They say you are attracted to and marry a woman much like your mother. In my case that must be true because both my mother and my wife hate to cook, they both like a glass of wine, though Mom preferred a sweet Moscato while everyone knows that Cindy is a chardonnay girl. Oh, and they both are allergic to no-see-ums.

No-see-ums are a type of biting midge or gnat. As you would guess, given their name, they are very small and hard to see. Small yes, but a pain none-the-less.

The world is full of things that, like vampires, want our blood. Of course, the most well-known are the mosquitoes which not only feed on us but transmit a number of diseases that make us ill and even kill us. Then you have the biting flies and ticks. Again, some flies carry diseases and ticks can give us Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Lyme’s Disease. Assassin bugs, also called kissing bugs, carry Chagas disease. It is mostly found in South America, not here, but regardless you don’t want it. We believe that Charles Darwin suffered from Chagas Disease, however, the actual disease wasn’t described until 1909 by Carlos Chagas, hence the name. Darwin died 27 years earlier. We make the diagnoses of the disease in Darwin based on his reported symptoms.

Fortunately for my wife, no-see-ums don’t carry any diseases here in Nebraska that affect people. They do transmit diseases like bluetongue that affect deer, pronghorn, and elk.

Given their name you know they are small. They measure less than three millimeters, or 0.002 of an inch. That is about twice the size of the head of a pin. They are also stealth biters.

Stealth biters are those that bite you and you aren’t aware they are doing so until your body’s immune system kicks in. Chiggers, for example, cause similar problems as the no-see-ums except they don’t suck your blood. They dissolve your skin and then suck it up. They are mites that are even smaller than the no-see-ums but you are not aware they are dissolving your skin at the time. You become aware later in the day or the next day. That is also true for no-see-ums.

The no-see-ums are bloodsuckers. They are so small, however, that when they stick their proboscis into your skin you don’t feel it. They then secrete a fluid into your blood vessel to make sure the blood doesn’t clot too quickly. Like the mosquito, they then suck the blood up.

Like the mosquito, it is only the female that feeds on us. The males feed mainly on nectar. Why the females? They lay the eggs and eggs require a lot of protein and our blood is a great source of protein. They don’t take enough blood for that to be a problem; however, the saliva they secrete into our system is allergenic. It causes our immune system to go nuts. Swelling and itching occur and for both my mother and my wife, that swelling and itching is a misery.

Why are some people allergic to the bites while others are only mildly affected? I don’t know. Probably the same reason why some people are allergic to bee stings and others are not. Fortunately, the nosee- ums bites are not deadly, just irritating. With freezing temperatures, the no-seeum season will come to an end and Cindy can relax and know the itching will soon be over for another year.