Going camping at the weekend to a site that apparently has near Scottish levels of the little bastards. Is that likely to still be the case in early Autumn or will they have all returned to the Seventh Circle of Hell?
With current weather I'd say yes. It's pretty warm and damp still really. The wind might keep 'em away though.
Scottish midge map isn't looking too bad https://www.smidgeup.com/midge-forecast/
Is it in the peak district? There were certainly plenty of them there about a week ago.
Yes
West Lancashire. Will take some Agent Orange.
Midges will still be a threat even when the earth is dead. They will roam the reaches of outer space looking for aliens who just want a relaxing time in the wilds...
Midges will still be a threat even when the earth is dead. They will roam the reaches of outer space looking for aliens who just want a relaxing time in the wilds…
As long as they don't come indoors. That would be bad. Can't go in the living room, it's a bit midgy.
Got mullered last night (not the good mullered with plenty of bevvy, the bad mullered) trying to put a new bike together. A new bike day.....they have no limits they won't stoop to. Bastards.
<thread hijack>
I've been meaning to ask this for ages,
Does Avon's Skin So Soft (still) work as a midge repellent for sensitive skin? I remember it being an STW Forum go-to for a while, then someone said they'd changed the formula, then someone else said it was all an urban myth in the first place.
Cheers,
</thread hijack>
Why wouldn't they be around still?
#FearTheMidge
SSS was never a repellent*. The Dry Oil Body Spray was so oily that, when applied thickly enough, the wee buggers would drown on contact. When they were particularly numerous you could scrape off a thick layer of them at the end of the day.
* Actually, Avon did a Skin so Soft/insect repellent/SPF version but ,IIRC, it was only made for the US market.
SSS does work also keeps horse flies off - they have long gone now thankfully
Does Avon’s Skin So Soft (still) work
No.
The old version basically seemed to drown them one by one and have a smell they didn't like. Minimal effect.
It's a repeated and repeated and repeated old tale. A bit like a Morris Minor is a good car currently.
I found crushed Bog Myrtle smoothed on was better.
Smidge is more modern and more effective.
I have some Nordic Summer, yet to test it in anger
And to add
/Start Rant
If another Southern England resident goes on another Facebook outdoor group and boldly states that they once met a member of the SBS who told them the secret of Avon Skin So Soft, while on holiday in the Highlands, I will explode....
I've heard the tale so many times, I once tagged in the multiple people who stated the same thing pointing out that either the SBS has a bazillion members all now retired in the Highlands, or the posters were all related and on the same holiday, or it was urban myth...and they all protested it was true.
Utter tosh
/Breathe
But it smells so good Matt, it must be effective.
As long as they don’t come indoors. That would be bad. Can’t go in the living room, it’s a bit midgy.
Nope. They'll get there too. They will inherit the universe. Unless, of course, the aliens have been to SBS training school and are all sporting liberal quantities of Avon's finest...
Irritating little blighters, well, one at least, chomped on my forehead in the Dales last Sunday.
^^ thank you all.
Plenty up in Scotland last week. Not had any down here (just south of the Dales) this year but they were pretty bad on the Saturday night/Sunday morning of the JennRide.
Currently so windy the buggers are probably plagueing the oil rigs in the North Sea!
Your not going to Turd vale are you?
Waddecar. Was at Turd Vale last year before lockdown #1.
oldmanmtb2
Free MemberSSS does work also keeps horse flies off – they have long gone now thankfully
The two bites on my leg from last Saturday disagrees with the second part of your comment
Haven’t been any in Glencoe for a few weeks now.
Does Avon’s Skin So Soft (still) work as a midge repellent for sensitive skin? I remember it being an STW Forum go-to for a while, then someone said they’d changed the formula, then someone else said it was all an urban myth in the first place.
Works for me, and several of my riding group here in South Wales, just as well as DEET based stuff. I don't really care whether it contains an actual repellent, whether it's because the midges can't grip onto my oily skin or whether they avoid me because I smell like a 'sexy old woman' (Thanks Andre!).
And I don't care if it doesn't work on Scottish midges because NOT EVERYBODY LIVES IN SCOTLAND BUT MIDGES LIVE EVERYWHERE!
Midges have scant regard for either the calendar or geography. If the conditions are 'right', you're getting it.
SSS does not work and it never did. find a proper midge swarm and try - you will be a desiccated husk in minutes. It doesn't work on any midges anywhere apart from drowning them as Scotroutes says
Smidge works very well and is fine on sensitive skin. Its a game changer
We’ve had barely any all summer here on Mull - I live next to a wooded area and there’s open water nearby. Ticks however, have been bad, still pulling them off the dog.
Plenty in Kinlochewe (Highlands) a couple of days ago. Not very bitey but still annoying as hell if you ever stood still.
Eaten alive in the outskirts of Inverness last Saturday.
None flying at the moment though due to the constant wind!
If another Southern England resident goes on another Facebook outdoor group and boldly states that they once met a member of the SBS who told them the secret of Avon Skin So Soft, while on holiday in the Highlands, I will explode…
Stangely the one bod I know who used to do some training down at Sennybridge* sort of agrees with this. By sort of I mean to hear him tell it anyone with actual experience blathered themselves in a real repellent such as deet before an exercise then SSS which helped the cam cream clean off but they would all, oft repeat to the more annoying greener folk that despite what the ranks said, the SSS (which was now all you could smell) was effective repellent and didn't burn like the issue stuff.
Trainees would then coat them selves, head to toe in SSS thinking they were being done a favour by the other juniors, before being frog marched round the brecons in their y fronts by sadistic RSMs, get eaten alive by bitey things and be unwilling or unable to explain to the various seniors why they had disobeyed explict instructions to use the issue repellent.
My brief flirting with the idea of a life in uniform makes me think this is highly plausible.
*no, not one of those. Signals reg.
Haven’t been any in Glencoe for a few weeks now.
That's because they all went on holiday to Altnaharra. Absolute swarms of the little bitey bastards there.
Didn't stop long (and I was also wise enough to be wearing legwarmers and armwarmers so minimal exposed skin) but I could feel them under the cycle helmet for ages afterwards in spite of trying everything to get them out of my hair.