Insect repellent ?

[rapidboy]

The midge's were out in force today and i applied some "Lifesystems Expedition 100" which has always worked well in the past but it was useless
Anyone have and recommendations for a good insect repellent ?
Be handy if i could get it online as i need it for next weekend.
The only thing that seemed to work was pipe smoke but i'd rather not have to resort to that
Cheers
rb

 

[Motorbike Man]

The midge's were out in force today and i applied some "Lifesystems Expedition 100" which has always worked well in the past but it was useless
Anyone have and recommendations for a good insect repellent ?
Be handy if i could get it online as i need it for next weekend.
The only thing that seemed to work was pipe smoke but i'd rather not have to resort to that
Cheers
rb

I've kind of gone off the DEET based repellents after watching a friends mobile phone display melt when he got some on it. Last year I got one of these and it worked superbly, I only used one battery all summer and it could be left on at night as well. As long as I had it, I didn't get bitten. The only slight problem I had with it was the battery clips bending out of place but a small bit of rubber behind the clip solved this

 

[flibb]

Some people have recomended Avon skin so soft dry oil body spray to me (dont laugh). Will be trying it out on the wife next time we are camping, I will act as a control and smother myself in jungle formula.

 

[Paganwolf]

Home brand boots after sun with mozzi repellent is the best ive used, i used it in borneo where my two mates was using jungle formula they was eaten alive i never got touched and have used it ever since.

 

[MagiKelly]

I've kind of gone off the DEET based repellents after watching a friends mobile phone display melt when he got some on it. Last year I got one of these and it worked superbly, I only used one battery all summer and it could be left on at night as well. As long as I had it, I didn't get bitten. The only slight problem I had with it was the battery clips bending out of place but a small bit of rubber behind the clip solved this

I go one of these last week. Can't say how well it works as when I tested it there were not that many midgies about. However the build quality was not very good. The switch has a mind of its own regarding whether it will work or not. Also when walking the movement causes the battery contacts to bend and the contact is broken so the unit stops working. That said if it will keep the midgies away I will gladly find a way of solving these problems.

 

[martin]

Jungle Formula insect repellents work well. You can buy their products just about any where. They even do wipes now which are good if you have little 'uns. They work well on the midges we get on the moors here.
I tried Avon Skin So Soft last year when I took a mate to see a Kingfisher's nest hole. We got eaten alive by the mossies but my skin was loverly and smooooooth

 

[rapidboy]

Does the DEET stuff have a short shelf life ?
Im just thinking the Lifesystems Expedition 100 worked really well but it's a couple of years old now so maybe it's just out of date.

 

[Motorbike Man]

I go one of these last week. Can't say how well it works as when I tested it there were not that many midgies about. However the build quality was not very good. The switch has a mind of its own regarding whether it will work or not. Also when walking the movement causes the battery contacts to bend and the contact is broken so the unit stops working. That said if it will keep the midgies away I will gladly find a way of solving these problems.

That was the problem I solved with the little bit of rubber under the contacts

 

[Toddy]

Some people have recomended Avon skin so soft dry oil body spray to me (dont laugh). Will be trying it out on the wife next time we are camping, I will act as a control and smother myself in jungle formula.

My husband swears by this stuff, as do many of the Scottish mountain climbing bunch, and it seems to work very well.....personally I can't stand the stuff. I prefer to use Bog Myrtle (Myrica Gale) in one of those little roller ball applicators. You've got to make your own though, or be open to barter

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[mojofilter]

I find Deet is the only thing so far that works well against the infamous Scotch midge. Stuff Ive got at the mo is called "BEN'S 100 Safari Strength Insect Repellant"

Magikelly, Id be interested to hear if the ultrasonic thingamybob works well in our area!

cheers

Stuarty

 

[flibb]

Avon are doing 3 of the skin so soft thingys for £6 at the moment. Think the cittronella in it is ment to be the anti bug thing. Wish I had tried it yesterday when I was out in the woods, have just found a beasty bite on my bum.

 

[troy]

Most summers, me and the family find our selves at Glen Brittle in Skye (great sunsets) for a few days and have found Autan roll-on very good, there was also some locally made herbal repellent, made originally for the gamekeepers, that worked fine as well. Unfortunatly I cannot remember its name, but its sure to be in most small shops. we seem to have more problems with ticks these days, rather then mossies.

 

[Motorbike Man]

I find Deet is the only thing so far that works well against the infamous Scotch midge. Stuff Ive got at the mo is called "BEN'S 100 Safari Strength Insect Repellant"

Magikelly, Id be interested to hear if the ultrasonic thingamybob works well in our area!

cheers

Stuarty

be carefull using DEET on a regular basis guys, it can do nasty things to your skin. I've no real experiance of the Scottish Midgey, but last year down here on the south coast, we were invaded by some continental mossies the size of a Lancaster Bomber!! These things had stripey legs and were beefy enough to bit me through two layers of denim. The bite marks were about the same diameter as a golf ball and they lasted for weeks. The electronic thingy, once I'd sorted the contact problem seemed to keep them away and do the trick.

 

[MagiKelly]

be carefull using DEET on a regular basis guys, it can do nasty things to your skin. I've no real experiance of the Scottish Midgey, but last year down here on the south coast, we were invaded by some continental mossies the size of a Lancaster Bomber!! These things had stripey legs and were beefy enough to bit me through two layers of denim. The bite marks were about the same diameter as a golf ball and they lasted for weeks. The electronic thingy, once I'd sorted the contact problem seemed to keep them away and do the trick.

Mmmmm sounds like you had an infestation of baby midgies. Think yourself lucky their parents did not turn up

Mojo, trust me if this utrasonic thingy works in detering midgies, EVERYONE will hear about it!

 

[Toddy]

Gavin said it worked for him, but the high pitched hum drives me nuts, I couldn't wear it all evening let alone all night.

Cheers,
Toddy

p.s. the pound stores were selling knock offs last year that looked identical to the one I bought in Boots.

M

 

[leon-1]

To be honest I don't think that I have found any one thing that works against insects. I used the lifesystems 50+ in Namibia and that seemed to do the trick pretty much, but I also take cod liver oil capsules with Garlic. I didn't get bitten at all whilst there.

I have used Jungle formula in the UK and been eaten alive (the Scottish Midge strikes again) and used Lifsystems 100 in conjunction with the cod liver oil and garlic capsules in Brunie and only got bitten a couple of times.

Garlic does seem to work against our planets more vampirical beasties, but I would not suggest that you use it alone, any of the good market insect repellants would probably do and a decent net to cover your head/hat is an idea if you have large infestations.

 

[Fluxus]

I went into the pet shop the other day to see if they had one of those little green plastic tick removal things seen in another thread here, but they just had some fairly blunt tweezers. I explained it was for me (tick magnet) and she tried to sell me one of these

I am a natural sceptic about stuff like this and at nearly £30, thought I'd see if anyone had tried one on their person and if it worked.
cheers
Flux

 

[Slimey]

I'd say that it's definitely something to part fools and their money, but then I'm a bit of a sceptic too!

 

[BorderReiver]

Give this stuff a try
http://www.shoo.org/

 

[Doc]

The explanations given for how it works do not appear to me to be scientifically based.

I'm interested in midge repellents, as we have a lot of the $%£&?! round here and a day after exposure I look like the elephant man.

Most of the research has been done on mosquitos (Anopheles spp.) and not midgies (Culcoides spp). For mosquitoes the research shows DEET is best. May be toxic for children and it melts plastic. 3M make a new formulation of DEET called Ultrathon which is supplied to the US military. Allegedly it is nicer to use and more effective than plain vanilla DEET.

I personally have found DEET not very good against midges.

One trial of the herbal repellant Mosiguard found it about as good as DEET against midges. I've not tried it.

DMP is an older repellant (Brand name Shoo I think). I've found it useless.

There are a number of other herbal ones based on plant oils.

Mozzyoff cocktail is one. So far it is the best I've tried. It is an oil. I like the smell off it but many don't.
http://www.mozzyoff.com/testing.htm

India tree is another. It contains Neem oil. I plan to try it soon.

More info at:
http://www.albawest.com/repellents.html

I would quite like to conduct some trials. We could randomise one arm of each volunteer to a different repellent and then count the bites.......