They crawl and fly...and a lot of folks in the Brazos Valley say they are being bitten by bugs right now.

They go by many names--buffalo gnats, sand flies, no-see-ums.

One woman asked, "Are they mosquitoes?"

Close...they're biting gnats.

One surprised student said, "I feel like I might have actually seen one of those in my house yesterday."

We did find some other people that have a much better idea."

A Bryan resident said, "I know about 'em. I don't know about anybody else."

"It almost looks like a mosquito bite and yea, it's annoying and it itches a lot," said another BCS resident.

One Bryan woman commented, "I've got a garden and every time I go out there, I'm covered in them, so now...I do OFF."

"Use the higher concentration ones, the ones that have a higher percentage of deet in them because we know they don't work as well as with mosquitoes," said Dr. Carlos Bogran, with Texas A&M's Entomology Department.

He says the combination of warm weather and recent rain is what's increasing their numbers.

A BCS resident added, "Once they get in, it's really hard to get them out."

"My daughter has, but she was thinking she was allergic to something at work," said one Bryan woman. "They might be biting her, I'm going to let her know that."

I said, "You're itching already!"

A BCS resident replied, "It's just looking at them..">

You won't find any relief until the temperatures go from warm to hot...and they go away on their own.

If you do get bit by a biting gnat, expect it to stick around longer than a mosquito bite.
Unlike mosquitoes, experts say the gnats scratch and cut our skin in order to feed on our blood...and they don't use anything to numb the pain either.