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Bites of Biting Midges

It is only the female midges that bite. Midges must take a blood meal for their eggs to mature. They do not, as is sometimes believed, urinate on people to cause discomfort. In the process of biting and sucking blood, they inject a salivary secretion that produces a skin reaction of varying intensity, depending on an individual’s reaction. Bites usually produce a classic allergic response, with the first bite producing no noticeable effect, and the subsequent bites producing the reactions.

If the exposure to midges is reasonably continuous, a process of desensitization may follow. People continuously exposed are usually tolerant to the bites, and generally have no reaction or show a mild reaction with a small red spot. The average reaction for newly exposed people is a red spot that develops a small dome shaped blister with a hole at the top.

In people who are more sensitive to bites, the reaction may result in a red swelling over an area of a few centimetres. The bite area can be extremely itchy, and scratching is very difficult to avoid. Reactions may last 3 - 4 days with slowly decreasing irritation. Sometimes scratching breaks the skin and allows secondary bacterial infections that lead to unsightly sores and residual scarring.

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http://www.education.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/3713/BitingMidge.pdf