I seem to be getting bitten to hell every time i ride this last few months, is it the damp summer we’ve had?

I’ve hearrd good things about Avons skin so soft stopping you getting bitten, which one is best or has anyone else got some better tricks.

Same here. Went for a quick spin round in the summer and came back with 23 bites on my back.

I used to use skin so soft and it worked ok for me, still got the odd one though.

Using Smidge now, its working well, and has a bonus of not smelling as strongly.

I’m clearly delicious to bugs (over 300 midgie bites over the summer) and tried Avon Skin So Soft and it does work but found it made me sweat buckets.

If the bites are bothering you then I’d take an antihistamine (the 1 aday non-drowsey type Tesco own brand are cheap but effective.

Get a product with a decent DEET content. I brought a few bottles back from South Africa last year and no issues so far.

As an ‘after the fact’ option I found the Zapper type products (got money from Millets iirc) do work to ease the MUST SCRATCH feelings 😉

skin so soft here too… Just get used to smelling like a girl 😯

Smidge has worked well for me this year. It doesn’t stop the beasties biting completely but it does significantly reduce the amount of bites I get compared to when I forget to put it on.

Jungle fever its got deet in Morrison’s sell it!.

Skin so soft liberally applied, and take an antihistamine when you get home if the midges have been particularly bad. Works for me.

If I do get bitten by anything worse than a midge then a wee dab of ibuprofen gel rubbed into the bite seems to take out the inflamation.

We’re used to the midges but we’ve had honest-to-god mosquitos for the first time here… And the 2 seems to happily coexist too.

Have a serious mosquito and bug issue out here when riding (mostly at night) and after trying different sprays etc now just use the wrist bands similar to these…
Wristbands
I find the wrist bands are more practical after you start building up a sweat.

Pop the anti histamines as a second line of defence.

DEET is great, but eats through plastic & rubber, probably the best thing to prevent bites in the first place though.
Once bitten I’ve had good luck using either meat tenderizer or salt as a paste (with water), this allows you to scratch the itch with the grains of salt but without taking the top off the bite. Skeeters and other evil things love me not to mention bites turn rapidly into welts but this is a fix all for me and with readily available products it’s the difference between throbbing pain and comfort. Sounds weird, and most people think I’m mad when I suggest it but works for me.

There’s Deet and there’s Deet.

100% Deet will absolutely ensure that bites are kept to a minimum. Midges love me – black hair, olive skin, full of sugar and booze…

That ^^^ Repel 100% Deet is the only thing which works for me. As STL says, it’ll melt your plastic Timex watch, take the print off metallic chocolate bar wrappers and also make you smell like nail varnish remover. You may also die earlier than you would have. But it just works, and you’ll die happy.