I've had a terrible time with these this year. Through the summer I get eaten alive by horseflies/clegs and they make me bleed, but the itch lasts half an hour then I'm all right again, so I just let the little buggers do their worst. But mozzies...Thought the cold nights recently might have seen them off, but I went outside for three minutes tonight (it's very warm and humid) and I have two new bites on my arm and one on my ear. So that's me itching on fire for the next three days. A couple of weeks ago in Kefalonia I dared to venture outside one evening unprotected and within minutes I received five vicious bites, all below the knees, that plagued me for the next four days. Those southern European ones can bring you up in weals and blisters. I still have a scar on my leg from a bite I got in a volcanic crater in Italy in 2013. I find that smothering myself in 50% DEET is completely effective, but, as that stuff can dissolve plastic, I have to wonder what it's doing to me hide. When we go on holiday we always plug in those things that you put the blue anti-mozzie tablets in and they seem to do the trick as far as indoors goes. But what am I thereby breathing in?

Is it global warming or should I blame the Tories?