Scottish midges

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sparkyman

Kinamortaphobic
Location
Blackpool
I did not have any issue with the Midges last August but then again it was raining buckets everyday...

so he could pray for rain..

Sparkyman
 

eldudino

Bike Fluffer
Location
Stirling
guitarpete247 said:
Midges are rife from March to October. One answer is Avon's "Skin-So-Soft" as used by the Royal Marine Commandos on duty at Faslane.

+1 for Avon Skin So Soft, the bottle's not big and it's easy to get hold of from a load of places when you go up north, esp. camping shops!
 
find a few bats ? We get midges over in Ireland pretty bad. Calm evenings especially after a shower.. plagues of them. Get used to them sometimes. Check what the fishermen wear.. they sit for hours at a time in the spots where one is most likely to get eaten on.
If we get caught out we use bog mrytle here.. rub the leaves onto the skin. Seems to work.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
That could be the clue to the success of Skin so Soft - the strong herbal smell seems to confuse the midges. If they home in on tiny amounts of CO2 and Octanol (an alcohol exhaled by cows) then a strong odour that mimics the environment might be enough to mask those molecules.
 
My Mum and Dad used to go to Scotland with their car and take bikes, sleeping in the estate. My Mum was bitten all over her face and she said the little ********* ers made the holiday a misery.

I believe you don't get them in the Borders. Is that true?

Mr Campfire would like to go and live in Scotland but it would have to be a midge free zone for me.
 
Someone asked the question on the radio whether the midgies would not be around after the bad winter. The reply was that they spend the winter in the moss and heather and when it goes cold, they simply go deeper down. So it doesn't affect them.
 
From bitter experience, they're much much much worse on the west coast. In the east they're not too bad.
 

Mr Celine

Discordian
Campfire said:
I believe you don't get them in the Borders. Is that true?

Unfortunately not true. But the wind here never stops so they can't land on you.

Midgies are far worse in the wetter parts of Scotland, ie the West Coast and higher ground everywhere else. IME the peak month for them is June, by August/September they're nothing like as bad.

They don't like wind, rain or cold weather, which makes me wonder why they are such a problem!!
 

dellzeqq

pre-talced and mighty
Location
SW2
I've never had a problem with midges in five trips up the east coast to JoG. The west coast, however, is a different matter. You leave behind a vapour trail of midges feasting on the sweat that has wicked off you. Stop, and you're lunch.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Campfire said:
My Mum and Dad used to go to Scotland with their car and take bikes, sleeping in the estate. My Mum was bitten all over her face and she said the little ********* ers made the holiday a misery.

I believe you don't get them in the Borders. Is that true?

Mr Campfire would like to go and live in Scotland but it would have to be a midge free zone for me.

We used to go on family climbing and camping holidays in Scotland, I can well remember the misery of camping in Glenbrittle in Skye and praying for wind and sunshine to keep them away. I can also remember holidays being abandoned and the family fleeing back home. We certainly couldn't have afforded to stay in a B&B or hotel, perhaps we should have stayed in YHAs? Later on my Dad joined a climbing club so we used to stay in huts, which was better. On a dull windless day though midges will still bother you at 3,000 feet up a mountain.

I remember a day when my brother and I parked our car in woods in Glenelg and got our MTBs out to assemble them and load up the panniers for a 3 day tour. Within minutes we were under attack and within 10 minutes we were going mad, slapping our heads and running around, even spraying flyspray randomly into the air around us! We locked the car and fled and when we got back 3 days later the dead midges were lying in a thick layer along the window sills.

You get midges in all of Scotland including the Borders and we even get them down here in Lancashire. On summer Wednesday evening MTB club rides I dread somebody puncturing in woods as we know we're going to get eaten alive while they fix it.
 
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