Four days ago I was feeling smug - no bites in over a week. And then I got four new bites Friday/Saturday!
But I don't think I had a shower after I went to the allotment on Thursday, so maybe ....

I've been having hot showers too but my husband hasn't and we have avoided bites for a day or two but then again haven't been at the plot as much. I put wellies of to pick blackberries and didn't get my body near to the bush as I read that mites like it around blackberries. I must have looked stupid in wellies!

My OH was recently bitten by an unknown insect (possibly a mosquito?) and within a few hours, his leg had swollen up like a balloon and the area of the bite had grown from a pinhead to the size of a half crown. Within 24 hours he could hardly walk and an increasingly large area of his leg was turning bright red. Apparently these kinds of bites can be quite dangerous if left untreated because cellulitis can set in and he had to go to his GP who recommended drawing a biro perimeter mark around the red area to enable him to check how quickly the infection was spreading. Thankfully after a massive dose of antibiotics, the swelling reduced but it has taken five days and the area of the bite is still looking slightly ugly.
So don't leave those bites untreated!

If I remember rightly, one of the websites stated that harvest mites don't bite exposed skin - so maybe we are tackling this the wrong way by covering up!!! But I don't fancy trying the 'naked gardening' method around those brambles though.

Primrose:
Sorry to hear about your husband's bite. There have been quite a few newspaper articles recently that say that this type of problem is on the increase.

Last week I was stung by a sleepy wasp; bare legs. so it got me inside the knee, and was crawling up inside my thigh when I evicted it. It had left the sting in. The pain was incredible; we think it hit a nerve. And the swelling. Tried vinegar, bleach etc. The only thing that helped was ice packs ie frozen blackberries. And Tylex and anti-histamine. It took days to settle. Then the itching started.

We now realise that there is wasps nest by that path,

Irish midges are famous and the only way is to cover up and stay in if there is no wind.

This thread has me itching!