Is anyone else getting bit by these really, really small gnats?

[dana]

These things itch like hell!

What the heck are they?  Anyone....?

[stpitner]

this sounds disgusting, but are they attaching themselves to you?  Might be chiggars (or however it's spelled).  If you see the black spots on your arms or legs or whatever and are supper itchy, you need to soak in a bath for something like an hour (this is according to my wife), and drown them.  They'll die off and fall out into the bath water, and the itchy will be gone.

[Dan Michler]

Have you seen the gnats?  Chiggers are almost invisible to the eye. I have had them before and they do itch like hell and leave red welts around your ankles usually.

[Jon Brakel]

Gnats don't bite. About the worst thing a gnat ever did to me was to get stuck under my eye lid when I walked thru a swarm of them. I had to hold open my eye lid and cry it out.

[dana]

Ok, they may not be gnats, but they are gnat like bugs.  The fly around in little swarms.  People at work have been complaining about them as well, so it is not just me. 

Also, I went out to our baseball fields to check on staff tonight, and heard many complaints about these 'gnat like' bugs.  Our highschooler that was working out there was all bit up. 



I was bit by the same type of bug in South Carolina last year as well. 

[dana]

I just asked some guys playing basketball about them, and no one knew what they were except that they look like nats and itch terribly.

[Jon Brakel]

They are not chiggers of the normal variety. Chiggers do not fly in swarms. Not even sure if chiggers can fly. I thought they just fell out of trees and shrubs. They may be a bug that only comes out after heavy flooding. I know there are bugs that lay dormant until it gets to be 100 degrees and humid. I've seen them on my screen door at home. They only come out when it is over 100 degrees.

Anyway, someone needs to do some sleuthing on this one.

[can't putt]

Possibly Buffalo Gnats or (less likely) Biting Midges

[Bruce Brakel]

If they bite around the hair line they might be blood flies.  Blood flies mostly live in the northwoods, north of the 45th parallel, but with the cool summer, they might have moved south. 

[duain]

i've been bitten by these things also. i took a picture of some and kept a couple i killed that were on my arm and showed them to a buddy that studies bugs, he said they were a form of flea that i guess can form during heavy moisture and  they get on you because they are looking for a host to live on. but ive never seen a flying swarm of them.

[damonshort]

Possibly Buffalo Gnats or (less likely) Biting Midges

ah, there was a girl in college we called Biting Midge.   But seriously folks....

[dana]

I'm guessing they are buffalo gnats.  When I worked at Yellowstone National Park I was terrorized by buffalo gnats, although then they only bit me around the hairline.  They itched much, much worse then as well.

I went to the park today and so far I'm not feeling any bites!  I did run away from a small swarm of them though...

[SIUFrolf]

my family calls them "no see'ms" they are just annoying and we don't know what they are but we know when we walked into a swarm of them.

[duain]

i went to check on my laundry i hung out to dry and those little black things were all over the stuff that was still damp. that kind of explains why there are so many of those things this year, cause all the rain we got that is still puddled around keeping everything moist is perfect for living and breeding conditions. heres a link to what is most likly biting all of us. if you read the whole thing it explains everything.

http://www.ento.okstate.edu/ddd/insects/blackflies.htm

[Jon Brakel]

...They may be a bug that only comes out after heavy flooding...

Anyway, someone needs to do some sleuthing on this one.

Nice conjecture, eh? Thanks for the sleuthing!

[can't putt]

Umm, I think black flies were suggested several days ago.  Black flies == Buffalo gnats. 

[duain]

Umm, I think black flies were suggested several days ago.  Black flies == Buffalo gnats. 

many things were suggested over the past week, we are simply drawing the conclusions from all the suggestions and occurances people are having thats all. not trying to steal yours and some others suggestion. 

[Jon Brakel]

Hey, cut him some slack. He had a link to an article with pictures and science content and stuff!

[can't putt]

My dig was to you Jon, not Duain.  Nobody gave me an attaboy for nice sleuthing!  I wanna be special just like everyone else!!!

[Pro Open]

Sounds like you guys are ready to play the courses in FLORIDA!
Throw enough rounds and you get desensitized to all the bug biting.
See you when the snow flies?!?! We are Open ALL YEAR here.