I'm collecting together bits for the scarily close Kielder 100. Is Avon Skin So Soft(?) the best midge repellent? Does anything actually work?

Cheers,

Matthew

Yes it does work well. they do one now with repelant in it aswell

Midges aren't much of a problem away from the Scotish highlands and west coast, if you must use something use deet, skin so soft is just a myth.

Does anything actually work?

The only thing guaranteed to work is Deet

Other stuff may work for you but not others & vice versa – Deet works for everyone

Midges aren't much of a problem away from the Scotish highlands and west coast

You've not been to Kielder when there's a hatch then?

I got eaten by midges in the New Forest a couple of months back.

We wondered why everyone else in the campsite was in their tents with the flaps down when we rolled up and started pitching our new tent.

I will never ever camp in Kielder again. I did it once. The sheer terror of watching the swarms of midges throwing themselves at the pub window only built the anticipation of getting back to the tent.

Picking midges out of your teeth because you inhaled a cloud of them isn't nice.

Midges aren't much of a problem away from the Scotish highlands and west coast

As a former trail-builder at Kielder all I can say is 🙂

Tootal MTFU

Midges aren't much of a problem away from the Scotish highlands and west coast,

are they well known to respect borders?

Midges aren't much of a problem away from the Scotish highlands and west coast

Have you been to Kielder?

Nope – I'd take Surfer-Mat on before camping in Kielder again!

*squeals like a girly*

Skin so soft seemed to work for JonB & me up there the other weekend. Mind you it's the standing still that seems to be the point at which they eat you alive. Bee keepers outfit anyone?

Nope – no midges at Keilder 😆

midge eater

DEET is the word. Evil stuff, it's a case of whether it kills you or the bugs first, but it certainly works.

That said, they didn't give me any grief at last year's Kielder 100 despite not taking any midge repellent, but maybe I was just lucky.

It is, as you say, now scarily close 😯

I'm going to slightly hijack this thread.

I may be selling my entry ( I won't bore you with why ), is anyone interested ?

Mail in profile.

😥

Indeed, skin so soft does work for midgies, not for anything else though.

Deet also works but I'd avoid it unless it was necessary as it's not particularly nice. If you have time on your hands I think the "active" ingredient in Skin so soft is limonene (I vaguely remember making some in an undergraduate lab, or using it a precursor to something, the ether makes things fuzzy).

Over the last few weeks they've not been that bad but it's been windy an we weren't there in the evening.

I have 'fond' memories of turning up to a Kielder Sunmmer Polaris many years ago and wondering why the marshalls were all wearing full mosquito head nets.

Then we got out of the car and found out why. In your eyes/ears/nose/everywhere within seconds.

Gave you an incentive to keep riding though to escape the buggers.

Kielder can be a nightmare for midges. Hamsterley was bad the other night – fine until we got back to the cars and started gassing – within minutes we were being eaten alive.

At least it got us on the way to the pub quicker.

DEET

IME Skin so Soft works well for midges, mozzies and whatever those evil things are in Thetford Forest that leave series of golf ball size swellings (that weep) all over your legs, arms and any exposed area. So you smell like weird but if it works…..

Skin so Soft kind of works. You need to spray it on thick though, and it works by making it difficult for the midges to actually puncture your skin and make a withdrawal, rather than making it genuinely unpleasant like DEET does, so you can still feel them landing on you, but you might not get bitten as much

And although it's not as poisonous as DEET, it certainly makes your food taste pretty nasty if it gets on your lips, your fingers and your food

Midges aren't much of a problem away from the Scotish highlands and west coast, if you must use something use deet,

Really?

i went to Keilder once just walking and we were swarmed by midges. sat down for a picnic and were swarmed by hundreds of the little blighters ! and the more we tried to run away from them, they just kept going round in circles above out heads ! it was awfull…
went to Whinlatter forest t'other day and i was eaten alive by midges… im still scratting my arms and legs. lol