In article ,
Martin wrote:
On Wed, 3 Sep 2014 12:24:07 +0100, Janet wrote:

The manager of the sheep farm across the road from me, claims that
Skin-So-Soft works very well, but wears off quickly and must be
reapplied frequently. The midges here are truly vicious.

It's a subject of Snopes

http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/skeeters.asp

That's about mosquitoes.

Scottish midges are an entirely different insect species which IME are
deterred by Avon skinsosoft exactly as Sheila said.

DEET repels them all.

To some extent. In my experience, it is only partially effective
against Scottish midges and tropical insects (including mosquitoes).
If you look, you will find lots of warnings not to rely on it as
a defence against (say) malaria.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

As a slight aside, but not Off-topic:

Saw our quack today to get advice on which malaria tablets to
take (along side all the others). His coment was anything with
DEET, BUT it is better to spray your clothes rather than the
skin, something to do with stopping them getting up your
trouser leg or down the neck of your blouse!

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

On 2014-09-03 21:39:52 +0000, Roger Tonkin said:

As a slight aside, but not Off-topic:

Saw our quack today to get advice on which malaria tablets to
take (along side all the others). His coment was anything with
DEET, BUT it is better to spray your clothes rather than the
skin, something to do with stopping them getting up your
trouser leg or down the neck of your blouse!

Did he prescribe Lariam?
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

On 03/09/14 22:39, Roger Tonkin wrote:
As a slight aside, but not Off-topic:

Saw our quack today to get advice on which malaria tablets to
take (along side all the others). His coment was anything with
DEET, BUT it is better to spray your clothes rather than the
skin, something to do with stopping them getting up your
trouser leg or down the neck of your blouse!

More off topic...

My doctor was happy to give me whatever was needed, where "needed"
was defined by the printout from http://www.masta-travel-health.com/

You specify when and where you are going, and get a usefully
detailed and specific list of recommendations for avoidance,
prophylaxis, prevention etc. It costs a small amount, but emails
you updates if the situation changes (e.g. a local outbreak of
Japanese encephalitis).

Caution: I last used them ~6 years ago.

On 2014-09-03 20:13:57 +0000, Martin said:

On Wed, 3 Sep 2014 14:13:38 +0100, "philgurr"
wrote:


"Janet" wrote in message
t...
In article ,
lid says...

On Wed, 03 Sep 2014 03:26:39 -0400, S Viemeister
wrote:

The manager of the sheep farm across the road from me, claims that
Skin-So-Soft works very well, but wears off quickly and must be
reapplied frequently. The midges here are truly vicious.

It's a subject of Snopes

http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/skeeters.asp

That's about mosquitoes.

Scottish midges are an entirely different insect species which IME are
deterred by Avon skinsosoft exactly as Sheila said.

Agreed, we are not talking about American mosquitos - we are
talking about Scottish Midges!

http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=53356

Before I encountered Skin So Soft, I had used OFF which I'd found in
Turkey. It's very effective I'm just personally adverse to prolonged
use of things like that. I use SSS rarely but effectively.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

In article ,
Roger Tonkin wrote:
As a slight aside, but not Off-topic:

Saw our quack today to get advice on which malaria tablets to
take (along side all the others). His coment was anything with
DEET, BUT it is better to spray your clothes rather than the
skin, something to do with stopping them getting up your
trouser leg or down the neck of your blouse!

Sorry, but he's wrong. Yes, it is a good idea to do your clothes,
but it is NOT more important than doing bare skin, and is because
mosquitoes can bite through (thinnish) clothing. Mosquitoes will
neither willingly enter enclosed spaces nor will 'walk' along a
surface. Some other flying insects will.

Also, it's not just anything with DTE, but with a high proportion
of it (preferably 50+%).

You should tuck your trousers into your socks (or use cycle clips)
and wear more than a blouse in any location that mosquitoes are
a serious problem. But, even with that, and slathered in DTE, you
WILL get bitten. However, most tourists don't go where mosquitoes
are a serious problem, anyway.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article ,
says...

On 2014-09-03 21:39:52 +0000, Roger Tonkin said:

As a slight aside, but not Off-topic:

Saw our quack today to get advice on which malaria tablets to
take (along side all the others). His coment was anything with
DEET, BUT it is better to spray your clothes rather than the
skin, something to do with stopping them getting up your
trouser leg or down the neck of your blouse!

Did he prescribe Lariam?

No, Malarone

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

In article ,
lid says...

On Wed, 3 Sep 2014 12:24:07 +0100, Janet wrote:

In article ,
says...

On Wed, 03 Sep 2014 03:26:39 -0400, S Viemeister
wrote:

The manager of the sheep farm across the road from me, claims that
Skin-So-Soft works very well, but wears off quickly and must be
reapplied frequently. The midges here are truly vicious.

It's a subject of Snopes

http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/skeeters.asp

That's about mosquitoes.

Scottish midges are an entirely different insect species which IME are
deterred by Avon skinsosoft exactly as Sheila said.

DEET repels them all.

Since you clearly didn;t know the difference, I'm surprised at your
sudden confidence.

I use Deet in the tropics against mosquitoes, where it works
In my experience Deet is useless as a deterrent against Scottish
midges. In Scotland, where I have lived for 40 + years, I use skin so
soft.

Janet

In article ,
Janet wrote:

I use Deet in the tropics against mosquitoes, where it works

As a deterrent, yes, but not as a defence. And, in the tropics,
that difference matters. There are no vaccines against many of the
diseases caused by biting insects (nor effective treatments, in
many cases).

In my experience Deet is useless as a deterrent against Scottish
midges. In Scotland, where I have lived for 40 + years, I use skin so
soft.

Exactly which one? My experience is that DTE isn't useless against
midges, but the discomfort caused by it on the bites that do occur
balances the discomfort of just getting bitten! I am interested in
trying something better ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 04/09/2014 09:20, Martin wrote:

I use DEET on my clothes not on my skin. Dutch tests resulted in recommendations
of repellents that contained at least 50% DEET.

Yes, it works, but the biggest problem with DEET is that it is a pretty
good solvent for some plastics.

Many years ago some good Aussie friends were returning to Australia via
some tropical countries. I did them a good turn (I thought) by making
them a couple of hundred grams of 50% DEET in a cream base. As they were
flying, to save weight, I used a plastic jar. When they got back to Oz
they wrote that after a few weeks, the jar dissolved and they got a
creamy, plasticky, mess all over their clothes! Fortunately we remained
good friends...

I sometimes wonder if there are strange fingerprint patterns over
today's digital cameras and mobile phones if they are handled after
someone rubs DEET on their skin. :-).

--

Jeff

In article ,
Jeff Layman wrote:

I sometimes wonder if there are strange fingerprint patterns over
today's digital cameras and mobile phones if they are handled after
someone rubs DEET on their skin. :-).

Yes, there are. And sunglasses, and ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 04/09/2014 15:41, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 04/09/2014 09:20, Martin wrote:

I use DEET on my clothes not on my skin. Dutch tests resulted in
recommendations
of repellents that contained at least 50% DEET.

Yes, it works, but the biggest problem with DEET is that it is a pretty
good solvent for some plastics.

Many years ago some good Aussie friends were returning to Australia via
some tropical countries. I did them a good turn (I thought) by making
them a couple of hundred grams of 50% DEET in a cream base. As they were
flying, to save weight, I used a plastic jar. When they got back to Oz
they wrote that after a few weeks, the jar dissolved and they got a
creamy, plasticky, mess all over their clothes! Fortunately we remained
good friends...

I sometimes wonder if there are strange fingerprint patterns over
today's digital cameras and mobile phones if they are handled after
someone rubs DEET on their skin. :-).

It's a good job that the implants women use to create silicon valley are
below the skin

In article ,
says...

In article ,
Janet wrote:

I use Deet in the tropics against mosquitoes, where it works

As a deterrent, yes, but not as a defence.

Of course.


In my experience Deet is useless as a deterrent against Scottish
midges. In Scotland, where I have lived for 40 + years, I use skin so
soft.

Exactly which one?

Avon Skin So Soft "Soft and Fresh" dry oil body spray.

My experience is that DTE isn't useless against
midges, but the discomfort caused by it on the bites that do occur
balances the discomfort of just getting bitten! I am interested in
trying something better .... SOS doesn't cause any irritation

SOS doesn't cause any irritation on me, even on fresh gardening
scratches. Don't be put off by the "oil", it really is dry, not greasy
at all, even when rubbed over your hair.

If you have hair :-)

Janet

On 2014-09-04 18:06:12 +0000, Martin said:

On Thu, 04 Sep 2014 15:41:52 +0100, Jeff Layman
wrote:

On 04/09/2014 09:20, Martin wrote:

I use DEET on my clothes not on my skin. Dutch tests resulted in
recommendations
of repellents that contained at least 50% DEET.

Yes, it works, but the biggest problem with DEET is that it is a pretty
good solvent for some plastics.

I dripped some on a phone and it left a crater in the surface.

snip
And we're supposed to put this stuff on our bodies?!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

On 05/09/2014 18:34, Sacha wrote:
On 2014-09-04 18:06:12 +0000, Martin said:

On Thu, 04 Sep 2014 15:41:52 +0100, Jeff Layman

wrote:

On 04/09/2014 09:20, Martin wrote:

I use DEET on my clothes not on my skin. Dutch tests resulted in
recommendations
of repellents that contained at least 50% DEET.

Yes, it works, but the biggest problem with DEET is that it is a pretty
good solvent for some plastics.

I dripped some on a phone and it left a crater in the surface.

snip
And we're supposed to put this stuff on our bodies?!

That's why it works.
The bugs have more sense than to come into contact with it.
It's their way to take over the world.
They just Buzz mankind enough so that everyone slaps so much of the
stuff on that they dissolve.