midge's,fly's & mozzies

Mate for flies there is nothing better than Desert Dwellers cream.

http://www.desertdwellers.com.au/

But this does nothing for mossies and you better not be allergic to Rosemary.

We use good old citronella candles and Aerogard for mossies and were relatively unbitten at Coward Springs which is the worst we found for both.

Regards Philip A

Mega vitamin B , start taking daily 10/14 days prior to trip and keep taking daily , wont stop all bites but seriously cuts down on quantity /scatching , of all the rest you name we swear by Bushmans but be wary using it on young uns and if into fishing be sure none is on your hands or gear.

Good as a repellant but even better for stopping the itch is The Locals Mozzie Stuff from Broome made where the midge's live in Point Samson WA. Made from natural ingredients, it is hard to find a stockist but my Mum orders in a box at a time to sell in there camping store in Adelaide.

Hi putrol

Try going to stock feeders stores and ask them what they have to keep flie's of horse in the way of creams or sprays, and buy that it will be the same as all the natural creams but it will be quarter of the price, smells ok, not horsing around.Why the long face
Regards Paintar

Would you believe LISTERINE often works well. Put it in a normal spray bottle with about 2/3rds Listerine and 1/3 water and it keeps mozzies at bay...haven't yet tried it with &%$! sandflies yet.
Cheers
Ian

For mossie bites... dip a cottom bug in cloudy amonia and then push it into the mossie bite for 20 seconds, while twisting back and forth.

No good as a repelent but kills the pain of the bit in seconds. Well 20 anyway. No good for midgies.

i got an aboriginal mate in Meekatharra that i go out in the bush with to look for gold and he uses home brand fly spray. could not believe it when i saw him using it. i prefer bushmans.

Try Avon Bug Guard we swear by it. If you do get bitten put it on and it will stop the sting from sandies, ants, scorpions and the like.

For flies try -Natures Botanical

Very effective, all natural, smells good and we swear by it. Can be a bit hard to get - our local disposals store sells it.

I've heard of oldtimers using a mixture of Rosewood oil and peppermint oil to repel insects.

It seemed to work when I used it many moons ago but the mixture repelled just about everything (people, insects & animals) lol.

Cheers Wilko

I have got a plastic tub (about 7-10ltr size) full of bottles, tubes, pots and sprays of "preventions and cures" for Midgie bites that we bought and tried while up north last winter.
Most were recommended by others as the wonder "preventer/cure" but NONE, I repeat, NONE worked for us, cost us a damn fortune and a lot of discomfort.

Then a lady working in a chemist shop, who was not trying to boost the sales, suggested that Vitamin B1 tablets work as a preventative and Anti Histamine tablets will stop the itch.
She was right the VB1 took a few days to work 100%, but the Anti histamine tablets worked after just a couple of hours. Bloody great to be free of the itching I can assure you.

Try not to camp any where within 1/2 klm or more of Mangroves, every place that we had a problem with Midgies there were Mangroves within 300-400 mtrs.

Good Luck.

Scrubby

Can't give you much advice on mossies. They don't bight me much.
Sand Flies bite everyone though & the best repellent for them is baby oil.
Don't know how it works, but it does. Pretty messy though.

Sorry putrol, can't help much, maybe aeroguard..

However I just find it so funny how some people handle flies. Some people can't and I do have to have a laugh sometimes at the measures taken to deal with it.

To keep flies away: Bring other people with you ;))

Use sandle wood stick just before dusk for the miggies, we just use two upwind from the camp site and find by the time there half used the miggies are gone and put then out for the next night.
If walking through the mangroves use Bushmans gel.
For flies/mozzies bushmans spray.
Bushmans does leave a residue and a shower is nice before bed. If your in a swag/tent/annex or mozzie dome make its got fine enough screen to stop miggies.
Have tried most of the others andhome remedys, Ammonia does work on the bites to reduce the itch. But have found the best thing is not to schatch no matter how much you want to.
Never really found flys a great problem up north.
And a beer at night to build up the vitiam b helps I guess.

There certainly are many cures.

On New Caledonia and also on St Johns islands there is a fantastic plant for midgees. Good luck getting it back through customs however. You could tell them that it is a midgee cure but I suspect they have heard that one before.

Vitamin B is great but each tablet is 100mg. If going above 200mg a day, you can get head aches as a result.

Bushmans you have to check that you are ok with DEET (active ingredient)

I've heard a mixture of Baby Oil and Dettol is supposed to work well.

For mossies, we use Dettol and baby oil, mixed in equal portions.
Works well.

Others add a few drops of citronella oil, and others have used equal parts of metho, dettol, and baby oil.

Dosent repel flies, but its great for no mossie bites.

Trains

Plus its a great hand wash, cut cleaner etc.

Yep.....Baby Oil and Detol or Desert Dwellers Cream works for me. (you can get the Desert Dwellers stuff in a roll on now too)

Cheers

Putrol

We always swore by bushman's for how good it repelled all the nasties but it seems like they have changed the ingredients and its crap now, we use it when fishing in the mangroves but doesn't seem to work any more. And for the price for bushmans it should be able to repel crocs.

We have started buying aeroguard and that seems to work better and its heaps cheaper


Mixture of baby oil and dettol works well too.

I use either "Off!" or "Aeroguard" - the Off! has a low scent that won't upset people, but the Aeroguard has that traditional anti-mozzie smell! If you're going to tropical areas, make sure the repellant has DEET (both Off! and Aeroguard are available with DEET).

I also carry a tube of Paraderm cream for when/if I do get bitten - deals with the itch and also has other uses including minor burns, etc.

Hi,

We use Avon Bug Guard or Off. We have a 2 year old and I saw at the chemist the other day a mixture (natural apparently) in a bottle u give them orally and it helps repel the mozzies. Didn't read to much into it at the time so not sure if it's suitable for adults or not.

Cheers