Anyone Else Up Yet ......... Vol. 2

Never bitten at home either in Oxon, and we had mosquito larvae in the water butt. No midges though, nor clegs

Got mightily bitten thro' trousers once, picking blackberries! (fairly loose-weave linean and BLACK!) my friend has a theory that black attracts them. Years ago I could pick/gather with impunity. These days I am a target! Must be something to do with the ageing process.... again! .
P.S. what on earth is a cleg?

I was wearing a pair of bright yellow cotton trousers (well, nobody sees me in the forest!) and I sat on an innocent looking tree stump. I felt a hot sting and when I looked down my legs were covered in big, black ants. I have never moved so fast!

OHM Clegs are very nasty horsefly thingies that give a mighty sting!

Greatnan yuck ( the ants NOT your trousers!)

Sorry - OGM

Thanks Butter I suppose there is a 'Somerset' name for them too. Whatever they are called I'll steer clear!

Morning all
We had a previous thread about mossie bites and that's where I learned about Tiger Balm from Bags, and have used it all summer.
My daughter recently discovered a new 'remedy' when a particularly nasty insect bite started to redden and swell rapidly. She applied Munuka Honey and the relief was almost immediate. Within 20 minutes the redness and swelling started to subside and 24 hours later there was virtually no sign of the bite. So very sticky, but effective.

Manuka honey is wonderful but very expensive. My daughter was furious with her husband for putting it on his toast! She keeps is strictly for medicinal purposes.

Greatnan, on toast!!

I used a mixture of honey and Vaseline on a chicken's infected foot once. Worked a treat and it was only cheap honey.

Just seen a report on Breakfast TV about all the insects about this year and awful reactions some people are having to bites.

I put Manuka honey on toast.

When we, as children, spent our summer holidays at my granny's house in Fife, we picked all kinds of berries in her lovely garden. There was a creature called a berry bug which inflicted a nasty, very itchy, bite, even on the poor dog. Apparently it was a kind of mite rather than a flying insect and we never saw one. I never heard of it anywhere else.

I, too, have Manuka honey on toast! It's the only honey that doesn't affect my sensitive teeth - and it's very good for you.

I use Manuka honey a lot. If you have a local Costco, they have twin packs of it at about £18, for the 15+ one, which is almost half price, and is the most effective as an antibiotic. If I get early signs of a cold or sore throat, I have a teaspoonful on a chunk of bread (makes it go down more slowly) and that usually fends it off. I love the toffee flavour of Manukau, but in my book, all honey is great stuff.

We used honey coated gauze dressings in the 60s especially for pressure sores.

You can still get them!

honey dressings

Well I am pleased to hear that, sometimes natural products are good to have.

I don't understand why Manuka honey is so expensive. I'd heard of it and because I couldn't find it here, I decided to wait until I went to the UK in the spring, only to be aghast at the cost!
I buy locally produced honey which I thoroughly enjoy - 3 euros per jam-pot.

I think many drugs have been developed from plants, like digitalis, aspirin, and quinine. I wish I could eat honey, but I hate anything sweet.
My daughter makes lots of jam now she has an orchard so her husband has instructions to leave the Manuka alone . Oddly enough, I think it originates in NZ but it is very expensive there.

anno - just seen your post about 'berry bugs'! We live in Fife, and are always plagued by them for about 2 weeks at the end of the summer. Awful things! You can't see them but you CAN feel them, creeping! Then later on, the itchy bumps pop up and they're so terribly itchy, aren't they? They tend to appear under bands such as under bra straps or waistbands.....thankfully the season seems to have passed again. Bags suggested Tiger Balm to relieve the itching, and it did seem to work for me.

I wish we'd known about Tiger Balm 60 years ago. We had a Boxer dog and the bumps showed up under her skin! Mind you, what she would have made of Tiger Balm, I can't imagine. Are these things endemic to Fife?

I bought a jar of manuka honey once, to eat, and to find out what all the fuss was about. Still don't know what all the fuss was about. I didn't like it. Plenty of other, nicer honies around, I thought, and much cheaper. I think I used it up in flpajacks, a spoonful at a time, and reverted to eating ordinary honey.

Put it on wounds, Bags.