Clegs eyes
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I noticed the eyes on one for the first time this sunday about a split second before I hit it. Unfortunately it wasn't going for a bite just somewhere to rest on my tshirt and I got a poorly aimed swipe at it. It fell stunned to the ground and scarpered before my shoe hit it. Still I'd killed about 3 that day so I'm happy.
I don't get bitten that often by horseflies but I have become so paranoid about them that I swipe at my leg if I even feel a grass stalk brushing against it. Think I became over sensitive when I got a bit that grew to about 2" diameter and about 0.5" out of my arm in swelling. Hurt and itched for days and took about a month to fully disappear too.
I have been known to have 8m high drift of midges above my head while walking to a pub during a camping trip. Those around me only had 4 or 5 midges above them who were buzzing around lost trying to fin the gravy train that is the holding pattern for a spot to land on me and bite!! Sersiously not joking 8 metres high cloud above me. That was in the Langdales too not Scotland!! I once went to Caldoons campsite near the Bruces Stone in Glen TRool as a kid. Imagine a summer holiday, half the time its raining so heavily your boots fill with water in minutes and the other half of the time you lose so much blood to midges you go light headed!! GReat place Galloway hills!!
Anyway this past 2 years I have not been plagued by midges as in the past. It is strange really. Now I rarely get bitten and only by midges. Cleggs ignore me and I have only seen one tick. It was crawling on my sofa arm next to my arm and was tiny so obviously hadn't fed but had been carried home on my clothes. It totally ignored my offered finger too. Cue tissue and dead tick.
BTW the few midges that haven't got the memo not to bite me now cause me major itching. I reckon if you get a lot of them you tend to ignore the itching better than if you get about 3 of them. I can recommend Wilma's Nordic Summer stuff for repelling bugs. Got some for a very damp camp that was riven with midges. They stayed away from me once completely covered with this stuff. Mind you looking at the brown shoe polish stuff I did worry that it stayed that colour on your skin but it doesn't. Just smells of a wood fire. I had major eau de woodsmoke on me as I walked to the pub that night. The barmaid could smell it the other side of the bar. Not a bad smell though.
I don't get bitten that often by horseflies but I have become so paranoid about them that I swipe at my leg if I even feel a grass stalk brushing against it. Think I became over sensitive when I got a bit that grew to about 2" diameter and about 0.5" out of my arm in swelling. Hurt and itched for days and took about a month to fully disappear too.
I have been known to have 8m high drift of midges above my head while walking to a pub during a camping trip. Those around me only had 4 or 5 midges above them who were buzzing around lost trying to fin the gravy train that is the holding pattern for a spot to land on me and bite!! Sersiously not joking 8 metres high cloud above me. That was in the Langdales too not Scotland!! I once went to Caldoons campsite near the Bruces Stone in Glen TRool as a kid. Imagine a summer holiday, half the time its raining so heavily your boots fill with water in minutes and the other half of the time you lose so much blood to midges you go light headed!! GReat place Galloway hills!!
Anyway this past 2 years I have not been plagued by midges as in the past. It is strange really. Now I rarely get bitten and only by midges. Cleggs ignore me and I have only seen one tick. It was crawling on my sofa arm next to my arm and was tiny so obviously hadn't fed but had been carried home on my clothes. It totally ignored my offered finger too. Cue tissue and dead tick.
BTW the few midges that haven't got the memo not to bite me now cause me major itching. I reckon if you get a lot of them you tend to ignore the itching better than if you get about 3 of them. I can recommend Wilma's Nordic Summer stuff for repelling bugs. Got some for a very damp camp that was riven with midges. They stayed away from me once completely covered with this stuff. Mind you looking at the brown shoe polish stuff I did worry that it stayed that colour on your skin but it doesn't. Just smells of a wood fire. I had major eau de woodsmoke on me as I walked to the pub that night. The barmaid could smell it the other side of the bar. Not a bad smell though.
Using the chain saw on sunday, I became aware of cleggs surrounding me.to the little clegg who got me on the bone of my wrist the chainsaw was like a nuke nae use, it never saw my left hand flatten it though.
I'm begining to believe that the sheep clegs north of Watford are particually voracious with mutant mouthparts.............
Ouch!Do you normally react like that?
The next time one lands on me i will appreciate its mad, psychedelic eyes of a killer.
And then it will be flattened.
Got bit just below my adams apple by one yesterday.Its now getting interesting.
I got bitten on the front of my neck there, well same place but on a female, and when it started to swell inside I got a little concerned. The Doctor said to take 400mg ibuprofen as well as the antihistamine.
It certainly stopped it swelling much more and then encouraged it to settle down.
Best of luck with it.
M
I was about to ask if there was an entomologist using the forum, and then realised that if they'd found this post we'd have had a dissertation on the browsing habits of clegs by now.
I have a number of facts, anecdotes and questions regarding Clegs.
Firstly, and at the risk of blowing my best shot first, I lived in the south of Germany for 6 years. (Terrific, as I could brood back across d' Swäbische Meer [Swäbische ocean]; der Bodensee; Lake Konstance; at the Swiss Alps every morning as I sipped my coffee, hatching my plots against them.) As my girlfriend and I cycled to a village along the lake to visit her friend, Hilde and her family one summer day, my girlfriend suddenly stopped and gave out a yelp. The reason for her pain was instantly apparent to me even before she identified the culprit as a Bremse! (Cleg!) ;an interesting name which I think refers to either burning/fire, or to a brake, as in car brake:
We went on our way and by the time we'd covered the last Km, the bite had swollen alarmingly and was a livid red, clearly having become instantly infected. Hilde, or die Hexe -witch- as her husband preferred to call her due to her deep knowledge of traditional herbal remedies, took one look, then immediately went out to the garden and came back with a handful of leaves, "Spitzlewegerich" -little points by the wayside/path-, [Hilde chose young leaves about 2 or 3 inches long] about half of which she crushed in a mortar and applied to the wound, the other half were to be crushed later and slightly diluted for use as a lotion. The result was astonishing, as the pain had gone within 5 minutes, and half an hour later the swelling and redness reduced and had all but disappeared by evening. That was most certainly not my prior experience of cleg bites.
I had recognised the leaves Hilde had crushed but had to look up the name of the weed I knew as "rib-leaf", the common Plantago lanceolata, narrow leaved plantain! Quite astonishing, and now of great importance to me as a large part of my minute knowledge of Nature's Medicine Cabinet. I have since discovered that the values of this plant are well known, it is very common throughout Europe and North America and I strongly advise positively identifying and familiarising yourself with it for use as a miracle cure for bites and stings! Some say it's edible, but I prefer not to eat anything I know to be so potent!
(I deny any responsibility for mishaps as a result of this information; see literary criticism, Barthes. Roland,; The Death of the Author)
Whenever the word "cleg" comes up, I immediately associate it with Glen Affric, which in my experience is the worst area for clegs I ever wandered or camped. A large part of Affric was devastated by fire about 1980, which wiped out some 12,000 acres of native woodland and broke a lot of hearts in the process. I was amazed to discover on visiting some 5 years later -I didn't really want to see it-, that far from the expected total absence of clegs, the place was worse than ever. My visit was short lived and I beat an uncharacteristically hasty retreat, with a few dozen determined clegs harrying me all the way back to the car.
In the mid 80's, I introduced my new drop-dead-gorgeous girlfriend -who 6 years later had mysteriously become the ex-wife!- to the delights of This Man's Mountains.
It was the end of August, we left the Laggan road crossing the bridge at Moy, up over the bealach and camped the night at Loch Pattack. Next morning we took the track down towards Ben Alder Lodge, through the gathering of stags before the rut -that's where she learned not to feed highland garrons, as she found herself in the midst of 4 or 5 half wild horses which soon started biting and kicking in their frenzy for apples-, camped beside Loch Ericht, had a day on Ben Alder and a night in the bothy, and were having lunch on our way back out to Rannoch Station when the biggest cleg I've ever seen appeared. The next few hours was a battle of wits, as it made numerous attempts at approach before the near misses spurred it into switching its buzz off and going into silent mode, and the game took on totally different characteristics as it would seemingly retreat, then reappear from a different direction. She was ready to wet herself at my choreography of swiping at the monster with my bunnet, but she'd never been bitten by a cleg!
On arrival at the Moor of Rannoch Hotel, I ordered 2 pints and was soon giving a description of the green-goggle-eyed, hyper-intelligent monster cleg which had harried us for miles on our way out from Loch Ericht. His answer was, "Oh don't mock it! It's a new variant of cleg that's been keeping us in business with researchers for 2 years now, and I won't hear a bad word said against it!"
Going off at yet another tangent, there's a fly which I've been bitten by a number of times which is silent and stealthy in its approach, which I've heard people referring to as a cleg. It most certainly isn't what I call a cleg, although I do know that there are a variety of species. http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1128841
The thing I'm referring to is more mosquito-like in appearance, but with wings which fold down across its back and have a mottled, camo-like pattern. It's of a grey appearance and its body is more slender and delicate looking than that of a cleg and is just over a centimetre in length. It does not have the complex mandibles of a cleg but seems to feed by way of a stylet/feeding tube, the bite is painless and often bleeds for a while afterwards, signifying the injection of an anticoagulant. It will begin to itch later or the next day. If this is a cleg, then it's my favourite!
Fascinating if fearsome!
Finally, I find the Lib-Dem association moderately amusing.
ps; QDanT, that is just freaky! Please tell me it's a trick photo!
Cheers,
Pango.
I have a number of facts, anecdotes and questions regarding Clegs.
Firstly, and at the risk of blowing my best shot first, I lived in the south of Germany for 6 years. (Terrific, as I could brood back across d' Swäbische Meer [Swäbische ocean]; der Bodensee; Lake Konstance; at the Swiss Alps every morning as I sipped my coffee, hatching my plots against them.) As my girlfriend and I cycled to a village along the lake to visit her friend, Hilde and her family one summer day, my girlfriend suddenly stopped and gave out a yelp. The reason for her pain was instantly apparent to me even before she identified the culprit as a Bremse! (Cleg!) ;an interesting name which I think refers to either burning/fire, or to a brake, as in car brake:
We went on our way and by the time we'd covered the last Km, the bite had swollen alarmingly and was a livid red, clearly having become instantly infected. Hilde, or die Hexe -witch- as her husband preferred to call her due to her deep knowledge of traditional herbal remedies, took one look, then immediately went out to the garden and came back with a handful of leaves, "Spitzlewegerich" -little points by the wayside/path-, [Hilde chose young leaves about 2 or 3 inches long] about half of which she crushed in a mortar and applied to the wound, the other half were to be crushed later and slightly diluted for use as a lotion. The result was astonishing, as the pain had gone within 5 minutes, and half an hour later the swelling and redness reduced and had all but disappeared by evening. That was most certainly not my prior experience of cleg bites.
I had recognised the leaves Hilde had crushed but had to look up the name of the weed I knew as "rib-leaf", the common Plantago lanceolata, narrow leaved plantain! Quite astonishing, and now of great importance to me as a large part of my minute knowledge of Nature's Medicine Cabinet. I have since discovered that the values of this plant are well known, it is very common throughout Europe and North America and I strongly advise positively identifying and familiarising yourself with it for use as a miracle cure for bites and stings! Some say it's edible, but I prefer not to eat anything I know to be so potent!
(I deny any responsibility for mishaps as a result of this information; see literary criticism, Barthes. Roland,; The Death of the Author)
Whenever the word "cleg" comes up, I immediately associate it with Glen Affric, which in my experience is the worst area for clegs I ever wandered or camped. A large part of Affric was devastated by fire about 1980, which wiped out some 12,000 acres of native woodland and broke a lot of hearts in the process. I was amazed to discover on visiting some 5 years later -I didn't really want to see it-, that far from the expected total absence of clegs, the place was worse than ever. My visit was short lived and I beat an uncharacteristically hasty retreat, with a few dozen determined clegs harrying me all the way back to the car.
In the mid 80's, I introduced my new drop-dead-gorgeous girlfriend -who 6 years later had mysteriously become the ex-wife!- to the delights of This Man's Mountains.
It was the end of August, we left the Laggan road crossing the bridge at Moy, up over the bealach and camped the night at Loch Pattack. Next morning we took the track down towards Ben Alder Lodge, through the gathering of stags before the rut -that's where she learned not to feed highland garrons, as she found herself in the midst of 4 or 5 half wild horses which soon started biting and kicking in their frenzy for apples-, camped beside Loch Ericht, had a day on Ben Alder and a night in the bothy, and were having lunch on our way back out to Rannoch Station when the biggest cleg I've ever seen appeared. The next few hours was a battle of wits, as it made numerous attempts at approach before the near misses spurred it into switching its buzz off and going into silent mode, and the game took on totally different characteristics as it would seemingly retreat, then reappear from a different direction. She was ready to wet herself at my choreography of swiping at the monster with my bunnet, but she'd never been bitten by a cleg!
On arrival at the Moor of Rannoch Hotel, I ordered 2 pints and was soon giving a description of the green-goggle-eyed, hyper-intelligent monster cleg which had harried us for miles on our way out from Loch Ericht. His answer was, "Oh don't mock it! It's a new variant of cleg that's been keeping us in business with researchers for 2 years now, and I won't hear a bad word said against it!"
Going off at yet another tangent, there's a fly which I've been bitten by a number of times which is silent and stealthy in its approach, which I've heard people referring to as a cleg. It most certainly isn't what I call a cleg, although I do know that there are a variety of species. http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1128841
The thing I'm referring to is more mosquito-like in appearance, but with wings which fold down across its back and have a mottled, camo-like pattern. It's of a grey appearance and its body is more slender and delicate looking than that of a cleg and is just over a centimetre in length. It does not have the complex mandibles of a cleg but seems to feed by way of a stylet/feeding tube, the bite is painless and often bleeds for a while afterwards, signifying the injection of an anticoagulant. It will begin to itch later or the next day. If this is a cleg, then it's my favourite!
Fascinating if fearsome!
Finally, I find the Lib-Dem association moderately amusing.
ps; QDanT, that is just freaky! Please tell me it's a trick photo!
Cheers,
Pango.
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That wee one, that's the blighter bites me and raises such a horrendous reaction.
That's our cleg. Sleekit wee bugger.
What do you cry it then ?
cheers,
M
That's our cleg. Sleekit wee bugger.
What do you cry it then ?
cheers,
M
Hi Toddy,
I'd often heard people referring to that wee one as a cleg and was always doubtful, as it bears no resemblance whatsoever to the clegs that terrorised my childhood wanderings in Fife, which is roughly the size and shape of a honey bee. The wee one we're considering here, I've never encountered in Fife but only became aware of as an adult wandering Scotland's braes, and don't recall from camping as a bairn. In fact, I have no recollection of being bitten as a bairn, although being acutely aware of the midgie threat.
[We do have some wonderful Kodak Instamatic pictures of my dad wearing varieties of kaffiyeh-type headgear after mum sent him out to get a fire going, though.]
I have attempted on occasion to identify the wee beast to no avail, as I've never found a picture or illustration, or even anything I'd say was a comprehensive guide to British insects although I'm sure one does exist, but won't claim to have made any serious effort. I recently found a photo on a blog somewhere, with someone insisting that the insect in question was a cleg, but the most convincing information I've found is that relating to taxonomic rank and variety within the species... I'll finish with that exploration into the vaguely familiar now, as it's a long time since Higher Biology!
The green goggle-eyed monster I encountered in the Rannoch region was almost as big as the harmless white tailed bees we caught in our hands as bairns and used to call "Crannie Annies". I shudder just to think of it!
This is quite informative in identifying what bit you, how and why! http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/entomol/diptera.htm
Cheers,
Bill.
I'd often heard people referring to that wee one as a cleg and was always doubtful, as it bears no resemblance whatsoever to the clegs that terrorised my childhood wanderings in Fife, which is roughly the size and shape of a honey bee. The wee one we're considering here, I've never encountered in Fife but only became aware of as an adult wandering Scotland's braes, and don't recall from camping as a bairn. In fact, I have no recollection of being bitten as a bairn, although being acutely aware of the midgie threat.
[We do have some wonderful Kodak Instamatic pictures of my dad wearing varieties of kaffiyeh-type headgear after mum sent him out to get a fire going, though.]
I have attempted on occasion to identify the wee beast to no avail, as I've never found a picture or illustration, or even anything I'd say was a comprehensive guide to British insects although I'm sure one does exist, but won't claim to have made any serious effort. I recently found a photo on a blog somewhere, with someone insisting that the insect in question was a cleg, but the most convincing information I've found is that relating to taxonomic rank and variety within the species... I'll finish with that exploration into the vaguely familiar now, as it's a long time since Higher Biology!
The green goggle-eyed monster I encountered in the Rannoch region was almost as big as the harmless white tailed bees we caught in our hands as bairns and used to call "Crannie Annies". I shudder just to think of it!
This is quite informative in identifying what bit you, how and why! http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/entomol/diptera.htm
Cheers,
Bill.
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Tabanidae I reckon. Horrible blighters.
We call those clegs. The big ones you talk of are rarer here, those are gads, big clegs, horseflies.
I think the difference now is that we don't have farm animals around us anymore.
My husband who walks a lot further than I do says that the clegs that bite him over near the farms at Blantyre though are still the big ones.
After a family discussion, we've come to the agreed conclusion, "They're a' cleegs!"
I mind catching bees in jam jars as a child; seeing how many different ones we could get
The red hot pokers had to be handled very carefully, while the placid bakers could be picked up and the rustybums were awfully fast. We get tiny wee bees on the flowers in the garden now, about half the size of the normal ones.
I don't mind being bitten by clegs as a child either, nor much bothered by midgies. We camped down the firth of Clyde a lot too, along the loch sides. Usually my father had a pipe though and the smoke kind of discourages them.
Interesting link Thank you for that, I'm going to hang onto that one.
cheers,
Mary
We call those clegs. The big ones you talk of are rarer here, those are gads, big clegs, horseflies.
I think the difference now is that we don't have farm animals around us anymore.
My husband who walks a lot further than I do says that the clegs that bite him over near the farms at Blantyre though are still the big ones.
After a family discussion, we've come to the agreed conclusion, "They're a' cleegs!"
I mind catching bees in jam jars as a child; seeing how many different ones we could get
The red hot pokers had to be handled very carefully, while the placid bakers could be picked up and the rustybums were awfully fast. We get tiny wee bees on the flowers in the garden now, about half the size of the normal ones.
I don't mind being bitten by clegs as a child either, nor much bothered by midgies. We camped down the firth of Clyde a lot too, along the loch sides. Usually my father had a pipe though and the smoke kind of discourages them.
Interesting link
Thank you for that, I'm going to hang onto that one.cheers,
Mary
I did attempt to ID one for a group a couple of weeks ago that may fit the bill - atylotus rusticus.
Hi Bushwhacker, I've heard the term "robber-fly" but not around my area, and have no idea what it is... although it sounds the part!
To my understanding, and in the local vocabulary, a cleg is a beast looking like a cross between a fly/bee. "Very advanced mouthparts are found in the gadflies, e.g. Tabanus and Chrysops. Within the groove of the labium a pair of mandibles and a pair of maxillae." http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/entomol/diptera.htm ... analogy of which might be a pair of clamps, one vertical, one horizontal, of which one is designed to clamp, the other to rip... to the best of my understanding, although I'm prepared to stand corrected.
What I have discovered is that there seems to be massive variation between what I understand to be the family of which is commonly referred to as gadflies/horseflies/clegs, and the subject of QDanT's photo is what I'd call a cleg, and clearly of the same species that the barman in the Moor of Rannoch Hotel referred to as a super-cleg.
Another variation we may be dealing with is in the vernacular, hence the wide range of names for this beast! The reason for that being that they rarely go unnoticed in any part of the countryside!
Cheers,
Pango.
To my understanding, and in the local vocabulary, a cleg is a beast looking like a cross between a fly/bee. "Very advanced mouthparts are found in the gadflies, e.g. Tabanus and Chrysops. Within the groove of the labium a pair of mandibles and a pair of maxillae." http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/entomol/diptera.htm ... analogy of which might be a pair of clamps, one vertical, one horizontal, of which one is designed to clamp, the other to rip... to the best of my understanding, although I'm prepared to stand corrected.
What I have discovered is that there seems to be massive variation between what I understand to be the family of which is commonly referred to as gadflies/horseflies/clegs, and the subject of QDanT's photo is what I'd call a cleg, and clearly of the same species that the barman in the Moor of Rannoch Hotel referred to as a super-cleg.
Another variation we may be dealing with is in the vernacular, hence the wide range of names for this beast! The reason for that being that they rarely go unnoticed in any part of the countryside!
Cheers,
Pango.
*If* it doesn't buzz, if it sneaks in silent and out of full view, if it's persistant in it's determination to land on someone, if it has mottled camouflage wings, if the first indication you have of it's presense is the pain, then the damned thing's a cleg regardless of it's size.
That said, I know that the littler ones are sometimes called greycloaks and the bigger ones as Dirtybigcleegs. The other names aren't fit for a family forum
Mary
That said, I know that the littler ones are sometimes called greycloaks and the bigger ones as Dirtybigcleegs. The other names aren't fit for a family forum
Mary
Well this thread is developing into a Diptera forum
Lucky we don't get Clegs in the back garden, but at times these can be a pest, giving almost a bigger bite than a Cleg and they tend to fly in fast and stab !, the bite tends to bleed for quite a while and a bruise spreads around it for days, having been bitten by both I think these are the worst
the pale green background is the out of focus field behind (looks like I had a green card). This is what happened to one that bit me, after the slap it got put into a small jar of industrial Meths (Ha Ha) I see they're being called Robber Flies I've been calling them Snipe Flies
cheers Fly Lovers Danny
Lucky we don't get Clegs in the back garden, but at times these can be a pest, giving almost a bigger bite than a Cleg and they tend to fly in fast and stab !, the bite tends to bleed for quite a while and a bruise spreads around it for days, having been bitten by both I think these are the worst
the pale green background is the out of focus field behind (looks like I had a green card). This is what happened to one that bit me, after the slap it got put into a small jar of industrial Meths (Ha Ha
) I see they're being called Robber Flies I've been calling them Snipe Flies
cheers Fly Lovers
Danny
Horesefly's (we called them cleg's) where horrible things to be attacked with as a child...
If I remeber, they where larger beasties, not the smaller brown things with flat wings we get down here?
I guess a cleg's a cleg though!
It produced an incredible stinging sensation (making you yelp at times) when bitten and would usually be from swimming in the glen's and exposed skin,
followed by a swollen itchy lump; from day one to anything up to a few weeks
I hadn't seen any locally this year until ironically I read this thread the other day , but have managed to avoid 3 of the swine’s so far! The damp weather isn't helping.
How they manage to land with no sensation is ingenious. I had a horsefly try to land on me once and it did progressive circles that got smaller and smaller, like the charity coin donation things where your coin go's around and around as it drops....
I think it was to make the landing as undetected as possible.
Nature is a very clever and cunning thing!
If I remeber, they where larger beasties, not the smaller brown things with flat wings we get down here?
I guess a cleg's a cleg though!
It produced an incredible stinging sensation (making you yelp at times) when bitten and would usually be from swimming in the glen's and exposed skin,
followed by a swollen itchy lump; from day one to anything up to a few weeks
I hadn't seen any locally this year until ironically I read this thread the other day , but have managed to avoid 3 of the swine’s so far! The damp weather isn't helping.
How they manage to land with no sensation is ingenious. I had a horsefly try to land on me once and it did progressive circles that got smaller and smaller, like the charity coin donation things where your coin go's around and around as it drops....
I think it was to make the landing as undetected as possible.
Nature is a very clever and cunning thing!
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