Morning all, I stepped in this monstrosity last night. When did the UK start breeding mutant mosquitoes? A quid for scale

by B_lovedobservations

33 comments

  1. It’s hard to tell but that looks like a horsefly. Nasty little buggers. They slice open your skin and often cause bad reactions and swelling

  3. Horsefly.  They’ll bite you through clothing. 

  4. wait did you decide to use the sole of your shoe to show us these?

    I can only visualise you standing there with one shoe up like you’re checking for dog poo

  6. Not ure what flavour of fly that is, but it is no mosquito. 

  7. A squid for sale? How much you want?

    EDIT – sorry I misread that, ignore me.

  8. Quid for scale, or two for a quid fifty. Roll up, roll up!

  10. Flashing the cash with his quids. Why not use a banana like us common people?

  11. I was sitting in a field around a nice roaring fire a couple of nights ago, and the buggers were everywhere. Much bug spray was used that night.

  13. I recently bought a bug-a-salt gun and fell like I shot that thing, I’d be picking up bits of horse fly everywhere.

  14. thats a horsefly I got bit 20+ times the other day trimming my hedges , one was so bad I thought I had a piece of glass in my shoe turned out it was one of these bastards bting through my sock. I live in the country loads of cows around which come with these things

  16. Horsefly. Just about the only insect in the UK that makes me shudder

    They remind me of Tsetse flies. Which are absolute pricks.

  17. Yep, got bitten in the back of the hand once and my hand was swollen for 10 days 🫤

  19. I haven’t got a pound coin. Can you show with a banana for scale?

  20. I’ve been plagued with horsefly bites this summer to the point where I’m frightened to go into the garden anymore. My hobby is gardening.

    Thank you for your service OP!

  22. One less cleg is always a good thing, bitey little bastards

  23. Fucking hate horseflies. 100 times worse than mosquitos. Every time one of those fuckers bites me, it always seems to get infected.

  25. They’re little bastards. Well done. One less out there

  26. I had a horsefly bite once, seemed fine for a bit, then within a day my skin went purple and within another 6 hours half of my calf was purple. Took a really big dose of antibiotics to get rid of 🙁

    It felt like my leg was on fire, I remember screaming that I want to rip my leg off rather than continue to have the infection.

  28. That’s obviously not a mosquito though? Insane of you to assume it must be some kind of new giant mosquito rather than it just being a completely different type of insect. It’s a horsefly. You get them everywhere here. The fact that you don’t instantly recognise them is mental.

  30. That doesn’t look like any horsefly I’ve ever seen (and, trust me, I’ve seen a ***LOT*** of horseflies, my sister co-owns a livery yard) – that’s most likely a female [scorpionfly](https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/other-insects/scorpionfly).

    Scorpionflies do look like “mutant mosquitoes” but, unlike mosquitoes, they’re completely harmless. Scorpionflies get their common name from the ‘claspers’ of males in the largest family – *Panorpidae* – which are used to grip the females during mating.

    The commonest species of scorpionfly in the UK Is *Panorpa communis*, which is pretty widespread, being found in woods, parks and gardens. It’s common to see them at this time of year, when the imagos (the correct biological term for adult insects) emerge from their pupae.

    Despite the males’ resemblance to scorpions, scorpionflies don’t bite or sting – they’re completely harmless; their diet consists mainly of rotting fruit, dead insects and aphids.

  31. Can someone post a quid next to a banana please, I’m struggling to resolve this.

  33. Looks like a horse fly, had one of the cunts in my lorry, my colleague splattered it with a glove

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