Midges

[Dan1982]

just returned from a trip to the Brecon Beacons, lovely trip, great weather, great company just one thing............MIDGES!!

I have honestly never encoutered the little sods in such vast quantities. at one point i could hardly breathe without sucking in a lungfull. when i managed to keep my eyes open long enough to take a look around every exposed area of flesh was riddled with them

totally ruined the weekend for me!

if antbodt is heading up there soon i would highly recommend a mossie net ant the best repellent you can afford!

Rant over.

Dan

 

[woodstock]

I must say all the time i spent on the beacons I was never bothered by the midge more mozzies but up in glen affric **** midge city drove me mad I did find avon skin so soft did deter them to a extent

 

[susi]

DEET DEET DEET

The best one I found over there was the silver coloured can from Boots the chemist. It is 50% DEET and near perfect in performance.

(Just don't let it touch any plastics as it starts to dissolve them)

 

[alpha_centaur]

Ben's do a 100% DEET. You can get it from Halliday Pharmacy in Largs (shameless plug).

 

[rancid badger]

Leezo still has a few tubes of Ultrathon insect repellent for sale.
This is by far the best stuff I've used and I've tried all sorts over the years.
Ultrathon is in fact, the current issue repellent for the British military, Leezo's tubes are brightly coloured as opposed to the olive green ones I have but it's exactly the same stuff.
drop him a pm if your interested, it really is excellent.
R.B.

 

[sharp88]

Citronella candels, DEET, Wilmas formula (its a bit too smelly though. ok if your not around alot of city folk).

 

[crazyclimber]

Arghh I'm just back from snowdonia, had the same problem. Jungle formula (the tropical one) seems to do the trick, their home one has no deet and almost seems to attract midges more. We should organise a group buy for those calor gas midge killers and dot them round the UK mountains!

 

[susi]

DEET DEET DEET

The best one I found over there was the silver coloured can from Boots the chemist. It is 50% DEET and near perfect in performance.

(Just don't let it touch any plastics as it starts to dissolve them)

Just wanted to add another note. In my experience aerosol is so much more convenient than cream/gel/lotion. I usually find that I don't want repellent on my hands, for a few reason:

- they are usually moving so are less likely to have a mosquito land on them

- DEET reacts badly with plastics (it dissolves them), so having DEET on hands means you have to be extra careful when handling equipment, clothing and tents

- I don't want DEET on the little man when I take a leak

- DEET can taint food you eat with your hands

- If you have the option to wash your hands, you wash off the DEET anyway

So with an aerosol, you just apply to where it is needed.

I'm just back from a night away and also wish to add the "Lifesystems" DEET repellent to my recommendations list. It performed at least as good as the Boots stuff, with less odour.

 

[rancid badger]

Just wanted to add another note. In my experience aerosol is so much more convenient than cream/gel/lotion. I usually find that I don't want repellent on my hands, for a few reason:

- they are usually moving so are less likely to have a mosquito land on them

- DEET reacts badly with plastics (it dissolves them), so having DEET on hands means you have to be extra careful when handling equipment, clothing and tents

- I don't want DEET on the little man when I take a leak

- DEET can taint food you eat with your hands

- If you have the option to wash your hands, you wash off the DEET anyway

So with an aerosol, you just apply to where it is needed.

I'm just back from a night away and also wish to add the "Lifesystems" DEET repellent to my recommendations list. It performed at least as good as the Boots stuff, with less odour.

Sorry, but it's impossible to apply an aerosol " just where it is needed" as, with any spray application, there is always significant "overspray"
Creams, gels etc. go where you put them

Sprays are great if you particularly don't like the claggy feel of most creams and they have a nice cooling effect when first applied but otherwise, not worth the bother in my experience. You have to reapply much more frequently,especially if you're working hard enough to sweat, increasing the likelihood of overspray contamination of eyes, mouth, equipment etc.
ultimately, it is, yet again, down to personal preference and experience, so my advice is take no notice of any of us, purchase a selection of say, three different types of repellent and see which does the job best for you-oh and as I say; take no notice of any of us!
best wishes
R.B.

 

[susi]

Sorry, but it's impossible to apply an aerosol " just where it is needed" as, with any spray application, there is always significant "overspray"
Creams, gels etc. go where you put them

Of course everyone knows that with aerosol you always get some "overspray", but please take my comment within the context of the whole post, that being that with an aerosol you can apply the substance "where needed", my meaning being, "you don't have to cover your hands with the stuff too".

And sorry, but I refute your comment that "there is always significant overspray". I have found that holding the spray unit close to the skin can produce very accurate results. Yes a small amount will always disappear in a cloud, usually blowing away in the wind, but the result is usually what I said, you end up with the chemical "just where it is needed", and not smeared all over you hands.

But as you say, it's down to personal preference, I personally prefer not to melt every plastic item with my DEET, nor taste the stuff on my sarnie

 

[Mike Ameling]

Now, to those hordes of Midges, add more hordes of Blackflies! Gnawing, biting, blood-sucking Blackflies! And that's what you have in large areas of the northern States and Canada.

Chemical repellents help, but you can only confuse the sense of smell on bugs so much. And "smudge" fires also only do so much. The best action to take involves staying out in open areas away from the brush, and hope for breezes.

The old woodsmen and Indians used a combination of grease/fat and pine tar to help cover and protect their skin. But they applied it, and re-applied it until they had a fairly thick layer over their skin. That "shell" ... helped ... protect them from the bugs - as long as you did not wash it off!

Down here in NE Iowa, we have those Midges and Skeeters as the primary pests, with deer/horse flies thrown in (kind of similar to blackflies with the same nasty bites).

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

p.s. Those little battery-operated personal ultra-sonic repellers do sort-of work on some of the bugs. But I haven't had much luck with them.

 

[Sniper]

You all want to try the Isle of Arran on the west coast of Scotland There is landing strips for the blighters there......only thing that works is a hammock mounted minigun

 

[Singeblister]

We were having a problem with the midge at loch lomond ( north ) I have a bit of a reaction to the bites and am covered in lumps now , I tried 4 different types of repellent one of which was 80% deet and it did nothing , I had it on my arm thick before it was rubbed in and the little buggers were swimming though the stuff to get at me , in the end the only thing that worked,,,ish was a norgie a ventile jacket leather gloves head net hat and scarf with socks tucked into pants , looked a right burk was very hot but it kept them off long enough to pack up chuck everything in the canoe and paddle out far enough where they left me alone lol , I can honestly say they are terrible when them come in that number small amounts are not bad but when they swarm run

 

[Daegurth]

well, your main problem is... you're in scotland in the middle of summer.

insect repellant has never worked for me, of any type. the only things i know that work are smudge fires, and staying the hell away from shallow water.

 

[gregorach]

We were having a problem with the midge at loch lomond ( north ) I have a bit of a reaction to the bites and am covered in lumps now , I tried 4 different types of repellent one of which was 80% deet and it did nothing , I had it on my arm thick before it was rubbed in and the little buggers were swimming though the stuff to get at me

Yeah, I've never found DEET particularly effective against the Highland Midge... I have a stick-type repellent that I picked up from Andrew of Outdoorcode at one of the Loch Achray meets - WWII vintage apparently, and the stuff they used before DEET was invented - and that seems to work. Bog myrtle also discourages them a bit, which is handy as it's a lot easier to resupply...

 

[Singeblister]

Yeah, I've never found DEET particularly effective against the Highland Midge... I have a stick-type repellent that I picked up from Andrew of Outdoorcode at one of the Loch Achray meets - WWII vintage apparently, and the stuff they used before DEET was invented - and that seems to work. Bog myrtle also discourages them a bit, which is handy as it's a lot easier to resupply...

Well i did buy one of the herbal repellents from the shop at Luss that was bog myrtle and other various stuff in there , that did nowt either they were swimming in the stuff I went though the bottle in a day and a half lol ,,,, as I said while there I just think if there hungry enough they will have you no matter what , would you walk though a fart to get to a T bone steak if you were hungry ? I know i would

 

[andywinkk]

Well i did buy one of the herbal repellents from the shop at Luss that was bog myrtle and other various stuff in there , that did nowt either they were swimming in the stuff I went though the bottle in a day and a half lol ,,,, as I said while there I just think if there hungry enough they will have you no matter what , would you walk though a fart to get to a T bone steak if you were hungry ? I know i would

This is what john did, forget the repelants

 

[Doc]

The midge problem seems pretty bad this year - I was camping in Glen Etive last weekend and with no wind and muggy weather they were out in force. As bad as I have ever experienced.

Nobody agrees on midge repellents, but living in the highlands I have tried a great many. I used to prefer the herbal mozzi-off oil (contains neem and bog mytle) but last year I have gone over to 3M Ultrathon.

They spent a lot of money on Ultrathon and the research suggests it is the best stuff available for Anopholes mosquitos - of course the highland midge (Culcoides spp) is a different beast but I have been quite impressed. It is an emulsion of 33% deet and is nicer to use than other deet products. It also seems to last the advertised 12 hours, even when sweating. Standard price is £10 for a small tube but a surplus shop sell the civilian version for £3 a tube on ebay. It stops them biting but not landing.

Even so, repellent on its own still spells misery. I find the triad of ultrathon, head net and smudge fire works quite well.

 

[Tripitaka]

LOL!

Andywinkk - you just need a sawn-off to complete the armed blagger look...

 

[gregorach]

This is what john did, forget the repelants

You need to close those gaps at your cuffs... They'll get in through any chink in your armour - I've ended up with lots of bites on my legs from them sneaking in through the gaps where my trouser legs zip off..