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Yesterday I had an outing chasing King Salmon on the Calliope Rive and the most thought provoking thing that came out of the outing was the hundreds of sandfly bites on my legs and the back of my hands.

After a little research I found out that the insects concerned are part of the Diptera (fly) order of insects and surprisingly they are in fact biting midge that belong to the same family known as as Ceratopogonidae which also includes non biting midges that trout fly fishermen commonalty call midge, buzzers or Chironomids.

For part of their life cycle they are a small robust winged insect of between 1.5 to 4 mm that are renowned for repeatedly biting venturing into their habitat which is coastal lagoons, estuaries, mangrove swamps and tidal flats mainly at dusk and dawn. Contrary to popular belief these bites are not associated with laying eggs. They are in fact bites associated with feeding. The fact that almost immediately they start to itch and the itching increases is related to the fact that during the feeding process they urinate and the bites become infected.

To set the record straight sand flies lay between 30-100 eggs, and are laid on selected substrates such as mud, decaying leaf litter, damp soil or other vegetative materials, dependent on the species. The small eel-like larvae hatch in a few days; their larval habitat must contain a proportion of organic material with a high moisture content to provide optimum conditions for the larval stage to thrive and pupate. The whole life cycle takes 3-10 weeks, dependent on species and environmental conditions, particularly temperature.

So what do you do about sand fly bites?

I suffered for about 24 hours trying various concoctions including vinegar and antihistamines to no avail until I remembered that when I last renewed my first aid certificate somewhere I read that some insect bites can be treated with hot water. This morning after my normal shower I turned the water temperature up to as high as I could handle it and sprayed my legs until it was just to hot to continue. Guess what the itch has subsided almost to nothing. I have researched this a little further and can confirm that a very hot bath is the preferred treatment at the Broom WA hospital. I can highly recommend it.

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