We don't get the Titsy flies thankfully but we do have a couple of other types that could be as bad or worse.
We get a fly that's just a bit bigger than a common house fly that likes to bite you on the ankles just above the shoe/boot line. The little suckers are in and out in a flash but they have a painful bite that itches for quite a while afterwards. They are known locally as 'stable flies' but can be found anywhere outside not just in horse stables.
The other one we get tends to occur in more northern areas than here and that is the infamous 'black fly' which is like a mosquito on steroids and swarm in their millions in great black clouds. Hikers and hunters leave no skin exposed to them and ankle, wrist and neck openings of clothing are kept tightly shut and hats with mesh nets to see through are required if you don't want to get eaten alive.
We do get the regular mosquito types too in the summer months, especially down here in Canada's 'banana belt' and some species are disease carriers although these tend to carry things like the West Nile virus rather than malaria. Summer evenings outside on the patio can get cut short very rapidly if a swarm of mozzies decide you are on the menu! Around here they have educational programs and TV/radio ads every year reminding people to get rid of any areas of standing water to stop them breeding and the county health dept. goes out and sprays insecticide along waterways and ditches to try and keep numbers manageable. It's cheaper to spend the money on eradication than deal with the medical costs of a massive outbreak of West Nile in the population.
I've also thought about Den's bite marks, and I think he either has Titsy flies, and doesn't want to admit it, or his false teeth ran amok in his pocket.