Mites bite in tights

by Geraden

One of the B-list 'excuses' for wearing tights (if we need excuses, that is): tights can stop insects from biting your legs.

I believe in the US they have things called chiggers. I am not sure what chiggers are, but they do not sound very nice. They also have ticks that carry lyme disease, which sounds even nastier. Here in the UK, insect bites are usually from midges, mosquitoes and occasionally ants. They tend not to cause any more serious effect than an itchy red patch, but boy does it itch, specially in the evening, which is also the prime biting time.

I was wearing some Marks and Spencers Medium Support tights the other evening. I was sat at my computer, as it was my turn to ask the questions for the twice-weekly online quiz in my favourite non-hosiery chat room. (The people there know that I wear: it amuses the ladies, who think it is 'cool', and mystifies most of the men, though I suspect that at least one of them has tried it.) Anyway I was quite absorbed for an hour or so with cutting and pasting the questions and keeping the score.

At the end of the quiz, I could at last relax a little and I became conscious of an itch on my leg. I ran my fingers over it (good excuse to feel the nylon!) and when I looked there was a tiny red dot where the itch was. I knew at once it was an insect bite, but I was surprised to see that the little b*st*rd had got me through my tights.

There were in fact two bites near my right knee. They itched even worse when I took my tights off. So sheer tights may be some defence against insect bites, but they are not infallible. The M&S ones I was wearing were only 15 denier. I am not sure whether being support tights made it easier or harder for the insect to bite me.

If I am outside, gardening in the evening, I usually wear 50 denier tights, and I have never been bitten while wearing those.

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