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Defeating the Scottish midge - some hints and tips
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- Опубліковано 26 сер 2021
- There can be nothing as uncomfortable as a good attack of the midges and so I thought to pass on a few hints and tips that might help people. For some this will all seem like stating the obvious but for others you might get a few ideas.
If you just want to run into a shop and get some midge repellent then it is well worth trying Smidge as the chemical used is very effective and it will not damage plastic objects or similar. Smidge is perfumed, which I personally don't like, but they do claim that it is waterproof and while I've never seen any difference to other preparations this might make the difference for you:
www.smidgeup.com/
As suggested in the video you can get large bottles of, basically, the raw chemical used in Smidge (and many other) repellents from the likes of Hedgewitch. This is exactly the same active ingredient basically dissolved in water with a bit of aloe vera so it doesn't have the fancy perfume etc. of some other preparations as it is designed to be used on horses. If you are out a lot you can decant this product into smaller spray bottles (you can get the off ebay) for ease of use in the field:
www.hedgewitch...
Thanks for the great info on deet. I don’t want something that’d eat my camera up
Very helpful, thank you . 6 days then 2 whole weeks across your gorgeous country fishing river, loch , lake of mentith and coast . Midges be gone !
Thank you David, when they are bad they really are awful and once their numbers get up the head net is the only real solution. One of the key points I make is that different people seem to have different tolerances for them and many of the repellents stop them biting but don't stop all of them from landing on you. Some people are so sensitive to the midges walking on them that this continues to be a big problem for them. When I was shooting the video i deliberately picked that bit of forest but actually the midges weren't too bad, I didn't have any repellent on while making the video and a few landed on me and I got a few bites but nothing serious. If you are getting a head net make sure it is suitable for midges - some people sell headnets but the mesh is too big to keep the midges out! Nothing worse.
I have been around Scotland most summers for the last many years, including in the west Highlands, and I can reliably say that there's never been anything as bad in my experience as the Kielder midge.
3:13 I actually jumped in fear hearing that buzzing on my left
Avon skin so soft blue top bottle is the best, the military use it in the Highlands when they are on an exercise!
Have you tried it yourself? I did hear rumours that Avon recently started producing a version with the same active chemical that I recommend in the video so it is possible that there is now a version of skin so soft that does work. However past versions of skin so soft were maybe up to watching an especially challenging episode of "Country file" but they certainly weren't suitable for use outdoors on a calm night.
Good advice. Also worth mentioning ticks, a really serious problem. I have found pre treating the bottom of trousers with permethrin and tucking them into hiking socks extremely effective. A few proviso though. Firstly if you sit down on the undergrowth and don't have pretty well sealed shirt/tops into trousers you can get them on your tummy. You could use a shirt that's treated. Increasingly hiking shirts are pre treated ( there will be a little mosi emblem on them). However now the problem as I see it. Evidence is showing permethrin is extremely toxic to aquatic insects with a very long duration in the environment. I remember reading a scientific paper finding very low doses lasting a very long time and still being toxic. This has begun to worry me as a responsible angler. I suspect it'll get banned in due course. That said having had Lyme disease and managing to get sorted quickly I've not been keen on getting ticks.
Yes Matt it is a complex balancing trick, to be honest I think the shirt I'm wearing in the video is permethrin treated. I used to get a few ticks but the biggest single thing I did to reduce their numbers was wearing waterproof gaiters. I can only conclude that most ticks attach relatively low down and if they basically hit a plastic barrier then they give up and drop off. I'd guess with the gaiters I went from 5+ ticks per day to maybe 5 per year. The saltidin is claimed to be effective on ticks but I personally can't comment on that as I get so few ticks these days that I lack any valid experience. You did well to get early treatment and I think many people are still very relaxed about the risk of Lyme, we would work at sheep a lot and not they don't get dipped as much I think that is driving the number of ticks about so we all need to take care.
@@caorach3354 yes Lyme is potentially very serious and has to be treated early. I think I got it in Uist but I had been all over that year in the Highlands, Lake District and N York Moors, and all of those are hotspots! Worth having some Doxycycline in your fishing pack just in case, if you can get it of course.
@@mattwright2964 It is funny but according to the official reports the Uists seem to have a lot of it and Lewis very little of it. However I saw figures and personally knew more people on Lewis who'd had it than were listed in the report. I believe that some of the health care people in the Uists are very diligent with Lyme and very good at reporting it and I suspect this may be a factor in the number of cases being reported, and also the number being diagnosed. I am sort of guessing that the "plague" of Lyme in the Uists is, perhaps, just an artefact of efficiency in reporting. Outside of people who are very "aware" of it getting diagnosed can be very difficult indeed.
@@caorach3354 Yeah ticks and Lyme are pretty much endemic across the UK now. As you said earlier I think some of it is that sheep farming has collapsed and thus what was a vector in the chain that was dipped, is no longer. At an observational level we also seems to have a lot of the juvenile ticks that are hard to spot and remove, probably just a by product of the sheer numbers of ticks we now have. I did a read a scientific paper that set out that the juvenile ticks were more dangerous for Lyme that the adults but can't remember the details. Anyway less of ticks, I should be out fishing. Lol.
Good advice. I've used Vick's Vapo Rub,don't know if it's sold in Scotland,but if it doesn't keep midges at bay,it certainly deters other humans. Angling alone with my stinky self.👃
We get it here as well, though I haven't used it for the midges but I can see how it would work on people :-) To be honest there are a lot of supposed solutions to midges and I've tried quite a few of them but there is nothing to bet the chemicals designed for the job and this new saltadin/Bayrepel (call it what you will) is really very good without melting anything, and that is always useful.
@@caorach3354 Thankyou, Philip 😊
Is there certain months in the summer they are at there worse or is it pretty much down to weather and conditions?
I’m going soon (June), not liking the sound of these midges although I will try and be prepared as you have explain.
Thanks
The midge life cycle is complicated and the earliest I've been attacked was the end of April with the latest being the end of October. In general they like mild, overcast, days with no wind so the solution to most midge problems is to have a bit of a breeze. Midges also have a lifecycle of several weeks and that complicates matters as only the females bite you and so you can be out at a point in the cycle where there are no midges, or where there are lots of midges but they won't bite you. My advice would be not to worry about it and to simply avoid calm weather, or sheltered areas when the weather is calm. I was out fishing and camping last September when the forecast was for a decent breeze but turned out to be incorrect and if you watch this video you can see that the midges were fairly bad in the evening but I was easily able to cope by using some repellent (until I could no longer breathe) followed by the head net: ua-cam.com/video/tm_30q0G65o/v-deo.html
Thanks for the advice.
I am now camping regularly in the Highlands and trying to work out how to deal with midges.
Some of the places we go are fairly overrun with them, and although I personally dont mind them that much, when I get home I develop a really bad reaction (like huge festering tropical mosquito bites). The week after I get back from a camp I start to look like I have chickenpox.
I agree with you about DEET. Its 100% effective where you apply it, but its not a nice chemical. Add to this that its ONLY effective where you apply it.
I once watched a giant mosquito land on my hand after I had applied loads of DEET. It kept taking off and landing, and it just would not bite me..... until it found that ONE spot which I missed, and it tucked right in.
Personally Im going to investigate some traditional "repellents". Most things described as repellents only stop them biting but not landing. Apparently shovelling down certain foods like garlic and vitamin B1 make you an unappetising target, and Im also going to try a shemagh drenched in cedar oil.
Thank you for your balanced perspective.
The icaridin is the same in the sense that it only protects the areas where it is present, at least in my experience. I think that various traditional repellents are, at best, minimally effective and some repellents that people tout are only good for sitting on the sofa watching a challenging episode of Countryfile. As I understand it icaridin is derived from pepper (i.e. the stuff you put on your dinner) and if you spray it and breathe some of it then you get a reaction just as if you'd gulped down some pepper even down to the smell. The other option is a headnet and once the midges get thick so you are choking on them and they are in your eyes then it is the only option. Last year I went camping with a forecast for a breeze but it went flat calm and eventually I had no choice but to put the headnet on. However, up until the point where I couldn't breathe the icaridin did a good job, there is some video if you want a laugh: ua-cam.com/video/tm_30q0G65o/v-deo.html
@@caorach3354 Thank you very much mate. I will take a look. All the best.
Hi there…thanx a lot for your infos…we will come over in a few weeks and try the Hedgewitch stuff…do you have a info about the mix proporions? Greetings from Germany…
Hi James, you don't need to mix it at all - it comes in a bottle ready to use so you just put it on your skin when the midges are about so there is no need to worry about mix proportions. Hopefully that answers your question.
Hi Philip firstly very much enjoying the videos! Watched them all. I’m up here in Lewis at my grans, fishing for the week. Chasing some trout, would there be a few lochs you could recommend me? Thanks a lot
Hi Ali, if you want to send me an email address I will drop you an email, I'm not big on keeping secrets but equally I don't want the whole internet heading for the same place :-)
Great tips there Philip. For me it's DEET or a net when things get serious, but I will give that Smidge stuff a go. 👍
It works at least as well as DEET with none of the problems so I wouldn't go back to DEET these days. If you get midged quite often then it is worth ordering one of the big bottles designed for horses :-) However if you are rarely attacked it might simply make sense to buy the Smidge tradenamed stuff in a handy bottle as it will do you for a year or more anyhow. One of the reasons I prefer the "non tradename" version is simply because it has no perfume etc. added but the Smidge does claim to be waterproof and that might be a real advantage, though I've not really noticed any difference. You can get the wee spray bottles on ebay, or maybe from a local chemist or pound shop, and it means you can pick the size of bottle you carry so I can pick a size that fits in the waist pockets on my rucksack. Makes life easier.
Got to be skin so soft
I've never had any success with it Chris but I believe that Avon have now produced a version of it that contains the same chemical that is in Smidge, and the non-tradename stuff I mentioned as well. If that is true then it is a matter of taking your pick.
@@caorach3354 I feel it used to be very good and effetuve but if they changed ingredients I'm not sure but for once was so great is utter rubbish now...
Lavender oil works for me
Great stuff 👍
Thank you, hopefully it is of some use to you and prevents you from an attack some day.
Great tip ✌✌
Give it a try, you will never looked back :-) Well, except to get your head net when they get really thick.
Have a good hot curry the night before...and break wind as much as possible.....they hate it 😂😂👍
To be honest I'm a bit frightened to try this one in case it actually attracts them :-)
Just chew a strong minty chewing gum. If your with anyone make sure they do the same
I will try that but, to be honest, I've never found that anything except for chemicals designed for the purpose have much real repellent effect on the midges as they seem quite determined little creatures.
Sage advise, now grab a rod and head to Clachan let me know how you get on.
Unfortunately it will be another couple of weeks before I'm fishing but so far there hasn't been much in the way of fish into the Creed due to the low water.
I live in Orkney and I'm not exaggerating.. When you're up a ladder working with both hands and a cloud of the peedie buggers are crawling over your scalp and face and wrists and biting ye.. its Hell!!
Sometimes nothing but a headnet will do the job, in say that I've been pretty successful with the repellent and can usually put up with them once I've lashed it on.