I was (foolishly) out on the allotment at twilight last night, in unfastened
canvas shoes. And surprise surprise, i got an insect bite. Unusually, I
saw the little bugger that did it, and it wasn't something I can name
(although I've seen them before, but I've mostly ignroed them)

It was about ... 1/8 inch long, shaped approx like a tiny moth or
grasshopper (kind of the shape of a grain of rice) and it was grey-ish
colour, possibly grey and white stripes.

I did manage to grab it, but tried not to squash it to ID it, then when I
let go it boinged off - think it was a jump not a flight. And it left a
little blob of blood where it had been slurping at my ankle.

Any clues?

--

Jake wrote:
Sommat that small - grass thrips maybe? Apparently they do bite,
usually on the feet or ankles and the result can be much bigger than
them! Immature ones sort of have stripes that go round them (rather
than from front to back).

Hmm, images don't quite look the right colour, but it /could/ have been one
of them, I suppose.

I tried entering your description on a helpful little insect
identification web site that Oxford University maintains. It helpfully
suggested that you probably have a bug of some sort ;-))

:-)

If the bite drew blood keep an eye on it for a few days and if it
swells up get thee to a medic to get it checked. Better safe than
sorry.

Pfft, I've had a chesty cough and bad breathing for over 2 weeks now and not
managed to get to a doctor, unlikely to make it for a nip from an insect.
I've always blamed red ants for the hugely swollen insect bites I've had in
the past (my whole hand puffed up to twice its size last time, and I've had
the same on an ankle, plus I have what I presume was once a bite on my
thigh (missus!) which is at least 3 years old and has left a permanent lump)

Methinks a moth looketh not a whit like a grasshopper. Except inasmuch that both are insects, as opposed, say to a spider or a crustacean. Though the woodlouse, a crustacean, is frequently mistaken for a beetle. But flying with wings is a bit of a giveaway that it is an insect, since insects are the only invertibrates that can fly with wings. Albeit that sand-fleas can jump a long way, and not many people realise that they are crustaceans; some spiders use their silk to fly like a kite, and probably some other tiny invertibrates just float on the wind as part of the "aerial plankton".

But in sum, if it looks to you equally like a moth or grasshopper, then I suggest that to you it would look equally like a true bug or a beetle or lacewing or a flea or a blackfly. Since many of these things come in a wide range of colours and patterns, telling us its colour is pretty irrelevant. I would suggest you have not really given us any kind of suitable information to identify the bugger.

If you were to ask me in general "what's rather small and gives you nasty nip around the feet and ankles in the garden", I would say most likely some kind of blackfly. But there are also some "true bugs", ie hemiptera, that bite (bed bugs are a "true bug", and are closely related to flower bugs, which are common in the garden), and that's what I suspect when I pick up a bite while visiting the raspberries. Froghoppers, which are big jumpers, are also true bugs, so there is jumping in the family.

Someone mentions thrips. Apparently thrips are a bit stupid and occasionally bite people because they mistake us for the plant material many of them eat. But I'd doubt they give a nasty nip and I doubt they'd do anything resembling jumping. Also most thrips are 1mm or less, so yours is rather on the large side for one, and you'd have difficulty discerning any stripes on a thrips without a microscope.

echinosum wrote:
shaped approx like a tiny moth or grasshopper
Methinks a moth looketh not a whit like a grasshopper. Except inasmuch
that both are insects, as opposed, say to a spider or a crustacean.

In twilight and whilst the damned thing is jumping or flying away as I'm
trying to get a good look at it, many things look more similar than you
might expect.

It looked like a greyish, possibly stripey grain of rice. It was long and
thin. You're right, if it was a moth it would be a moth with its wings
squished into its sides rather than on its back, and if it was a grasshopper
it would have no legs. And it was much smaller than I've ever seen either.

It's not a spider, it's not a blackfly. And if your description is correct,
it was too big to be a grass thrip.

And my right foot is now significantly swollen. :-(

Indeed, so, as you admit, in such conditions you could hardly say it looked either like a moth or like a grasshopper, so how can you expect us to know based upon such information?

Basically, if you want to say much more about it than some rice-grain-shaped insect that bit me, you'll have to catch one and have a good look at it.

Years ago I used to hang out with an entomologist, and even she couldn't hope to say very much about something on the basis of such a glance, unless it was reasonably large and had very distinctive features (eg, honey bee) which is why she had pockets full of little pots and other things for catching insects. Then she'd stuff a crushed laurel leaf in the pot to kill it (a crushed laurel leaf gives off small amounts of cyanide, enough to kill an insect in half an hour or so). Only then would she be able to get a good enough look at it to say what it was.

echinosum wrote:
In twilight and whilst the damned thing is jumping or flying away as I'm
trying to get a good look at it, many things look more similar than you
might expect.
Indeed, so, as you admit, in such conditions you could hardly say it
looked either like a moth or like a grasshopper, so how can you expect
us to know based upon such information?

I think "expect to know" is doing it a bit strong, all in all. I was
looking for suggestions, from other people who may have encountered such wee
beasties on similar grounds (since presumably quite a few people using this
newsgroup have allotments) and for whom it rang a, however distant, bell.

If you think I've not given you enough information, and you don't wish to
make suggestions, you are in no way obliged to respond to, or even read, my
posts. I would apologise for wasting your time, but it's your own idiotic
fault for continuing to read my posts if you have no interest in them.

wrote
I was (foolishly) out on the allotment at twilight last night, in
unfastened
canvas shoes. And surprise surprise, i got an insect bite. Unusually, I
saw the little bugger that did it, and it wasn't something I can name
(although I've seen them before, but I've mostly ignroed them)

It was about ... 1/8 inch long, shaped approx like a tiny moth or
grasshopper (kind of the shape of a grain of rice) and it was grey-ish
colour, possibly grey and white stripes.

I did manage to grab it, but tried not to squash it to ID it, then when I
let go it boinged off - think it was a jump not a flight. And it left a
little blob of blood where it had been slurping at my ankle.

Any clues?

On our previous allotment I was often getting bitten by little black flies
that looked almost like Flea Beatle and did draw a spot of blood. I remember
mentioning it on another Ng and the suggestion was that they were another
import, quite well known in some countries, but I can't, for the life of me,
remember the name.
Keep some Piriton tablets handy and take then after being bitten. Anthisan
cream work well on the bite too.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

On 27 Jul 2010 22:21:45 GMT, wrote:

echinosum wrote:
shaped approx like a tiny moth or grasshopper
Methinks a moth looketh not a whit like a grasshopper. Except inasmuch
that both are insects, as opposed, say to a spider or a crustacean.

In twilight and whilst the damned thing is jumping or flying away as I'm
trying to get a good look at it, many things look more similar than you
might expect.

It looked like a greyish, possibly stripey grain of rice. It was long and
thin. You're right, if it was a moth it would be a moth with its wings
squished into its sides rather than on its back, and if it was a grasshopper
it would have no legs. And it was much smaller than I've ever seen either.

It's not a spider, it's not a blackfly. And if your description is correct,
it was too big to be a grass thrip.

And my right foot is now significantly swollen. :-(

And itchy?
My guess is a mozzy of some sort. In twilight you might not see its
wings.
BTW grasshoppers DO have legs, big ones.

Pam in Bristol

Pam Moore wrote:
And my right foot is now significantly swollen. :-(
And itchy?

A little, but not massively. More itchy on the swelling (and a little sore
to touch, too) than on the bite iself.

My guess is a mozzy of some sort. In twilight you might not see its
wings.

No, absolutely positive it wasn't a mosquito. It was right on the skin, and
it was, umm, stockier than a mosquito, whilst significantly smaller too.

BTW grasshoppers DO have legs, big ones.

Indeed they do. Otherwise, how would they be able to play the violin?
(ok, maybe I spent too much time reading Roald Dahl when I was young)

On 27/07/10 10:42, wrote:
I was (foolishly) out on the allotment at twilight last night, in unfastened
canvas shoes. And surprise surprise, i got an insect bite. Unusually, I
saw the little bugger that did it, and it wasn't something I can name
(although I've seen them before, but I've mostly ignroed them)

It was about ... 1/8 inch long, shaped approx like a tiny moth or
grasshopper (kind of the shape of a grain of rice) and it was grey-ish
colour, possibly grey and white stripes.

I did manage to grab it, but tried not to squash it to ID it, then when I
let go it boinged off - think it was a jump not a flight. And it left a
little blob of blood where it had been slurping at my ankle.

Any clues?

Could be a Tick, sounds like you disturbed its dejeuner (ie you).
Dogs'n'cats pick 'em in long grass etc. Occasionaly peeps get attached
to them to. Take care watch out for local infection / reaction signs and
generalised flu-like symptoms. Do see your GP if you have the slightest
anxiety.

All the best
noone

Noone wrote:
Could be a Tick, sounds like you disturbed its dejeuner (ie you).

*nod* I don't think it was a tick. Wasn't fat and round enough. I've had
a tick before and it sat there and wiggled its legs at me in a disturbing
fashion till I knocked back a bottle of wine to loosen its grip, and yanked
it off whilst it was unconscious.

Dogs'n'cats pick 'em in long grass etc. Occasionaly peeps get attached
to them to. Take care watch out for local infection / reaction signs and
generalised flu-like symptoms. Do see your GP if you have the slightest
anxiety.

Well, it's quite swollen and sore, but I've had that before from bites
(which I'm fairly confident were red ants), and flu-like symptoms may be a
problem to spot since I've had a cold for the past 2 weeks which is now
turning into sinusitus. :-(
However, I think I'm more worried about my foot falling off than getting
Lyme disease right now. :-)

In article G614o.265667$sD7.131177@hurricane,
rspace says...

On 27/07/10 10:42, wrote:
I was (foolishly) out on the allotment at twilight last night, in unfastened
canvas shoes. And surprise surprise, i got an insect bite. Unusually, I
saw the little bugger that did it, and it wasn't something I can name
(although I've seen them before, but I've mostly ignroed them)

It was about ... 1/8 inch long, shaped approx like a tiny moth or
grasshopper (kind of the shape of a grain of rice) and it was grey-ish
colour, possibly grey and white stripes.

I did manage to grab it, but tried not to squash it to ID it, then when I
let go it boinged off - think it was a jump not a flight. And it left a
little blob of blood where it had been slurping at my ankle.

Any clues?

Could be a Tick, sounds like you disturbed its dejeuner (ie you).

Definitely not. Ticks never boing off, or jump or fly.

Janet

Janet wrote:
Could be a Tick, sounds like you disturbed its dejeuner (ie you).
Definitely not. Ticks never boing off, or jump or fly.

No, good point. Although before it went boing, I had /removed/ it from
where it had latched onto my skin.

Sacha wrote:
Read up about the Blandford Fly.

Heh, you must have suggested this last time, as it's in my google drop-down!
google images isn't being entirely useful, but it's a possibility. I'm
nowhere near Blandford, though! :-)

Sacha wrote:
Heh, you must have suggested this last time, as it's in my google drop-down!
google images isn't being entirely useful, but it's a possibility. I'm
nowhere near Blandford, though! :-)
I thought of it only because I read about it in yesterday's paper! It
was originally 'discovered' ini Blandford Forum but apparently it's
pretty widespread. Did I mention it before - if I did, it must have
been in my sleep because all memory of it had been wiped from my
personal hard drive. ;-))

Sorry, could easily have been someone else off here. Or you could be going
as daft as me. :-P