Waaaayyyy back - about 50+ years ago - I remember my father would "clean" the chicken cages by blasting the "red mites" with a blowtorch.
Cheers,
Geoff

Quote from: Elliesdad on 09 July 2023, 01:20:32 PMWaaaayyyy back - about 50+ years ago - I remember my father would "clean" the chicken cages by blasting the "red mites" with a blowtorch.
Cheers,
Geoff

That's still practised by some. It's effective, if you can get them all, but not sure I want to take a blowtorch to my plastic Egloo

Quote from: Techno 3 on 09 July 2023, 06:31:42 AMAsian centipedes are a LOT bigger* than the ones we get in the UK.... with a really painful bite  .....IIRC.

*Sodding enormous springs to mind.

If they are like the ones in Hong Kong they are about six inches long, at least,  fast, with a very, very, painful bite and unaffected by Baygon. 
 

I'm glad we don't get those in the UK !!!!

Now meteorological Autumn has arrived, we have had an explosion of spiders and their webs in the garden. Beautiful to look at but a nightmare in the morning making sure you don't get cobwebs on your face!

Quote from: Steve J on 06 September 2023, 05:12:57 PMNow meteorological Autumn has arrived, we have had an explosion of spiders and their webs in the garden. Beautiful to look at but a nightmare in the morning making sure you don't get cobwebs on your face!

We've had an explosion of them in the bloody house! I'm not fussed, but some of them are *big* and made even me pause...

We seem to have been infested with midges recently.  I've been doing a bit of work in the garden over the past couple of weeks and I've been bitten to pieces.

Quote from: Leon on 06 September 2023, 09:44:30 PMWe seem to have been infested with midges recently.  I've been doing a bit of work in the garden over the past couple of weeks and I've been bitten to pieces.

Oo lovely :/ My other half is a midge attractor and also has a big reaction to them. It's a great combo!

Quote from: toxicpixie on 08 September 2023, 11:43:01 AMOo lovely :/ My other half is a midge attractor and also has a big reaction to them. It's a great combo!

For many years midges never seemed to be interested in me... thank goodness.
Then, a couple of years ago, we went to help set up the tents etc for my daughter's Y6 class camping trip in Derbyshire. And then the little beggars seemed to bite me with a vengeance.
Strangely enough, the following year I was unavailable to help out 😉
Cheers,
Geoff

Ooof, ouch! Yeah I can see how availability would rapidly decrease!

They're a nuisance.  I've always expected them in certain places, when we had a short camping break at Kielder a few years ago you had to fight your way through a physical cloud of them at dusk.  They've never been this bad in the garden though.

So I'm now researching how to encourage swallows, swifts, housemartins and bats into the garden to eat them.  Apparently a few birds can take out 1000+ midges in a single evening!

Quote from: Leon on 10 September 2023, 10:10:44 PMSo I'm now researching how to encourage swallows, swifts, housemartins and bats into the garden to eat them.  Apparently a few birds can take out 1000+ midges in a single evening!

We have a number of bats come into our garden at evening. They swoop in, snatch (whatever) insects they're after and they're gone almost before you realise it. I've not actually seen one "still" - just flying away at speed. 🦇🦇🏏

Quote from: Elliesdad on 11 September 2023, 07:00:18 PMWe have a number of bats come into our garden at evening. They swoop in, snatch (whatever) insects they're after and they're gone almost before you realise it. I've not actually seen one "still" - just flying away at speed. 🦇🦇🏏

We've got a couple that live in the eaves of the next-door-but-one house I think.  I'm hoping we can put some boxes up and encourage a few more into our garden as we've certainly got enough food for them!

We have bats every night flying along up and down our street. The local woods have bat boxes in them which helps keep the number up. There is also a bat cave in an old ice cellar, which was part of a now long gone farm. You can hire listening devices to hear them as you walk in the woods at dusk.

I've been divebombed by them before as well, just like a flitting visual glitch that you're not quite sure was there until it's away!

We went on a couple bat walks a few years ago with audio receiver's tuned to their pitch which then replay it at human audible levels, very cool, very weierd!