Hi folks, any recommendations for keeping midges out of your caravan. Some people (me) definitely get bitten more that others & bad bites blistering up. I know there’s citronella candles but I’ve haven't had that much luck with them keeping them off. I’ve got some Avon skin so soft that people talk about & some smidge stuff. Just wondered what people have had the best success with in & around the caravan

Cover up as best you can & invest in a midge net for your head.

In my experience midges have absolutely no fear of Skin So Soft & citronella products & the only thing that deters them is DEET products, but it may melt your clothes

You need a finer mesh over your roof vents to keep the midges out. Such as this Link

Gloves, they love bare hands.

+1 for Deet.

Someone on Facebook with Scots heretage said use body lotion with a squirt of Tea Tree Oil mixed in.

Steve

This is going to be a bugger, red hot weather & doors & windows shut & and as someone suggest gloves. I've just spent £40.00 on smidge, deet, candles etc. does anyone know if the net screen on the door & windows is fine enough to keep them out

Hi Monoboard

Sympathise totally with you as Kath is the same. Any midge or mossie within a mile seems to be able to find her and dine off her.

She has tried all sorts of things over the years and some things seem to work for a bit in certain areas but we're not great fans of strong deet sprays that sadly seem to be the most effective.

We stayed at Colzean castle C & C C site (not far from Ayr) when we were still tenters. By that time we knew enough to get tents with in built mossie nets. It was the start of the midge season and the wardens warned us to take precautions from about 6 onwards. We could see the clouds of them starting to arrive from the trees.and you could see everyone going inside tents and awnings and hear the noise of zips being fastened.

We were amazed by two Scottish families that all had the hats with the mesh around and were still playing outside so those do seem to work. I have a friend who wild cycles in Scotland and he swears by these.

Kath puts on skin so soft mixture, then some anti-mossie stuff and then covers her self up totally but in cool, lightweight materials.. Now we have the Eriba we retreat inside the awning and light a few of the candles although we are sure they are useless but they smell nice. We use fly spray round the zips and I sit with a fly swatter ready.

We have just bought one of those ultra violet plug in fly killers from Lidl to use in our outside electric socket in the awning but haven't used in yet so don't know how effective it is.

We are fastidious about keeping the door flyscreen shut at all times. If we open a window we always have the flyscreen net down.over it.

I guess the other thing is we are careful where we go. After Culzean we never go to Scotland or the Lakes in the midge season. We are also careful in booking sites as we avoid those near to standing water following a terrible losing battle with mossies in Les Landes when the Dr considered sending Kath to hospital as her bites had swollen so much. We also tend to try to avoid pitching on the edge of woodland.

I think when I used to smoke untipped Gitannes the mossie tended to keep away but not sure of the cost/benefit of suggesting that .......................!

Kath also just invested in some new Boots Sunscream and Aftersun with insect repellent that she thinks might have some effect. Someone has also recommended a Scottish product called Cubby's Midge Salve which she thinks brings the bites down quickly.

What brasses Kath off totally is that I rarely get bitten and when I do it has little effect on me........!

Hope you get some relief

MikeT

Hi Monoboard

Just spoken to Kath and she says the best thing she has ever used to reduce the effect of bites is a Greek Cream called Betafusin that a pharmacist in Kephalonia recommended. Strangely whilst Kephalonia has its mossies it also has a midge season Sreptember?Octoberish and they found Kath tastie.

She always stocks up with it if we go to Greece but not sure if you can buy it here or on the net. On the box it says it has Fusidic acid & Betamethasone valerate as active ingrediants..............?

It certainly works for Kath. Sadly our daughter has inherited Kath's genetic disposition to be effected by bites whilst our son is like me. I wonder if there is any evidence that it effects women more?

Cheers
MikeT

After any bites as long as i have some i put Anthisan cream on which does help but i know its going to be a few days waiting for bites to go down & stop inching. I had a 2 cups of tea on Sunday whilst biking in the lakes & in that time i must have got at least 20 bites. Takes a few hours before you realise how bad you have been bitten & for swelling to come up along with the desire to scratch the hell out of them which you try desperately not to

Any one tried these, roxol 4 x NEW Mosquito & Insect Repellent Plug In For Both Liquid & Mat Tablets + 1 x Liquid for 60 nights
I was looking on amazon and found these plug in things, Possibly something to switch on for a couple of hours in the evening?

Years ago we were camping in the North of Finland, Lake Inari. The mossies were plentiful. We were recommended a product called Jungle Formula which fortunately kept the blighters at arm's length. That was 40 years ago, whether the stuff is as good today as it was then.......

Hi Robin

Yes we've used Jungle Formula and it works but I think it has a very high deet content. Our son used it in South East Asia and rated it. I think you can still get it

MikeT

Hi Monoboard

I know in the past Kath used to take a preventive dose of Antihistemine (?) tablets) before we went but they really made her feel drowsy and she was not sure that it had much effect

MikeT

As a quick fix, put cling film over the roof vent, and using fly spray sparingly in the van does help.
For the future, try to avoid the highlands in June, July and August!

Try Cornwall !!