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Old 22-04-2021, 11:53 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening
Janet Janet is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Mar 2013
Posts: 128
Default Mystery bites at the Allotment

In article , lid
says...

Wife and i are getting lots of very itchY bites daytime from our
allotment. They don't seem like mosquito bites which seem to usually to
be only one or two at a time.
But these can be in clusters of three or four bites at a time in
different places.
They bite mainly on the legs, but sometimes higher up, and are very itchy.
The allotment has foxes and rats which i think have fleas. Are these
likely to be their fleas biting us, or something else?
Grateful for any advice on what to do please.


It's very early for mosquitoes and midges; and ticks don't do
clusters of bites. So my bet is on fleas (other common host sources
would be hedgehogs and feral cats. I've had flea bites from handling
both) IME flea bites on people are often quite closely in a line,
tracking the flea's progress: small, flat, round, red.

Irritating though their bites are to us, fleas need access to their
animal host to survive long enough to breed and multiply. So picking up
a few fleabites at the allotment on yourselves wont lead to an insect
infestation of your home.


Janet