoes and this is what we do in summer. One hook in the ceiling above your bed to hang it from should do the trick. Just make sure to get one that fits all the way around your bed with space to spare.

We also have a net layer in doors and windows, but the mosquito net for the bed is easiest and cheapest to immediately help you.

Goodness, I am 56 and grew up in a little Surrey village in a wooded area - there were definitely mosquitos and being bitten was part of summer! My mum suffered worst and if she heard one buzzing she would hunt that bastard down!

Now live in a little village in France, also near woods, and yes there are mosquitos here too. But now that I am in charge I have some strategically placed mosquito screens on the windows - one in the bedroom and one downstairs. As his is the countryside, there are a lot of flies and wasps too which I'd prefer not to share the house with! (DH made the screens - screwed strips of wood together to size of window and stapled net to it. Downstairs one also has chicken wire to stop the cat getting out!).

Gnats and mosquitos are two different insects.

Definitely had them in Kent all through the 80s and 90s. Usually came out and bit me in the evenings in the garden. Horrible things!

Probably gnats. From what I’ve just read it’s gnats that swarm not mosquitos.

we don’t get many mosquitos but loads of gnats in the garden. We do have two ponds though and there are huge swarms of them over the water.

I'm in Australia and it amazes me that people in the UK don't have screens on their windows . They are on all Aussie windows, otherwise how would you have them open at night ? Mozzies are serious insects which need serious measures to repel them. You'll never get rid of them, they are here to stay.

I'm
Another northerner who had no idea we had mosquitos in the UK. Midges yes, mosquitoes, absolutely no idea! In fact, I told someone with authority at the weekend that there are no mosquitoes in Cumbria, so I feel like an absolute berk now! 🤣

I can report though that I was bitten by a horsefly a couple of years ago and it was a very unpleasant experience needing antibiotics! See lovely attached photo... 😳

Yeah, was going to say "Wait till you hear about the malaria, OP."

Fun fact: there was a malaria outbreak on Sheppey at the end of WWI, when infected soldiers returning from Salonika were stationed there. The malaria got into the local population of anopheles (the mozzie which carries it), and it all kicked off.

Mosquitos love me and I've tried all the recommended deterrents - it's really only DEET that works for me. But if they do still get me - unbelievably this little gadget works. You have to use it when you feel the bite, it doesn't work hours later. It inhibits the histamine release apparently.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ZAP-IT-Mosquito-BITE-Relief/dp/B00E1MKX9G/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2UUSXGPX9QTT5&keywords=mosquito+zap+gun&qid=1686955479&s=books&sprefix=mosquito+zap+gun%2Cstripbooks%2C1229&sr=1-1

Obviously won't help if you've fallen asleep in a bedroom with a mosquito that's got the munchies.

Oh you have my sympathy OP.

but WTF - since when were there mosquitoes in the UK? I thought they only existed in exotic countries?

Water butts they love so now we float oil on the top. Use a hairdryer for the itch

Blardy 'ell, CaveMum, that's hard core.

There’s been Mozzies in Scotland for years. 20 years ago I worked at the council and they used to monitor breeding numbers in the mud flats.

I think the midges up here a far worse btw.

My poor 4 year old is a mosquitos dream. She's been ravaged by them. I'm resorting to insect repellent. Mosquitoes have been around a really long time here.

Me too (Deet)
Burn baby burn.....😆

I recommend the incognito range from Holland and Barrett - first tried it on a holiday to Romania where mosquitoes are apparently legendary- I didn’t get bitten once and the little effers usually love me and ignore everyone else

Another one here with no idea we had mozzies in the UK. I am an absolute magnet for them abroad (and very allergic, so I can tell when I've been bitten by the palm-sized hive that appears). But never been bitten in the UK, or if I have then I'm not allergic to the ones we have here.

Almost wish I hadn't read this, I was living in blissful ignorance and now my skin is itching...

the lastfew years ive been bitten terrible im in southeast

never happened before that