Meszki can effectively make summer walks and holiday trips outside the city unpleasant. They are also very aggressive at home if they get in through an open window. How to defend against them?
Meszki are extremely intrusive creatures. Unlike mosquitoes,blackfliesare not active in the evening and at night. Unfortunately, they are often massive. They have excellent eyesight, so they easily find the victim. They are also attracted by exhaled carbon dioxide.
Small but dangerous midges
Blackfliesare much smaller than mosquitoes - 1.5-10 (usually 3-6) mm long, usually dark colored. They have a stocky body with a hump, short and wide, iridescent wings in a resting position, massive 11-segment antennae and short, thick legs. The female lays 200-500 eggs in clean, shallow waters. Hatching after 2-3 weeks, the larvae live and pupate in rapidly flowing waters. Pupation occurs after another 6-8 weeks. Adult insects swim to the surface in an air bubble and then fly away.
Adult insects like wet areas. The early stages of development are associated with running water from small watercourses to large rivers.
Females are dangerous for us - the fluff mouth apparatus is adapted to cutting the skin and tearing the tissue apart. From this morning, females suck blood. They are extremely aggressive in closed rooms. But you can defend yourself against them by applying vanilla oil to your skin - the fluff can not stand its smell.
One insect cannot harm you, but if you are bitten severely, professional help may be needed - once the nap stings are much more painful than mosquito bites and leave a clear, bleeding trail, there may be swelling and high fever. The fluff saliva contains irritating substances which, together with the blood, quickly spread throughout the body and can cause serious ailments. If inflammatory reactions appear around the punctures, do not disregard them, because they may end up becoming infected.
Until you see your doctor, carefully disinfect the bite areas and smear them with a cooling preparation. Applying an ice cube will also be a relief.
Bitten placesyou mustn't scratch.Otherwise, it will be difficult to heal or even festering wounds. Ugly, bluish-red marks may remain after healing.
How to protect yourself from fluff?
- Avoid staying in open spaces in brooding places (ducks especially like wet places, e.g. around water reservoirs and wooded areas such as forests, parks, meadows),
- Try to go outside in clothes that cover your body,
- Use chemical agents that repel insects, the so-called repellants. If you don't have anything like that at hand, you can reach for the usual oils: lavender, vanilla mint, clove. The former can be applied directly to the skin, without diluting. Oils last as long as they smell,
- On the terrace or balcony, light an insecticide spiral, scented candles, the smoke of which repels both flies and mosquitoes,
- Rinse the bite sites - the fluff leaves the sores open, which allows germs to enter the bloodstream. First, rinse the wound with hydrogen peroxide, then rub it with a preparation that accelerates skin healing and soothes itching, e.g. fenistil.