Any Scots around to give midge advice?

[Millymollymandy]

What Andy says about favourites is soooo true! When we lived in the Netherlands surrounded by all those dikes and water the mossies there were huge and bit my husband badly and he had some really big nasty bites from them - yet they mostly left me alone.

Now in Brittany I am the one who gets bitten to death by midges and (much worse) harvest mites whilst the only thing that goes for him is horseflies - which have never even come near me.

[MuddyWitch]

BBC Lunchtime news just had a piece on regarding Midgies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10337160

MW

[kit-e-kate]

They don't like it when its windy! Don't disturb long grass either in the morning or round about tea time (midgie time). And i would also recommmend Skin So Soft (get the sprtiz stuff, not lotion!)

Have fun! : )

[Andy Hamilton]

Acutally this post reminds me of something I saw on one of those grumpy programs. An american women missheard a scot talking about about the midges and thought she said
"you have to look out for all the midgets", bit odd thought the American woman, a country full of violent midgets but stranger things have happend. But nothing was as off putting as the next bit of advice.
"yep, beacause they will bite your ankles"!

[spider8]

Well I'm not offering to be a midge sacrifice! I get bitten so badly and I've tried Avon's Skin So Soft but it didn't do a thing. I am diabetic and swear they love sweet blood It's not too bad here as the wind helps keep them from doing too much damage but on Mull once I was eaten alive - oh I scratched! Let us know how the holiday goes and what you think of Lewis as it's somewhere we'd like to go.....despite the midges .

[citizentwiglet]

Now isn't that funny? We went to Mull, and OH commented on how midgie-free it was in comparison to other places we'd been. They must have been gathering together, amassing the midgie troops to come and attack you, Spider8.
The worst place we've been for them was Glen Nevis, they were literally trying to get under OH's eyeballs, it was like watching blackfly on a broad bean, revolting. It had been extremely wet, though, and we were in the 'quiet' camping field (i.e. the one with no drainage) so they loved the standing water. What a bloody trip that was, it rained all day, APART from the mass-midgie hours (7-8am, and 6 - 7pm) when the sun would briefly shine, but poor OH would still be barricaded in the tent.

[bonniethomas06]

The worst place we've been for them was Glen Nevis, they were literally trying to get under OH's eyeballs, it was like watching blackfly on a broad bean, revolting.

What!? That sounds vile! Suddenly the romanticism of gathering oats by hand is looking less er...romantic. And thanks for the link, I watched the news clipping and am seiously considering buying a mesh hat thingy, although I gather they can burrow through clothes.

Still, as irritating and uncomfortable as midges are to us humans, I do take comfort in the fact that now and again nature gets one over on us and there is nothing we can go about it.

[citizentwiglet]

Honestly, you might feel like a complete tit looking like you're dressed up as a beekeeper, but you'll be the one laughing when you can actually move around the place whilst everyone else is screaming and slapping themselves silly.

Andy - don't worry. You're hard pushed to find any REAL midgies in the central belt. We have our own version of weird flying bugs that defy definition; but none are as evil as the midgie. I do think that a lot of people confuse midgies with gnats. Believe me, having lived for 22 years in gnat-infested West Wales; I can confirm that midgies are a whole different ball game. I have never seen a REAL midgie further south than Loch Lomond (though I suspect that gnats are taking lessons from them). Real midgies are tiny, jet black - slightly larger than aphids - with the bite of an angry pirahna, only, obviously, on a much smaller scale.

I do get bitten by them - on my ankles and elbows, usually, but they don't hurt me - I don't even notice them, and they don't itch me. Whereas OH, god love him, was crawling with them within seconds. 16 bites in one minute, he reckons. And they itch him like mad. Someone once said it was blood group, but OH and I (and therefore the kids) have the same blood group....as for the alcohol link - well, I'm generally the one that is the better oiled in the lager/wine department. I do have a clotting disorder, though - I have thick blood, and the kids may well have inherited it, so I wonder whether they try me and realise it's too much like hard work.

Listen, don't let it bother you. Check out when they are most rife (they really do swarm at certain times of the day, in Glen Nevis it was two hours a day that they were monstrous) and avoid being out at that time (or get the headgear); otherwise you really shouldn't have too many problems with them if you don't let it get to you. Even OH admitted that it was only a few hours a day that they were really bad. I love your attitude about nature getting one up on us, that's the spirit!!

[Shirl]

just reading Andy's comment about vit B. has anyone tried the old remedy of eating marmite? If so have you noticed any difference?
Monday evening was a particularly bad evening at the lottie for mosquitoes and midges. I was bitten well and truly!

[citizentwiglet]

Now that's interesting - the boys and I love Marmite and eat it quite regularly, and never get badly attacked. OH hates the stuff, gets eaten alive. Mmmm.