Calling all aquatic bird experts.

This past weekend at Lake Chelan we were all hit, to varying degrees, by
what locals call duck mites. The result was an array of itchy, red bumps
and welts. The number of bites seemed to be directly proportional to the
amount of time people stayed in the water. The kids who swam from morning
to night and would have swum all night, given the chance, were covered, head
to toe. More sedintary adults were affected to a lesser degree. While we
have had this problem later in the summer (around Labor day), my theory is
that the El Nino warming brought the plague to us a month earlier. The lake
was a good 5 degrees warmer than usual.

Does anyone have any ideas about whether this is duck mites? Any ways to
avoid the bites (short of staying on dry land which is not an option when
the temp hits 100 or so)? Shooing the ducks away is a short term fix since
they swim along the shore looking for handouts from dawn to dusk. (We do
not feed them and try to keep them out of our swimming area.) Thanks for
the help.

Caroline Feiss
Seattle