When Black Flies Attack

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Artex

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May 16, 2004
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For whatever reason, I have abnormally large swelling from a black fly bite. The attached picture is a top view of my forearm. The area between the two arrows is where my forearm normally would go straight across, but note rise between the two points (~6").

Think it's this big because it simply bit me really hard? It doesn't hurt or really even itch, but it looks cool. :D
 
Artex said:
Think it's this big because it simply bit me really hard? It doesn't hurt or really even itch, but it looks cool. :D
How big was the black fly? :)

It does look unusually big--might be an allergic reaction. (Just a wild guess.)

Doug
 
i am keeping my fingers crossed for west nile virus. How cool would that be? Great pick up line at the bar. "let me tell you about the time I got west nile virus." Bird flu virus comes a close second, chicks dig both.
 
Is that your forearm or your quad???
 
While cycling the other night I pedalled through a cloud of black flies, I was going about 22 mph and they were hovering in a swarm above the road.

Don't ya know, one of 'em got me! Flew into my jersey and made its way into my armpit where it proceeded to bite me, despite my best attempts to squish it!

Road about 20 miles with the damn thing in my jersey biting me (yah, I shoulda just stopped riding and killed the sucker...but..)

Didn't blow up like you did but it was bothersome that evening.

Taking any benedryl for that reaction??
 
Yeah, it was just one bite. I can see the area where it got me, and I remember specifically squashing that little bugger. Swelling is nonexistent now. This one never really itched, which is consistent with most bites I get. Most of the time I just get swelling in an area the size of a quarter, but that one was voracious. :D
 
Been there, done that... do not want the tee shirt...

I would wager that you had a mild allergic reaction to the little beasty's bite (no, I am not a medical professional, nor do I play one on TV). If it happens again, you might want to talk to your doctor on general principles. At a minimum, give some Benadryl a try, it might keep the swelling down.

I speak from something like experience. A few years back, my wife and I had a simply marvelous two-day cruise across the Presidentials -- cool, dry days and great nights at Mad and Lakes huts. The third AM, as we started down Tuckerman Ravine, naturally the black flies all hatched en masse. We doused ourselves liberally with DEET and soldiered on. Unfortunately, I didn't DEET under my socks (why would I?), and the determined little Forces of Darkness worked their way in there and chewed. My doctor later counted 63 bites -- below my calves, down to my ankles -- when I went in with two gargantuan, swollen tree trunks where my legs had previously been.

This was not fun.

Ordinarily, one good bite, and I get a hard, itchy lump, not unlike your impressively bulging tricep.
 
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