Mosquitos and other evil nasty biting insects

suse

suse

Well-Known Member
Joined
16 May 2001
Messages
12,986
Location
Cambridge
Visit site
Is there anything out there which will REALLY keep these little and not-so-little bu99ars at bay? Mozzies, noseeums, midgies, you name it, and I'm the dish of the day, even through clothes (2 layers of knicker and skirt - itchy and scratchy lumps on the bum). It makes life so horrible I dont want to visit places with these little lovers. And now I hear NFL has something ghastly, flying and biting. I have tried all sorts of things. Last time I should have tried Vit B tablets (brewers yeast) - do they work? Also, has anyone tried the electric zapper thing to take the sting out of a bite? /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
 
Two useful suggestions and some other thoughts:

On board (in cabin) burn a Moontiger. Easier and safer and the coils don't break if you use them in a Yokoyama Mk 7 holder (can't imagine what marks 1 to 6 were like!). I have found this gets rid of midges in a couple of minutes and they stay away for as long as the thin smoke lasts (several hours with a full coil). Obtainable from outdoor shops.

Outside, Avon "Skin-So-Soft" has very good write ups as a midge repellent - used apparently by the Marines among others. Find your local Avon lady... (Avon are apparently not best pleased at this use of their "beauty" product!)

For the more direct approach, a midge net over your head looks pretty naff but does keep the little sods off your face. Not much help for your bum though...

I've heard no good recommendations for electronic gizmos. Calor sell a gas fired "midge eater" which really does work and has completely transformed drinking outside a number of pubs on calm nights. Bit big for a boat, unfortunately, and I've not heard of a miniaturised version.
 
We have here during summer so many mozzies, my record is with rolled sleeve for one minute out and one hit with my palm I cought 27 !
But normally I use spray called OFF by Johnson and they keep the local mozzies away
 
I've eventually gone for the other solution - accept that you'll get bitten and minimise the damage - so I rely on antihistamines which seem pretty effective and biting seems to tail off after the first week or two, but the bites never get swollen.

Of course I also wear long sleeves and trousers after mid-afternoon if I'm in a midge/mozzie area, put on repellant, burn mozzie coils but ultimately accept that I'm just reducing the number that get through.
 
I get eaten alive by all insects and so have spent years perfecting not getting bitten. The best stuff is called Jungle Formula and comes as liquid, wipes or aerosol. Put it on before going out and make sure you overlap it under clothing- remember silly areas like backs of hands and soles of feet, as well as ears. Put it on before sundown.

The next thing is to get a big double mozzie net- I've found I can hang these almost anywhere, including on yachts. that way you can sleep soundly without having to cover every inch of skin- well worth it in hot climes.

Always do a mozzie hunt when you go to the loo- call me parnaoid, but I'm sure it stops certain bites in certain places.

Also remember things bite in the morning before the sun comes up.

I've not seen any good evidence re B vitamins etc.

I agree with Rupert- prophylactic antihistamines like Zirtek work well and stop the bite errupting in the first place.

Another thing I do is to spray insecticide down below before going out, leave it a few hours and it kills all the ones hiding below.

Good luck

ALex
 
[ QUOTE ]
Calor sell a gas fired "midge eater" which really does work and has completely transformed drinking outside a number of pubs on calm nights.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've got one of these in my garden. It works, I emptied the catch-tank thing a few times last summer and I must have caught a gazillion of the little beggars, and the effect on our summer evenings in the garden was fantastic.
 
My favourite, apart from the lumps on the bum episode (Bahamas), was waking one morning on a diving holiday (Barbados) with my entire face double the size and eyes swollen and closed. All burning and extremely painful. All this after I had heard the bu99ers in the bedroom and hidden swelteringly under a sheet (couldnt find them to exterminate, exterminate - and it only takes one. I was going home that day, so I was fortunately able to entertain the passengers in the airport lounge as a freak show: 'Don't point at the lady, darling - it's very sad, she can't help looking like that'.

Thank god I'm not paranoid.
 
As DaveS says Avon "Skin So Soft" is the big thing on the West Coast of Scotland. Use it myself (as recommended by all my local outdoor instructors), for our beloved, Scottish midges. They still seem to conglomerate in clouds around but dont bite.

Cant say how it works with mosquitoes though

Cameron
 
rupert - I think that is perhaps a pragmatic approach, but in many parts of the world even if the bites don't hurt, you wanna avoid being bitten - think of all the nasty stuff carried by mosquito's such as malaria, Nile fever, that nasty virus hitting Reunion etc...
 
I read somewhere that a midge weighs 0.5 milligram so 1 kilo of midge corpses means 2,000,000 fewer of the little sods. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

On the other hand, I also read that 1,000,000 of them can hatch out from 1 sq m of moorland in 24 hours. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
I always thought I was reasonably impervious to mossies & gnats until I went to some old goldmine workings in NZ near dusk- I literally ran for dear life, bit to bits
 
The mozzies are so plenty in Lapland that locally if somebody has been cought stealing, this person will be taken 20 km from the nearest house and left there naked.
So theft has practically gone to zero in Lapland. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Living along the river ...

and own offshoot into our grounds for mooring etc. - we suffer plenty of mossies ...

Answer is Local shops sell Mossie spray .. that you spray onto your open skin areas ... works well ...

DSCF0463.jpg


OFF by Johnson ....

The mossie candles etc. are ok if you sit in the waft from them ... Blue electric zappers are good - but only when they get close and mossie has a death wish !!

Best is the spray ... close eyes, finger across lips and spray face, neck and over ears, ankles, legs, arms and hands ...
 
Pauline suffers terribly in Barcelona, even now, when it's colder, nobody else, just Pauline and boy do they (midgies etc.) love her, poor lass comes up in huge bumps!! They scar as well!
 
Well she shouldn't, because I told her and I'm you all that Shoo is the real thing.

I can't help it if no-one can be arsed to buy it.

Get bitten

Serves you right. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
 
I'll third that.
I have a bottle in the car, one on the boat and one at home.
I was introduced to Skin so Soft by a friend after we were bit to distraction getting the dinghy ready to go to his mooring. We sprayed up on the boat where he'd left his bottle and went back ashore. Although squadrons of midgies came out of the bracken and had a good sniff, we didn't get bitten again.
 
We used Skin-so-Soft mixed 50:50 with rubbing alcohol in a squeezy bottle when cruising - effective and economical. If you don't care about the cost OFF is a good product. Mossy coil in the cockpit is good. In the U.S. Gulf coastal areas mozzies are a real problem and they use the big guns - industrial strength foggers in the garden.
 
all good ideas here. Mine include:

1) the bug hunt . The b%ggers get into the boat during the day and hide! Or, the ones that got you last night are still hiding away ready for another slurp the next night. You need to flush out every single one before bedtime, with flashing lights, wfating towels and rolled up newspapers. Very satisfying to killem with spray of course. You can cloud up the cabins before going out for an evebning. None of this much use if sleeping on deck. in tropics tho i use a mosquito net which is a start.

2) position the boat. More lights on and anchoring close in to shore means you get bitten lots. Expect to get a load of midges if wind is onshore - the clouds of midges/mozzies can smell you and gently work their way upwind to find you.

3) The chemicals. Buy all the things you can lay your hands on. Spray these liberally all over the place, door jambs etc. I've never had varnish damage with this but then again in tropics i've only ever rented not had own boat.

4) as well as antihystamine thyings, consider scoffing loads of garlic capsules starting few days beforehand, which makes you stink summink awful for the mozzies, har har.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top