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midges in Scotland

S

SilverSurfer

This may not be a problem but I have read many times on this forum about midges in Scotland at certain times of the year. During the first two weeks in September we are touring around the Scottish Borders, should we expect a midge free holiday or should we expect some midges to be around at that time?
Thanks
 
I go up quite a lot around Dumfries and usually its thick with the hot bum barstewards but this year at the momemt its not been so bad.

Go prepared and take a head net for a worse case scenario should it go worse alond with Avon Skin so soft as it acts as a brilliant repellant and also something to cover your hands in the worst case situation.
 
Off next week to Stranraer area - so not too far north!

Some of you have recommended Avon "Skin so Soft" but I have discovered there are various "flavours". We have "Soft and Sensual" and "Soft and Fresh". Are these OK or is there another one we should have? Ingredients are listed on the back - is there a particular one that the midges don't like?

Thanks for your help.
 
For me it is not this time of year it is mid July to mid August and I can end up in hospital on a drip. The black fly is the suspected culprit; it is about the size of a gnat and hangs around rivers and wetlands.

Boots Jungle strength repellent keeps them away and the smell is unnoticeable a few min after application, so as a male I do not smell feminine! Also if you tend to get a reaction start taking anti histamines before you go to get them into your system.
 
kelvin said:
For me it is not this time of year it is mid July to mid August and I can end up in hospital on a drip. The black fly is the suspected culprit; it is about the size of a gnat and hangs around rivers and wetlands.
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The blackfly, otherwise known as the Blandford fly, hasn't reached Scotland yet. When it does it will put the midges in the shade. Apparently this fly has been spreading from the continent and is named Blandford fly after where it was first discovered in this country, Blandford in Dorset. There they spray the river banks in Spring to kill the larvae.
It is spreading north and for the first time this year we have experienced it in Herefordshire and had a plague of them in May with myself being bitten several times. My wife, who is yet to be bitten by Caledonius Midgium, even suffered a nasty bite from this fly. Four months later I've still got the purple blotches on my arms and lower legs.
 
We found that the best thing to keep midges at bay is a product called Smidge. It works astonishingly well, even though we are midge magnets!
Really impressed by it. We found ours in outdoors shops. Its available online too. We found that Skin So Soft simply didn't work for us.
 
When pitching, go for the most open and exposed place you can find and hope it's windy. Their flying speed is not very high, so anything above about 10 mph wind and you should be midge free. Discoverd this the hard way 50 years ago wild camping up there with the grassy banks of a burn down in the dell looked very attractive but were soon given up in favour of a barren windy hilltop.
 
Jungle Formula is great - there are several products including a plug-in one - (mine didn't seem to work but the idea is good!) I found Bog Myrtle candles in the Outer Hebrides and that is great. It is rumoured that Midges are bred and trained in the Outer Hebrides and then dispatched to the Mainland so I was glad to be there in September when there were few about!! I always have "Anthisan" about as an antidote to bites and stings too.
 
Back in July 2004 we did a 1500 mile tour of Scotland going via Fort William to Ardmir Point just north of Ullapool and across to Pitlockrey and down to Edinburgh. We had a stop over at Glasgow (steeps) which I couldn't recomend but otherwise had a fantastic time except for the midges!!
By the time we had got to Fort William, I had been bitten over a hundred times, which caused me to seek advice of the local doctor. I was borderline hospital admitable but declined that as I was leader of our family troop of 4 caravans and the other's couldn't navigate a supermarket carpark let alone the Scottish roads as even the A road to Ullapool can be challenging for cars with caravans as it get's tight in places.
The Doc gave me an injection and advised to got to the chemist next door and buy some DEET Oil. This works brilliant but is a perfume to be "aquired"??? Avon skin so soft woodland fresh is a good repellant and you don't smell like a woofter either.
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Some of the locals swear by marmite smeared om the lower legs but I don't know if it works or is just a rouse to ID the sassie english
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My sister lives at Ayr and she say's the midges are virtually gone there.

Good luck with your trip.
 
Living in Essex, never experienced these blood sucking airborne critters, in fact all the way up to the top of Scotland on the East side never met any midges,You do not have to travel to Scotland to encounter the midges, they breed quite well in the north west of Yorkshire, as we discovered severall years ago.
 
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