Is this not unbearable ?

[Toddy]

Report on the BBC and it shows a man's hand covered in midgies.

It just looks like hell to me. No wonder the de'il's known as the Lord of Flies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-37184267

M

 

[woodstock]

Jesus brave man I'll bet he uses Brut.

 

[Leshy]

Jesus brave man I'll bet he uses Brut.

😂 lmao.

I hear old spice™ is good too

...

 

[wicca]

He's got more problems than Midge bites on his hand now...I hear The Scottish Tourist Board have just put a contract out on him....

 

[Davengf]

Good Grief! - That brings back memories - Ben Resipole, Ardnamurchan amongst others....

 

[John Fenna]

Fond memories of Skye for me....

 

[Toddy]

I'd be inside my Beaton's midgie jacket and praying for a good wind in those conditions.

There's another thing too; something that works agin the blighters on Skye has no effect on the ones in Loch Lomondside, and the stuff that discourages them in Lanarkshire doesn't work in Perthshire. The damned things have clans of their own !

The only things that always work are a Beaton's midge jacket, and smoke. Mugwort's excellent, my father swore by his pipe, and I knew an old man down by Rhu who said that burning seaweed was the best thing he'd ever found, while another up by Crovie liked cigars.
Not quite the done thing these days though, and not really something we teach children either I suppose.
Mud kind of works

M

 

[woodstock]

Glen Affric will be ever on my mind for the most bitey things apart from the midge I got chomped on the top of the shoulder which made carrying my pack torture and the other one was on the back of the neck which felt the size of Tinto.

 

[Tengu]

Wicca, that was my immediate thought; This articles going to cost the Scottish economy millions.

And they will come here instead, and vex me.

 

[Toddy]

I doubt it there's an enterprising fellow in Dunoon who has one of thon midge eater things. He collects all the wee dried midgies and packs them in tiny wee glass bottles and sells them to the Tourists as a souvenir

M

 

[redsalmon]

Was in harris/lewis last week, midges were mental. fking mental. wee bams won , drove me delirious and i stepped on my fishing rod. snap £50 of midge damage. I'm no scared o the scottish tourist board mafia i'm sending them the bill, contract killers are nothing compared to midge hell ..

that beaton's jacket looks (i pray) the business; 50%deet+head net weren't cuttin it out there. I was broken . along with my fishing rod. In my early teens, Stornoway was the first place i ever saw someone crying cos of midges, now in my late *cough* 40s i truly empathise.

i reckon they're getting worse and blame global warming + sheep.

 

[Uilleachan]

Thats extreme for sure but when I'm planning for the midge, thats what I'm planning for.

Had one doing that bad already this year, but it didn't last long thanks to a handy breeze getting up at just the right moment. Still pulling dead midges out of my jacket pockets a month after the event.

If you read the article the fellow states that despite the numbers his repellent stopped him being bit too badly.

 

[redsalmon]

'his repellent stopped him being bit too badly'

yes but he had a head net. with only repellent on midge can find the uncovered areas, the rim of your eyelids, between your eyelashes .. he's also wearing a goretext suit to prevent access points, but without that suit elasticated around wrists, ankles, waist the midge will find a way .. and perhaps ok for up the hill but lower levels on a summers day you're going to be very very hot ..

and AFAIK he wasn't camping. How can you keep midge out of a tent when you need to get in/out of it?

for me it's doom , gloom and chemical warfare. And hoping a beaton's jacket is comfy to sleep in.

 

[Toddy]

What you do is this.
Open up the outer tent and spray with the big can of fly killer, and then while the blighters are reeling from that slither inside the inner tent through the smallest opening you can and close it up quickly. Cover your face with a cloth and spray again. You'll need to breath through the cloth for five minutes or so until it dissipates, but the inner tent is now a midge free zone. Heaven help you if you've forgotten to bring everything in with you though

The Beaton's jacket's fine to wear or sleep in, just that it's warm.
You wouldn't think that a mesh jacket could be such a thing, but it must be like a micro string vest

Supposedly we're getting three hatchings of the damned things this year too

M

 

[wicca]

Standby..I'm going to swing the lamp...

When I was 17 I was in a ship berthed in Princes Dock, Glasgow ( I think they turned Princes Dock into a garden centre or something later... ) Many of the deck crew were from the Western Isles or Highlands and so it was arranged that one weekend I would stay aboard as one of the ship's watchman while they all cleared off home. The following weekend it was my turn to be free to go ashore..

I bought a cheap tent, about £4.17.6 I think, and some camping gear and eventually found a bus to take me North to a place called Aberfoyle. On arrival I walked into what I think was Forestry Commission woods and put the tent up.

Nobody had mentioned Midges..................

As dusk fell they arrived..in squadrons..

Without any sort of skin cream, head net or any other protection I resorted to taking a burning piece of wood from the camp fire, waving it about to kill the flames and then held the smoking wood in through the tent door to smoke cure the inside of the tent. All went very well and smoke came out in clouds, so I zipped up the door and turned to throw the wood back into the fire. Unluckily the end of the stick broke off and fell inside the tent..even more unluckily I didn't see it until I tried to unzip the tent door...New zip...stuck...

That's strange..something in the tent is on fire :aargh4:

Has anyone any idea how quickly a very cheap mid 1960's nylon tent melts?....

I spent the night sleeping in the remains of a badly charred sleeping bag in a sort of wooden shelter, like a bus shelter, where the Forestry Commission displayed notices cautioning people about the dangers of getting lost..and fires.

First bus in the morning saw me bound South for Princes Dock..Don't talk to me about Midges..

 

[Nice65]

Lovely country that you have, I'm wondering why you go and try to sleep there. I thought a single whining mosquito was bad enough on my last hammock in the woods. I don't think I could be bothered to go if there were swarms of midges.

When we go off down the river to camp there are some midges, they irritate like crazy, but they only stay out for an hour or so. That stuff Xyleria makes, the Simply, works well in short bursts. I drip a bit of Lemon Eucalyptus in the pot and swab my head and arms. Doesn't last the night, but my bug net does

 

[darryle]

If my purpose is to warn other people about swarm of midges on that place then, I will go.

 

[Big G]

What you do is this.
Open up the outer tent and spray with the big can of fly killer, and then while the blighters are reeling from that slither inside the inner tent through the smallest opening you can and close it up quickly. Cover your face with a cloth and spray again. You'll need to breath through the cloth for five minutes or so until it dissipates, but the inner tent is now a midge free zone. Heaven help you if you've forgotten to bring everything in with you though


M

Great advice Toddy,

That's exactly my plan of attack, for when i come up against a gigantic swarm of the pesky blighters

 

[andybysea]

The worst experiannces ive had of them are on tbe moors south of Strathaven bivying it. Woke up and my olive green bivy bag was completely black with the things. The worst of it was i was only wearing underwear inside, i had to get my clothes out of my pack. I just got out quick jammed my feet into my boots grabbed my bivy and pack and ran from the area putting distannce and giving me time to get dressed, without getting to badly bitten. Second worst place was the Bridge of Orchy hotel, whilst doing the west highland way. My white t shirt was black with them. Worst of all i have reactions from insect bites, the weep and crust over and swell then itch for days. Deet and permthrin was worked best for me.

 

[Tony]

That's like a horror movie for me, what an absolute nightmare....