By: Blonde One
On our latest Dartmoor expedition we were unfortunately visited by a plague of midges. It was horrible: they got everywhere! Within seconds we were all bitten numerous times and again I sent a little sympathetic thought to Scotland, who I believe has an even more significant issue with midges. We all thought that midges like to be near water, either lakes or rivers but we weren’t really too near either.
Between us we had various different insect repellents, some with the highly regarded DEET and some not, but none seemed to work effectively. I’ve done a bit of homework to try and avoid more trouble with these pesky things and whilst I haven’t found a solution (there doesn’t seem to be one) I have found out some interesting things.
- As with the vicious horse fly, it is the female midge that does the damage (no sexist comments please) and likes the blood of its victims.
- Midges like damp places, so we’ve got no chance on Dartmoor of ever avoiding them!
- Lots of people suggest that an Avon product, ‘Skin So Soft’ spray is a very good accidental repellent. I have ordered some to try and I’ll let you know.
- Eating Marmite (yuck) or drinking beer (yum) does not work.
- Midges love carbon dioxide so as long as you don’t breathe out, you will be fine!
The biggest question I want answering at the moment is how big a midge problem is there on the Isle of Man? I want to be fully prepared when we go in July. It is very close to Scotland but also may well have some good sea breezes to blow them away. Any ideas gratefully received! In the meantime I will continue to try not to scratch the VERY annoying little red dots that are all over my arms!!! Aaaaarghhhh!
You can buy anti midge net hoods and jackets. I have a jacket with fully enclosing hood and it works pretty well. With the real thing in Scotland, from my own experience, nothing else works, including that Avon stuff.
http://www.purpleturtle.co.uk/
We saw mosquito jackets for sale in New Zealand. It is the dreaded sandfly there and it has a nasty bite!
Avon skin so soft works a treat. We live near walk runa and camp on dartmoor. Also as long as there is a breeze above a few knots and the midges don’t fly any way
Skin So Soft smells really nice too!
Take a midge hood. Not even a sea breeze prevents them from emerging -humans, yum-yum! Oil of Citronella on hat and cuffs but not on skin. Be inside at dawn and dusk. If you are very susceptible, cut and stitch a second midge hood to make mitts an anklets.
We could have a Blonde costume competition!
Love to see it! Just remembered something else – when I was doing lots of floral study along the canal, I got bitten exceedingly & my ankle swelled up massively with an allergic reaction; the doctor gave me some slow-acting anti-histamines to take, which almost stopped the itches (though not the bites) for the rest of the season!
That sounds good. I took Piriton after some horse fly bites last year and discovered that as well as getting rid of the itches, it worked very well as a sleep inducer on long haul flights to New Zealand!
About 2 weeks before start taking vitamin b12. Doesn’t solve the problem completely, but definitely helped to reduce my ‘allure’ (midges love me). My local pharmacist told me it secretes a smell through your skin (undetectable to humans) which they don’t like.
That sounds good, isn’t that what is in Marmite?
Actually yes – you’re right, it is. But can’t stand the stuff, so I stick to the capsules. Give it a whirl, it certainly helped me…