Midges - Would this help?

[SCOMAN]

I picked this off Facebook from some American friends do we think it would help with the Scottish Midge?

WITH WARMER WEATHER COMES MOSQUITOS! WITH SUMMER APPROACHING I THOUGHT I'D SHARE THIS AGAIN
WOW-- I am making 100 of these!!!
Have you noticed the Mosquitos are already out! Here is a homemade trap to help keep you and the kiddos from being a blood donor!!!
HOMEMADE MOSQUITO TRAP:
Items needed:
1 cup of water
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 gram of yeast
1 2-liter bottle
HOW:
1. Cut the plastic bottle in half.
2. Mix brown sugar with hot water. Let cool. When cold, pour in the bottom half of the bottle.
3. Add the yeast. No need to mix. It creates carbon dioxide, which attracts mosquitoes.
4. Place the funnel part, upside down, into the other half of the bottle, taping them together if desired.
5. Wrap the bottle with something black, leaving the top uncovered, and place it outside in an area away from your normal gathering area. (Mosquitoes are also drawn to the color black.)
Change the solution every 2 weeks for continuous control.
To SAVE this recipe, be sure to click SHARE so it will store on your personal page. —
Share

 

[cranmere]

I doubt it, any more than wasp traps work out of doors. The trap could attract thousands but there will be tens of thousands more.

 

[Toddy]

I'm inclined to agree.
The midgies literally swarm in their millions.
Those midge machine folks end up with so many of them in their vacuum things that some enterprising blighter now bottles the dead ones and and sells them to tourists Kind of bizarre pendant/souvenir, but nowt so queer as folk I suppose.

http://www.midgeguard.co.uk/leisure_outdoors.html

M

 

[DurhamBushcrafter]

Dear OP... Why do the Scots have a reputation for being fond of a drop or two and fighting? The Midge.

WHY? well if you had the nasty wee things biting your haggis under your sporran, you would likeley get ratars*d and want to clout someone too........

 

[SCOMAN]

Nice one fella, I'm not a native but these little b&*ards up here are far worse than the ones we have back home in Ireland and I'm not trying anymore whisky. Lets face it battery acid is just battery acid.

On a serious note I had a thought that in a small camp they may provide some relief, I may try it sometime with a health collection of repellent to back me up.

 

[tiger stacker]

Mary has mentioned the midge mesh jacket before. The person who invents the cure, to wee timerous blood suckers deserves free whisky for life.

 

[oldtimer]

I used this recipe last year in the South of France and it did keep the mosquitos in check indoors. Can't see it solving the midge problem any better than headnets and locally available bug dope.

Good bit of advice I got years ago: "Always buy your bug dope locally. The locals know what works where they are." The best repellant I ever had was bought in Scotland and was a local brand.

I also learned when working in the sub-tropics that you seem to build up a resistance to mosquito bites. Does this work for midges? It seems to me that when I've been in Scotland the scots are more toleratant of midges than me.

 

[Jack Bounder]

You don't become accustomed to midges.

 

[Toddy]

This Scotswoman reports that Jack's right.
Either you're a victim or your immune; there doesn't seem to be a halfway house.

I get eaten alive, so does my younger son, while the elder son, Jamie, stands there totally bemused at why we're so miserable. He's a ring of dead midgies around him and he's completely fine. I keep threatening to have him bled so that we can have some clever medical bod suss out why, and we'd make a mint
It's not even as though his diet is any different from mine and his brother's either, we're all vegetarian, we all pretty much like the same foods. We're all dark haired, fair skinned with freckles. We use the same kinds of soap and laundry detergents too.

For the record, the lucky sod's been immune since infancy. Don't know how he does with mozzies though; we don't generally come across them up here.
Thinking on it too….neither of the boys get bitten by clegs, while I am beyond miserable with those. Their father does get bitten by midges, ticks, keds, but I don't mind him being much bothered with cleg bites.

We need to clone Jamie's blood

M

 

[cranmere]

I'm another of those infuriating people who doesn't react to bites and gets very few bites in the first place. Poor Mr Cranmere is a bug magnet and usually resorts to mesh head nets..

 

[Toddy]

….you don't have an available daughter of marriageable age do you? We could end up with midge safe grandchildren

M

 

[OldJimbo]

I'm not sure about the ethics of trapping mosquitoes that way... Any trap requiring a little extra heat and lots of carbon dioxide production should also be required to involve a carboy full of fermenting beer or at least some rising bread dough.

I guess more seriously, that these traps work because mosquitoes are attracted to carbon dioxide and heat. So if mosquitoes are few and one gets into the house then the trap stands a chance of getting it first. Here, traps, bread making and beer making attract the other billion outdoors and waiting to check every way in. At least so far, the rumours of Canadian mosquitoes big enough to actually break in, seem exaggerated.

I've been trying to remember midges from my outdoor work in Britain, but I can't seem to remember being bitten to distraction. Here I guess the equivalent is the no-see-um, or tiny biting flies which are almost too tiny to see. At least meshes now are fine enough that they can't get through, but sensing a good target they are quite happy to go walking the last mile to find any crack - they walk well and given the numbers forget any notion that they won't.. Here I react strongly to the first few bites from all the types of biting fly each year, then I seem to be OK after that. Here, especially in blackfly season the only thing to do is to put burning embers into coffee cans with holes punched into the base, punk wood on top of that, and suspend or place those around the camp site. Just a little smoke seems to work.

 

[nic a char]

"Why do the Scots have a reputation for being fond of a drop or two and fighting?"
Because the ESTABLISHMENT chooses to label them that way...

 

[Adze]

"Why do the Scots have a reputation for being fond of a drop or two and fighting?"
Because the ESTABLISHMENT chooses to label them that way...

Ah yes... Frankie Boyle, that well known ESTABLISHMENT figure.

I've not embedded the video, because there's a single word in it which might be described as family unfriendly... it is, after all, Frankie Boyle on Mock the Week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTPSYbeNaa8

 

[xylaria]

The scots when the romans turned up painted their hair with lime. I am not sure how they did this with out burning thier skin off but it would scrub the co2 out of the what they breathed out.

 

[Atarian]

I'm going to try this as I get devoured by bitey insects every year. I'll see if I can dig the photos out from when I got bitten to baggery camping at Cannock Chase and got chased into my tent. I looked like I had the measles

 

[pysen78]

I've tried that PET-bottle trap thingy. Doesn't work outdoors even on calm nights. Indoors I don't have much use for it so haven't tried.
My best remedy is to use a head net with a hat. Spray the net with repellant before putting it on, and the we ones won't even land and stark searching for the cracks.

In a tent or hut. Try to not let too many inside. If you fail and a lot are still inside when you're zipped up for the night, cook one of those small poison stamp sized paper thingies, on top of a hot surface.
The hot surface can be anything from the top of a tea-light lantern, or an overturned pot on the stove on low heat. Watch out for carbon monoxide.