I need some advice on my situation. I have not mentioned it before because it's a bit strange,and I was hoping it would clear up,but it hasn't.

Since this past July/August 2006, I have noticed that I am being followed/annoyed by gnat like bugs or fruit flies.

They seem to be flying around me constantly. When I go to work, they will be in my office... bothering me. When I am in my car at least one will have found his way there flying around me/on me.

I can actually go to a restaurant or cinema, and notice that one has found it's way there too somehow!

I don't understand how they have managed to attach themselves to me/on me and follow me from place to place. I know that they are attracted to smell,but I am not using any new shampoos/soaps.

Nothing out of the ordinary. I only take my normal vitamins and my BP meds as per normal.

I have no plants,and leave no food out, and my house is very clean.

I notice that they actually seem to fly around me specifically. Generally there is not more than 1 at a time. I will kill it,and ten minutes later I will notice another one flying around me. I do not want to give the impression that there are many like a swarm, as I said it's only one flying around,and then another at some later stage.

My co-workers have noticed this also,and have said that it's odd. I wouldn't suspect that I had something to do with it personally, but it's been going on for 10 months now,and they seem to appear wherever I am, ie, inside my car,my house,my office,at restaurants.

Any ideas anyone?

Years ago, if I went to visit relatives who lived out in the country, bees would follow me everywhere. No one believed me (and no, I wasn't wearing anything yellow). I said "watch this, and I moved from where I was, and they followed me. I didn't wear any particular perfume. I was very young, like 14 or 15.

This happened so much, I stopped going in their backyards. I once went to the park with some friends and sure enough, bees came around me.

Maybe we give off an aura or something in our bodies are attracting them.

But I just read that bees are dying off.

I hope you get rid of the gnats. Try spraying on some OFF or something that is sold in your neck of the woods, some bug repellant or something with Deet.

Jeez, gnats and fruitflies. boy oh boy


Melody

I thought maybe because I snack in my office,and I'll eat a piece of fruit,and throw the core in the bin.

But let's say I leave the office to go to the bathroom,or another office, it will actually follow me. So why doesn't it stay with the fruit core?

But this will happen all day long weather i eat or not, and regardless of where I am. I just went into a co-workers office to speak to him, and one was all over me in there.

He said he has been showering twice a day because he thought it was him, but since seeing how it was all over me, he know thinks it's me They Want!!

Just to mention I shower in the morning and use Dove unscented soap,and at night I take a hot bath before bed to help relax my muscles so I can sleep better.

As I said I was just going to deal with this on my own,but 10 months is a long time to have a problem like this,and not have had any sort of advice. I also posted on the Rare conditions forum too.

I am trying to think of all the reasons this may be happening. Like does it have anything to do with my PN?

This is the time and year we get them in Mo. You open the door there
waiting to greet you at the door. The love fruit never leave a core
laying around,and some of the juice from the fruit may be getting on
you,it happens. There really bad now since we are haven't floods,poor
people are loosing there homes and so much farm land.. Sue

Mel are you sleeping??

I have no idea why they are attracted to you but just taking a wild guess, perhaps one of your neighbors has a one or more fruit trees that is attracting them, or a composs bin close to your fence that you may walk past every morning and perhaps they jump on you then and then the little buggers come for a ride to work with you.
I would be very tempted to lay some bait in plastic containers for them along the neighbours fence that you may think there coming from, and also bait in your car so their attracted more so to your bait, than you, i found this on the net were people had a big problem with fruit flies.
.................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ............................

I work in a restaurant and we get them bad in the summer, and we use a mixture of cider vinegar, and water. about 70 percent vinegar, and 30 percent water, in a glass, and set them where you have the most fruit flies. a few days of that, and your glasses will have fruit flies floating on top. But make sure to use CIDER vinegar. The cider attracts them. change the mixture everyday, and do it for a couple weeks. It may not be the most pleasant smell, but hey, No fruit flies. Give it a try! It really works! Good luck!

good luck anyway
Brian

Oh, yeah. My son has always had that same problem.

He could be standing in a field with 100 other people and there would a cloud of bugs flying around his head and none around anyone else.

I've actually seen wasps follow him for yards. They don't bother me at all. As a matter of fact, I'm sort of the neighborhood "wasp lady". There's one place on my balcony where the paper wasps like to build a nest -- I let them. They don't bother me.

It's probably got something to with chemicals -- a combination of the products that you use for washing clothing and bathing and shampooing together with your own natural body scent.

I'd try something 'simple' first like Avon's Skin-so-Soft. It's supposed to be a good repellant (http://heritage.scotsman.com/ingenui...?id=1819182005). It that didn't work, I'd try something stronger. But, I'd talk with the pharmacist and get something 'gentle'. You don't want to be lathering yourself up with some kind of horrendous chemical.

If you're not using scentless detergent and fabric softener to clean your clothes, I'd give that a try too.

Barb

I dont have bugs following me, but i am usually starting to get bitten by mosquitos or no see ums long before other people are in the same place.

Sue:

I have suffered from insomnia for most of my life. I now take some Alprazolam (only because it relaxes me enough) and I go to sleep at around 11:30 p.m. and I get up at around 8 a.m.

I would take Ambiem if I could afford it but my insurance plan doesn't. I had samples of Lunesta. It worked for exactly 2 days then it did NOTHING!!!

So I must have a hyper nervous system or something.

When I was a baby, I NEVER SLEPT, or so my mother threw that fact up to me most of my life. Maybe that's why she never could stand me. I must have drove them nuts bouncing in the crib.
They tried a teaspoon of wine one night (as per doctor's instructions) and I slept for 14 hours straight. My parents were in heaven.

The next night they tried giving me a TABLESPOON of wine and I danced all night. Can you imagine being the parent of a kid who doesn't sleep normally. No wonder my mom became a bitter mean old lady. I wonder why she never took a sleeping pill. She would take naps during the day. They both did. It's amazing what one remembers as one gets older.

She would always say to me "I only hope your son keeps you up all night like you kept me up" He didn't (only because he slept in our bed till he was 5). I know, not a good thing, but I had to get my sleep. I used to fall asleep holding his little foot. I remember reading about how in Europe it's not uncommon to have something called a Family Bed where everybody sleeps together. It's kind of a bonding experience and the kids feel secure. Actually, if it works for ya, I see no harm. When my son was a baby, putting him in my bed (while not the smartest thing for a marriage), well, I got to go to sleep, so to me, it was just fine. I will never forget when Frank turned 5, Alan got so disgusted he said "enough is enough, you are sleeping in your own bed from now on". We had a few bad nights but it worked.

So who knows who is right and who is wrong? The people with the Family bed, or the people who never let their kids into the beds in the first place????

I'll never know. (But at least I got my sleep).

Now I just take my Alprazolam and sleep like a baby.

Melody

Here's what I just got off the internet!!!!

Scientists think that insects may be attracted by body odor or perhaps by pheromones-the natural odors that attract people to one another. Insects do possess the senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. People with allergies or eczema/atopic dermatitis appear to be more prone to bites as well as to complications like bacterial infections from scratching.


So we are either giving off pheramones, or sweat, or something!!!!

mel

Hi Melody:

My daughter and only child, who is now 50, didn't sleep much for the first two years of her life and I of course, was exhausted all the time. When she was an infant, an older lady, who had been a nurse, told me that "the smart ones don't sleep much." Now, I don't know if there is any truth in that, but my daughter is very smart, said her first word, "thunder" at seven months, and is still a very smart woman successful in her work.

So, I am inclined to believe the old nurse - and you are another proof of
a smart one!

Shirley H.