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Buffalo Gnats


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I have heard of people being deathly allergic to many bugs. Found out yesterday that my husband is severely allergic to buffalo gnats. He got bit on the neck by one and within 20min his neck was 3x its normal size, his lips were huge and he was covered head to toe in hives. I forgot to tell him not to take a warm shower, so that made the hives worse (my bad) I'm telling you these things are nasty. So off we went to the ER and after 75mg of benadryl and a shot of epi. my husband is a proud owner of an epi-pen for gnats (FYI those things are expensive as our ins. does not cover them) That is a whole nother story tho. I have lived in IL for all my life and never had we had these worthless little bugs. Anyhow I just thought that I would post this because if you live anywhere where these things are you may find more people out there with this reaction to a stupid gnat. (dont get these gnats confused with the "pecker" gnats) I have been bit by bull/buffalo gnats and usually they leave a sore, red lump that will go away within a few days.

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I have heard of people being deathly allergic to many bugs. Found out yesterday that my husband is severely allergic to buffalo gnats. He got bit on the neck by one and within 20min his neck was 3x its normal size, his lips were huge and he was covered head to toe in hives. I forgot to tell him not to take a warm shower, so that made the hives worse (my bad) I'm telling you these things are nasty. So off we went to the ER and after 75mg of benadryl and a shot of epi. my husband is a proud owner of an epi-pen for gnats (FYI those things are expensive as our ins. does not cover them) That is a whole nother story tho. I have lived in IL for all my life and never had we had these worthless little bugs. Anyhow I just thought that I would post this because if you live anywhere where these things are you may find more people out there with this reaction to a stupid gnat. (dont get these gnats confused with the "pecker" gnats) I have been bit by bull/buffalo gnats and usually they leave a sore, red lump that will go away within a few days.

It's amazing how such a small insect can have such a profound reaction when biting a human being.

Here we have black flies which are almost impossible to see. In the north woods we refer to them as the state bird.

They have a set of teeth and get their blood meal by chewing on the victims skin and drinking up the blood.Most people just end up with a hard crusty lump and intense itching as a result. However a small percentage of the population suffer a severe allergic reaction like you described in your husbands case.

Epi pens are around 52.00 for pedi and 68.00 for adult here in Maine.

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