UKC

I expect midges in Scotland.
I expect midges near water.
I expect midges in the early evening.

I do NOT expect to be chased off the crag and bitten head to toe by midges at one of Yorkshire's apparently windiest crags - in the middle of the day - nowhere near water!!!!!

Rylstone today was a complete non starter, I have little red bites all over me - I've never climbed so damn quickly in my life!!!

In reply to HC~F: climate change

In reply to HC~F: climate change- you are part of the problem

In reply to Anonymous:

Really? We were actually pondering that!

Am I wrong in thinking midges are usually only found near water??

In reply to HC~F:

Yep If only...

They are pretty bad at times throughout Northern England, there was a thread about them at Earl on Sunday night.

boB

In reply to HC~F:

Got eaten off Burbage North this lunchtime... tried Stanage and got eaten alive up there as well...
Evil little things. Must be warm humid conditions with no wind and no direct sunlight. They all thought it was a nice summer evening and came out to feast!
I'm taking a flame thrower up to Stanage next time...

In reply to Bob:

Ah, just checked out that thread, cheers. It was exactly like described at Earl, great clouds of them in your eyes, ears, everywhere. Unbearable .

I'll be checking wind speeds in future!

In reply to HC~F:


Yes, but water can take the form of a single drop of dew.
Since a midge lives for 24 hours, a dew drop last long enough to spawn the blighter.

In reply to HC~F:

What the f*ck are midges for anyway? What do they do? What purpose do they serve in our ecosystem? Is there no way we can kill them all?

In reply to HC~F: Unbearable Bite-ness of Flea-ing at Widdop this afternoon

In reply to HC~F:

have you experienced a full-on scottish midge attack?

In reply to Marc C: Glad I wasn't the only one with a ruined day's climbing :oP.

Almscliffe tomorrow, what are the bets??

In reply to brothersoulshine: use? think harm and you will reflect upon yourself

In reply to HC~F: They dont play by the rules mate. The worst midges in the Peak are around the 'Unconquerables/ Plantation' area on Stanage, a wind swept edge miles from standing water.

In reply to Anonymous:

Post coherently and maybe someone will listen.

In reply to HC~F:

They like you

Y.

In reply to HC~F:
I've still got large (1cm diameter) red lumps from where the b*stards got me at Brandrith last Sunday

In reply to HC~F: sorry you are all wusses... you have only been midged to death when the bites turn into purple bruises!
I regularly get these at hebden bridge!
Evil mutant midges...

Miss what happened to your face?!
how do you explain that then?

In reply to Pauline: Hebden Bridge?! 'Bites that turn into purple bruises'...sounds more like love bites!

In reply to HC~F: had the same problem in the past,but the worst midges we ever got were at Laddow,drove us of the rock

In reply to victorclimber: <Drove us off the rock> Presumably they were driving MG Midge-ts

In reply to HC~F:

Damp undergrowth is what they like eg moorlands - ideal day for them today

In reply to HC~F:

Went on a canoeing trip in Northern Ontario over the weekend. It turns out that the hard part about portaging is not the fact that you have a huge fibreglass boat on your shoulders, but that you get attacked by mozzies as you tramp through the forest. It gets worse though. As you are using both hands to hold onto the canoe on your back, you have no hands free to brush/bat/swat/squish the mozzies that are attacking you.

So you walk find yourself bush-wacking through the undergrowth, mozzies swarming around you. You see them land on you and start to feast on your flesh and you desperately (and futilely) attempt to get them off your arms by blowing at them. More mozzies appear as they are drawn to the CO2 that is slowly gathering under the upturned canoe you are carrying.

AAARRRGGGHH!!!!!!

Yes - I got bitten a bit. (approx 8 on each arm and too many to count on my ankles.

Pass the Calamine lotion will you?

In reply to StudioBen:

We got midged off the boulders at B South last night too. Muz looked like he had some nasty skin lurgy, he'd been bitten that many times.

In reply to TN: They're just starting to itch..... I sense a sleepless night ahead.....

In reply to HC~F:

essential yorkshire summer wear at a still venue at any crag:

http://www.millets.co.uk/millets.storefront/product/580172.aspx?searchbread...

undergrowth == midges

In reply to Marc C: glad not the only one wimped off widdop this evening 'cos of them...i wanted to cry! i kno it can be bad but really...don't they have any decency!
they must look forward to 5:30 onwards, all theses idiots start turning up after work only to get bitten. takes the p*ss, royally.

got even more annoyed that everyone else seemed to be coping andgetting on with it!

bridestones next time, much more breezy surely?

In reply to HC~F:

Ow, poor you. Hope it wasn't too bad?
Miraculously mine don't seem to have kicked in (yet?) - could it be that I no longer taste good to midges? (oh god I hope so...)

In reply to brothersoulshine:

As insects they'll mainly be eatern by spiders, birds, bats and other insects, and do therefore play a part in the ecosystem.

After being warned off going to Stanage on Wednesday and finding Burbage North to have similar infestations we sacked off any attempt.

Will be looking into contacting our local Avon lady though...

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1819182005

In reply to HC~F: Yorkshire is as bad as Scotland I have found on my few trips there.

DEET kills them but also melts plastic and doesn't stop them from swarming round your head and getting in your mouth, ears, eyes etc

Horrid things.

In reply to HC~F:

There's no midges at the seaside if that helps

There's millions of the little feckers at home though! I went out for 5min to put a battery on charge and was crawling with the little bastards, totally infested, all scrabbling around in my arm hair fighting to suck me dry of every last drop of blood like some evil mutant vampire swarm. It's times like that I think total nuclear annihilation wouldn't be so bad so long as we take the midges with us.

jk

In reply to HC~F: My tribute to Midge Ure

They stalked in the warm air
Seething mass on the Widdop plain
Lying and waiting
A mat on the ground and a climber in pain
They nip till he’s woeful
His voice reaching out in a piercing cry
He tries to climb on

But the feeling has gone, only midges and flies
Grit means nothing to me
Grit means nothing to me
Oh, Repellent!

In reply to HC~F:
my only consolation is that I don't seem to react to midge bites: they'd all pretty much gone by yesterday evening. Just debating what to do this weekend: having read through this thread I might just head to the coast and go sailing!

In reply to VisionSet:

Unfortunately not. They live for quite a while for such annoying things. It is interesting that only the females bite when they are brooding. Hence the biting free season around early May in Scotland. You'll see them but they wont bother you.

http://www.wyrdology.com/edinburgh/midges/life-cycle.html

In reply to HC~F:

http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/tfl.midge.html

Attracted to dark coloured moving objects associated with CO2 - where something white and hold your breath!

In reply to Yorkspud: <Wear something white>

Hah! I KNEW my nude climbing prowess would come in useful...just need some of that white paint that Japanese geisha women put on their faces

In reply to Marc C:

Ahh that was you I saw at Widdop then!

In reply to HC~F:

It is a bizarre thing, you would think that Norway (where we are now) would be midge heaven, mild, often humid, standing water everywhere, but they just are not a problem - wierd!


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:
What's the weather been like this summer? We're off a week today...

In reply to Simon Caldwell:

Pretty good so far (up north - more unsettled down south I believe). In three and half weeks we have had 14 days solid sunshine, seven grey (but climbable) and two pi55ing rain (yesterday was one of those).
A lot better than the UK by the sounds!


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Anyone got the midge forecast for this evening in the Peaks?

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

I predict they'll all be at Apparent North...

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Guess where we're going :-|

In reply to Al Evans: Hehe - they were all the encouragement I needed to make a quick ascent of right unconquerable last summer. My belayer wasn't too impressed though......

Has anyone ever tried carting a load of dry ice pellets up to the crag with them? The little blighters should stick/ freeze to them........

In reply to Yorkspud:

Yup, I was the hunky guy with the air of someone who's just cruised several V10s before leaping onto his motorbike

In reply to Humperdink:


Assuming there is something that attracts them to land on it in the first palce :?

In reply to Marc C:

Motorbike?

In reply to slacky: dry ice pellets are solid CO2

In reply to TN: Look, you! I'll have you know I got several admiring glances from young shepherd lads as I roared off (attaining speeds of up to 37mph) with my unhelmeted locks blowing in the breeze

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:


Be careful, that errant plural on the end of Peak could land you hot water ....

Anyway whats all the fuss about - I've yet to encounter an english midge that comes close to the West Highland varaint when it comes to the ability to inflict mind bending discomfort.....

In reply to Chris Craggs:


Those Vikings didn't take no sh!T! From nothing!

In reply to Marc C:

Hang on - that WAS you a Widdop last night? You recommended repellant..you were right!

In reply to Yorkspud: You were the guy with the mat and the 10-gallon container of midge-repellent? I was the guy with the big purple helmet

In reply to Yorkspud: PS I was a bit short of chalk, so you probably found there wasn't any on the finishing holds of any of the problems

In reply to Marc C:

I sprayed the problems with Repellem' and then couldn't do any of them.

In reply to Humperdink:

D'oh, should have realised that.

In reply to practicalcat: How can you not be itching?! I've got hundreds of bites and they're all red and angry!! Just about to go to a wedding reception and can't wear the dress I was planning to wear because I won't be able to access certain bites should I need to scratch them!!

This weekend - you're welcome to join us tomorrow - Bradford v Macclesfield at home, 3pm kick off. Go on, you know you want to.... <ahem>.

Desperately hoping to climb on Sunday but my brother assures me it is going to rain .

In reply to HC~F:
Lack of reaction to midge bites is one of the things in my life that I am most grateful for. Did you get to Almscliffe? There seemed to be enough breeze to day to keep the evil midges away.... maybe. Don't be put off by weather forecasts; there have been quite a few days where it should have rained according to the forecasts, but it stayed fine all day.

I went out to wash my car the other morning. Within a few seconds there were clouds of midges round my head. Ha! I thought, I can deal with this. I'm used to it. But oh no.

I was attacked. It was coordinated. They were everywhere. I dropped the sponge, looked left, right, not comprehending what was happening.

Then I looked up.

The cloud of midges was literally blocking the sun.

I yelped like a frightened puppy, dropped by bucket of soapy water and sprinted for the house. The suds dried to the car. I was defeated. What a girl.

Never seen anything like it.


PS - this may have been said before, I hope I'm not trolling, but does midge-repellant infact ATTRACT midges so that when they land on your skin and try to bite they THEN die, having supped some insecticide?

In reply to just wanna climb:

We went up to Stanage Apparent North for a bit of bouldering at 5am today (don't ask - it seemed like a good idea at the time) and the midges were out in force. It was awful.
We retreated home for teacakes and coffee and are now debating where we dare go... I'm gonna get me one of those hats with dangly corks on the brim...

In reply to HC~F:

We went up to Stanage (stanarge!) on Thursday and nipped into outside for a quick brew. they guy at the desk said four groups had come in looking for Limestone guides and midge cream, apparently they had been eaten alive.

Whilst having a brew, two lads came into the cafe wearing tshirts and shorts - all exposed skin had a red blob very half inch or so - all over their faces hands, arms, legs - arrrrgh! Looked like we weren't going to climb at all.

I suggested going to Froggat and go for a walk if they were too bad to climb. We covered ourselves in Jungle Formula and some natural extracts in a brown bottle and had a good days climbing. We ahd a good day despite the midge repellant contributing towards me dogging the first pitch of another HVS classic - Valkyrie. Surely the first pitch is more like 5a than 4c?

Fex.

In reply to HC~F:

One thing i learned pretty quickly when in South America, is why all those Isreali travellers wore light, white cotton shirts - so the mozzies can't see them.

All I had was the stuff I had been climbing in, and the feckers managed to bite me through a Lowe baselayer T shirt.

I looked like something out of Hellraiser when I took my top off.

In reply to HC~F:


Not sure that midges breed in standing water, like mosquitos do. I think they breed in damp soil; they certainly seem to appear around areas of grass, and come up out of the grass.

Aha:

http://www.wyrdology.com/edinburgh/midges/life-cycle.html

In reply to HC~F: My mate mik, got biten last week at work and all his arm swelld up, sent him to hospital it was that huge! then same thing happend again today only round his knee cap's looked like he had two footballs on his legs.

Just presuming there midges and not some foriegn fly's come over in the shipping containers from trusty old taiwan chiana and japan, which is a possibility.

The scottish one's (small, black with white stripes) dont give me a reaction. but the huge welsh one's, although they dont bite as much by half, god they itch...

And peak midges in my humble slightly limited expierience are just about in the middle.

In reply to antwan: oh yeah, if ya let one of the scottish ones get its head in, then give it a gentle tap, its funny watching it wiggle slooooowly out then after a delayed start, start flapping, maybee i'm wierd... meybee you are too? who knows?

http://themidgeatershop.shopkit.net/ £675 to kill the midges? i'll take 5!

If you are seriously itching..try putting a little bicarbonate of soda in your bathwater..tis said to relieve the itching from midgie bites..worth a try