Bites In The Water?

[nikster]

Hi,

I was on a vacation in Phuket last week, thouroughly enjoyed it. I splashed around in the water a lot.

Both me and gf as well as other people got "bitten" by something in the water though. Small, painful jabs - but I never saw what did that. There was no visible skin irritation, no red spots, nothing, no jellifish or other sea animals in sight.

I spent a lot of time in the water anyway, just ignoring the occasional jab after that.

But at the end of the vacation (a week) I had kind of infected red dots all over my body. I was really careful with mosquitoes and got stung maybe one or two times, but nothing like these red dots, there were maybe 15 of them spread evenly around. No, not in any "embarrassing" places, in case you were wondering.

Anyway, these are pretty different from mosquito bites - they hurt when I touch them but are not itchy. They looked positively infected (very red) so I put some anti-biotic cream on them. They seem better today so I think it will work.

Thai gf has nothing so I think she has a more developed immune system against whatever that was.

I also noticed that many other farang tourists on our plane out of phuket had the same dots. I saw a woman with something like 20 of them on her foot alone!

Anyone know what this is? I can't be 100% certain that the red dots and the "bites" in the water are connected, but I would like to know what this stuff is. What is biting, and whether it's causing the dots...

Thanks. N.

[Chantal]

Sounds like it could be sea lice to me. Had some light stings yesterday but no rash or spots.

[donna]

i agree with chantal. some people have really bad reactions to them and others have nothing at all. a thai friend of mine once had them from head to toe. poor bloke was red and puffy all over. some strong antihistamines got him sorted after a couple of days.

is it true that these are actually phosphorescence? i was always of the belief that they were little nasties during the day but turned into beautiful illuminous lights at night time.

[mackayae]

In my experince it is larvae from jellyfish that float on the upper layers of the water. However, it can be larvae from any of a multitude of sea creatures.

[Farma]

Take a look at these website links for

Sea bathers eruption

http://dermnetnz.org/arthropods/sea-bathers.html

and seaweed dermatitus

http://dermnetnz.org/dermatitis/plants/seaweed.html

The links provide good information on the cause and treatment

[Kimera]

Sounds like it could be sea lice to me. Had some light stings yesterday but no rash or spots.

You can swim at Naithon Beach, north near the airport and get stings some 30 mtr out, all of the snorklers in this area seem to wear light full body suits, maybe they know something? but go south 10 k and no bites.

[kasi]

I've been considering buying a body suit to swim in because of the sea nettles. The jet-skis chop them up and you often feel these tiny little skin irritations which don't leave any marks.

I've seen the little fleas things in some place. They are more rare.

The nettles can be quite long and if you get stung on the lip can be painful.

When scuba diving note that nearly all the instructors and dive masters wear full suits.

I wear a full 1mm suit for scuba diving and just tough it out swimming.

But I think another body suit is in my future.

[yaimar]

Sounds like it could be sea lice to me. Had some light stings yesterday but no rash or spots.

hi we always call them that. here is a tip, both for these "bites and jelly fish stings .Look around the shore line for a creaping plant with two large leaves light green. tear some off and mix in the hand with water [fresh] untill you have a green solution rub this on the affected parts. five mins pain gone .Was given this info years back at Nai Harn by a beach vendor, not sure if will work for every one . was told Nature provides both the cause and the cure. can BE FOUND, NEARBY. YAI MAR ??

[kasi]

Also vinegar is a good home remedy for stings and bug bites.

[annetta]

Hi,

I was on a vacation in Phuket last week, thouroughly enjoyed it. I splashed around in the water a lot.

Both me and gf as well as other people got "bitten" by something in the water though. Small, painful jabs - but I never saw what did that. There was no visible skin irritation, no red spots, nothing, no jellifish or other sea animals in sight.

I spent a lot of time in the water anyway, just ignoring the occasional jab after that.

But at the end of the vacation (a week) I had kind of infected red dots all over my body. I was really careful with mosquitoes and got stung maybe one or two times, but nothing like these red dots, there were maybe 15 of them spread evenly around. No, not in any "embarrassing" places, in case you were wondering.

Anyway, these are pretty different from mosquito bites - they hurt when I touch them but are not itchy. They looked positively infected (very red) so I put some anti-biotic cream on them. They seem better today so I think it will work.

Thai gf has nothing so I think she has a more developed immune system against whatever that was.

I also noticed that many other farang tourists on our plane out of phuket had the same dots. I saw a woman with something like 20 of them on her foot alone!

Anyone know what this is? I can't be 100% certain that the red dots and the "bites" in the water are connected, but I would like to know what this stuff is. What is biting, and whether it's causing the dots...

Thanks. N.

[annetta]

Hi Nikster,

these are surely sand flies bites. I had it two years ago, I was bitten in the water at Laem Singh beach. At first sight you don't see anything, the itchy starts usually at night, I scratched and got badly infected. It took me almost one year to get completely rid of it.

I used cortisone cream at the end because even the doctors were not sure about the medicament to use, I didn't react at many creams or tablets.

The good new is that it seems they don't come in the water every season, I go to Phuket about 3 times a year from more than 10 years and that was the only time I got the bites.

Take care and good luck!

Annetta

[Jonson83]

I experienced this while swimming on koh lanta and a couple of times on koh phangyan.I never got any red marks though.I always wondered what was 'biting' me..Well,now i know.

[BambinA]

In Thai ,we call it as "Taan Talay "แตนทะเล , some people think it is a kind of plankton ,some think its a small jellyfish .

I went to Ao Proa , Koh Samed few years ago ..I was suffered by them ..got rashed

When they had biten me, It seemed like shots of needle ..really itchy and i got rashes

TX

- antihistamine both typical and systemic drug

- vinegar

[redrus]

We got some of these stings on the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia earlier this year and, were told that it was old tentacles from jellyfish floating in the water.

The pain felt, I think, is conducive to that conclusion.

redrus

[HKDon]

Just like to say that my family and I have been swimming in the water at Nai Harn Beach for the past two days and have been on the receiving end of these bites / stings. Was wondering what they were as they felt like a load of tiny pin-pricks but only seemed to be affecting me under my t-shirt and not on any exposed flesh. Fortunately no rashes (as of yet), but still have some of that prickly heat type tingling going on.

Seems like the description in the link to sea bather's eruption matches what I have experienced over the past couple of days.

[smartecosse]

When scuba diving note that nearly all the instructors and dive masters wear full suits.

thats more to do with the heat loss than getting stung by sea lice

[splorff]

I've had this too. It did not hurt much so I didn't ask questions about it. I would describe it not as bites but, a dull tingling. I saw nothing in the water either, so its microscopic. I guessed at it being the discarded stinging cells of jelly fish or something similar.