Midgewater Cove

I am sorely tempted to rename my mooring location as "Midgewater Cove."  This coastal area of southern Massachusetts seems to have a robust population of tiny biting insects: the proverbial "No-See-Ums."  These little bastards are particularly ubiquitous during early morning and evening twilight, especially on cloudy days with little or no wind.  It's not for naught that they carry the moniker, "Flying Jaws."  They feast on proteins in the blood of a host mammal.  Their bites can be irritable -- compounded by the fact that these insects swarm.  Some people have localized allergic reactions to the bites (or more specifically to proteins in the insect's saliva), which develop into itchy red welts that may last for days.  

My First Mate, largely on the authority of his ten-year-old friend, Justin, calls these tiny flies “gnats."  This term is not uncommonly applied to a wide variety of tiny flying insects in the Diptera suborder Nematocera, which includes mosquitos, gnats, and midges.  We had “gnats” where I grew up, for example, but they were different.  They were tiny, would swarm around your head and face, and sometimes get in your ears, eyes, or mouth.  But they did not bite you.  They were bugs that bugged you, they did not hurt you.  In Little League days, those of us relegated to the outfield were taught to stand out there with a hand or fist raised high above the head.  The gnats would tend to gather at the highest point (i.e., the elevated hand), leaving fewer hovering around your face.  It worked pretty well, and I still do it occasionally during outdoor activities when visiting the Binghamton area.  I might add, however, that my neighbor is quite skeptical of this tale, and remains convinced the coach was merely pranking a bunch of naive kids who must have looked ridiculous standing in the outfield with their hands raised, as if asking for the ball.

Around here we have two principal types of midges: non-biting and biting.  Non-biting midges (family Chironomidae) may look fierce but are relatively harmless.  Males feature a distinctive elongated antennae and somewhat resemble mosquitos (although the latter actually belong to a different taxonomic family).

A male 'non-biting midge'

(Chironomidae plumosus)

Closely related to the non-biting midge are its dreaded cousins: biting midges (family Ceratopogonidae) and black flies (family Simuliidae).  Biting midges are common in aquatic wetlands as well as in mountain habitats.  There are thousands of species worldwide, and hundreds in North America alone.  They are fierce swarming hematophagi that relentlessly suck the blood of victims.

A female 'biting midge'

(Culicoides sonorensis, or "Minius mofosis")

At 1-3mm in length, they are just visible to the naked eye (ergo, "No-see-ums"), and may be easily concealed beneath or within body hair.  Sometimes they get entangled within body hair and bite repeatedly.  They are small enough to pass through conventional window screens, so an extra-fine weave of 30-mesh (often used in camping tents) is necessary to keep them at bay.

Noseeum Until It's Too Late

In many parts of the U.S. and Canada, biting midges are known as 'Noseeums,' 'Punkies,' or 'Five-Os' (because they come out at 5:00pm).  Fleeing Bree, Frodo and his companions were led by Strider (Aragorn) through the Midgewater Marshes in the hopes of evading their pursuers as they made for Rivendell.  They were all utterly miserable.

I feel their pain.  Studies suggest that roughly one-fifth of the population are particularly apt to attract mosquitos and other biting insects.  In a group of people, I am quite often the first one, sometimes the only one, to be suffer such predations.  My grandmother used to console me that I had "sweet blood."   Her explanation was not so far off-mark.  We now know that mosquitos, for example, are attracted to a variety of cues, including blood type, carbon dioxide, warmth, substances produced by the body (e.g. lactic acid, uric acid, ammonia, acetone), and even the particular bacteria community living on the surface of your skin (see Smithsonian.com).  Some believe there may be a genetic basis insect attraction.

Most common insect repellants offer me little protection.  For years I relied a DEET-free herbal insect repellant, 'Green Ban' ("Tested in the Australian rainforest").  Made of citronella (10%) and peppermint (2%), with extracts of other oils such as tea tree, lavender, and calendula, it was wonderfully effective against the mosquitos of upstate New York, Greek Macedonia, and rural Sichuan.  Unfortunately, it could also repelled people, some of whom found its odor downright repulsive.  Once I was once asked to leave a lobster picnic on Long Island because someone complained the smell of my Green Ban made her "want to puke."

As it turns out, the Admiral is not a fan either, and Green Ban has been banned at family functions.  The bugs rarely bother her; she often goes without any repellant.  But I suffer the scourges of these demon-spawn pests.  I have found Cutter Deep Woods repellant largely ineffective.  I now use "Ben's," a brand I found in a local camping supply and army surplus store.  It comes in a 30% DEET (diethytoluamide) and a 95% DEET option.

DEET, we are reassured, is completely safe.  But the 95-percent concentrate bottle carries a warning that it should not be used on children.  The kids get the Cutter's; Ben's my Bud.