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I'm going to tie this topic in with one of my sci-fi series. Profusion is the grand finale of my Diffusion series. This epic novel puts Bobby in a seemingly impossible situation where he has to save the entire world from a horrifying plague (a profusion) of grotesque transformations. With ground zero on the island of Puerto Rico, millions of out-of-control nanobots are transforming every living thing they touch into bizarre and deadly amalgamations of various creatures. It seems nothing can stop this terrifying profusion.
But Bobby is no ordinary teenager. In fact, he is not what he seems to be at all. He comes up with a plan, which involves millions of birds that can disperse over the landscape quickly. When each bird reaches its destination, it will transform into hundreds of fast-flying dragonflies. And when each dragonfly reaches its destination, it will divide into thousands of the tiniest flies Bobby can think of, called no-see-ums. Each of these minuscule flies has a mission to carry out. It's definitely not a perfect plan, but it may be humanity's only hope.
If you like that kind of stuff (and who doesn't?), I recommend checking out the Diffusion series—FIRST IMAGE.
https://www.amazon.com/Diffusion/dp/B07F7LMW5Z
Now let's get to the topic. What the heck is a no-see-um?
No-see-ums are called different names in different parts of the world. They are actually a type of fly (the order Diptera), but they are much smaller than many other flies such as mosquitoes or deer flies. In fact, some of them are so small you simply cannot see them without a magnifier. You don't even know they are on your skin until you feel them biting you. That's how they got their name, no-see-um.
During the warmer months, we have a lot of no-see-ums here in Missouri, and they seem to like biting me more than they like biting Trish. This is why I call them the devil's spawn. The little jerks.
THE SECOND IMAGE is a no-see-um biting someone's leg:
Most of the insects people call no-see-ums are in a family of flies referred to as biting midges. Depending on where you're from, you may have heard them called midgies, knotts, moose flies, sand flies, punkies, or biting gnats. some of these names, though, like gnats and sand flies, are ambiguous because they are used for a number of other insect groups. Amazingly, there are 4,000 to 5,000 species of no-see-ums (biting midges) that we know of, and they live in almost every part of the world. They've even been found on Mount Everest!
No-see-ums are so small they can fly right through typical screens on windows and doors. Whenever I purchase a tent, I make sure the windows are made of "no-see-um netting," a special type of netting with very small holes. In order to block no-see-ums, the netting must have mesh size of at least 4,900 holes per square inch.
Like with mosquitoes, it is the female no-see-ums that bite. The females have a needle-like sucker along with a separate injector tube. The sucker is obviously for sucking up blood. The injector tube is used to inject a small amount of anticoagulant, to keep the blood from clotting so it will flow freely up the sucker tube. It is actually our body's allergic reaction to this anticoagulant that causes the itch. Some people are more allergic to it than others. Fortunately for me, the itch only lasts about 20 minutes, but for some people it can go on for several days or even weeks.
Female no-see-ums seek out blood for the same reason female mosquitoes do—to get nourishment for developing their eggs. Once a female gets a blood meal, she will lay her eggs on water or wet sand (water is necessary for the larvae). A female can lay 400 or more eggs at a time, and she can breed 5-7 times in her adult life. I guess that's why they're so abundant.
Although I despise no-see-ums, I also love them. Why? Because no-see-ums (along with gull midges) are the only pollinators of the cacao tree. So without them, we would have no chocolate!
Photo Credits:
- Biting midge (no-see-um) - Dunpharlain, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons