Me no see ums

Having volunteered at the rescue centre, Tracey had wanted a souvenir, a t-shirt with "high 4 like a spider monkey". However, what she actually got was these:

At the rescue centre she'd noticed a some small drops of blood on her legs but it wiped off and stopped bleeding quickly. She hadn't seen or felt anything biting, so just ignored it. However by the time we gotten back to the room the bites had turned large red weeping sores. 

We discovered she'd been bitten by noseeums, said as no-see-ums...we kid you not. Thankfully the very itchy festering wounds will only last a couple of weeks by which time she will want to rip off both her legs (according to google). It is now four days later and they are still oozing from their miniature red volcanoes, cocktails are easing the pain.   Hopefully these words are sufficient and you don't need a closeup picture.

These noseeums, also now called "sporn from hell", only work with particular repellents, they bite through others. A few years back Andrew and Tracey found bug spray in Miami which said it included noseeums, at the time they thought it was hilarious, maybe even a joke...we can now assure you it was not.  Thankfully the spotty legs can be hidden with long pants...if only it wasn't so hot and humid, that was even a remote possibility. A dose of sunburn today, does disguise it a little.