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I thought it was a bee sting yesterday evening on the top of my foot by where my shoe ends. This morning it was pretty swollen and now I can’t get a shoe on or bend the bugger.
I hate horseflies more than wasps.
Grrr!
Clegs. Horrible bastards.
Yep, I have a scar on the back of my hand from being bitten by one on a primary school trip (to Cornalees Bridge). Horrible things.
You want to try sheep shearing in this weather at this time of year. The horse flies follow the sheep around and then realise here is bare flesh with both hands otherwise engaged. There is no way to swat them or stop the job in hand until that sheep is done. I usually shout for MrsWF to come and try and kill em while I work. Bastards. I hate em
I felt a sharp sensation when I was waiting for my pal to reach us up a climb in the french alps, I looked down and there was a horse fly about an inch long carving a hole through my cycling shorts. Creepy looking things.
Welsh farmer, I'd be wearing a bee keepers costume with nowt on underneath. Are they worse when the it's sunny?
Pure evil burn them all.
I've been bitten through my clothes by clegs. Its the tenacity of the bastards that makes them so bloody evil.
A mate got bitten last year as a bunch of 6 of us were having a quick 'bite to eat' in Gwydir forest. He just felt a sharp bite, felt nothing of it, until he woke up the next morning - all badly swollen - off to A&E as he could hardly walk.
I once had to curtail a 3-day hike at Rannoch Station after I got bit three times on one ankle and, as a result, couldn't get my boot on.
Even when you swat them away the crafty ****ers circle round you and nearly always attack from behind.
Hot spoon on the bite site might help, supposed to denature the filthy proteins the little ***** drop into the wound to upset you.
Hydrocortisone cream has been useful in the past too as generally I swell so much my skin hurts and I want to take a knife to it to remove it!
I do admire them it has to be said. Aren't they capable of like 90kmh or something? Bite through two layers of clothing, tearing your skin open...
Last time this came up, someone suggested zebra print lycra is a good foil.
I was out paddling on my local canal that passes a few cow fields one summer evening - felt a hot and searing pain between my shoulder blades but nothing I could do as I was in a racing K1 that would as good as capsize as soon as you stop paddling. I could have deliberately capsized to kill the ****er!
someone suggested zebra print lycra is a good foil.
Wearing a zebra print monotard would at least give me something else to worry about. I'd mostly be worried about being mistaken for a mime artist.
Aren’t zebras basically dapper horses? Better off dressing as a crocodile.
Two years ago I was camping for a couple of nights round Culra Lodge to climb the Ben Alder munros. It was a really hot weekend and the first day on the hills was about 8 hours, I was very hot and a bit dehydrated at the end of it. I was about 200m from my tent and looking forward to collecting a couple of litres of water to drink and cooling off in the burn when I was attacked by a swarm of these things - must have been over 40. I flailed around, threw my rucksack on the ground and dove straight in the hot tent where I cowered for about 3 hours until the coast seemed clear. I was very, very thirsty, but death through dehydration seemed a better bet than death through cleg attack.
Three older guys then appeared on bikes having ridden in from Dalwhinnie. Their legs looked like they'd been chainsawed...
I started to look a lot more affectionately at midges after that weekend.
Can highly recommend NOT getting bitten on anything in your groin. I stopped for a pee by a burn years ago and got bitten on the end. Was incredibly painful for at least a week - was about a fortnight before the pain subsided properly. Swelling would have obviously been appreciated if it hadn't such a painful ordeal.
DickBitten
Subscriber
Can highly recommend NOT getting bitten on anything in your groin
Can highly recommend NOT getting bitten on anything in your groin
That's a good tip!
I was once swarmed whilst carrying my bike up a very steep grassy incline in the Pentlands. Fortunately I had my Smidge with me which I pulled out and sprayed it directly at the flies and then all over me. It worked instantly. They all ****ed off and left me. If it's a hot summers day I make a point of always carrying a can with me now. It's a life saver.
Welsh Farmer, was about to say the same thing. Nothing worse than shearing outside, on the neck of a mean old tup and watching 8 of them land on your right arm...
Fortunately I react less to horseflies than midges for some reason. Something about midge bites makes me itch for 3 or 4 days.
I think insects are the thing that make me dislike summer.
Climbing in some midge/mozzy infested valley is grim. Nothing seems to keep them away.
4 days on from the bite the swelling has dropped but I'm starting to see signs of bruising probably caused walking on it when it was so swollen my skin looked like it belonged on a pork sausage.
Hopefully I'll be able to ride again tomorrow. The weather makes today out of the question.
Well, I’m glad to see that eddie, I honestly thought i was the only one who had such a bad reaction to them.
They are ****in awful, crafty and annoying/painful.
Well, I’m glad to see that eddie
Happy to help 🙂
Absolute bar stewards of the highest order, these things.
Aren’t they capable of like 90kmh or something?
90 MPH !!!
Fun fact, they execute Immelman Turns.
Both verifiable wikipediafacts.