You blokes think you’re seen mossies and sand flies?

So in other words, pack the shotgun, and av a good weekend

Mate around here the aircraft refuelling team have twice mistaken a mozzie for an Bristow offshore helicopter and filled them full of avgas.

It's amazing and a bit of a worry to those that get eaten alive hey!
In August this year we were in Alaska, USA, took a flight out to the Arctic Circle visited a little place called Wiseman Village. The air was thick with Mozzies. I've never seen so many and Alaska of all places was the last you would expect to see so many. We have travelled to many outback and remote places in Oz and I've never seen so many mozzies as we did at that village.
3 years back we camped at Vrilya Point on Cape York Pen and the sandflies were the worst we have ever had. Had to leave the place after 2 nights as you were attacked all day & night. Really warm weather and had to cover head to toe all the time for protection.
The reason this year it's probably bad is because of the increase in rainfall and it must create a great breeding environment.
Oh well everything comes in cycles.

Loch Sport by any chance???? Biggest mossies I have ever seen.

So what are everyones best repellant ideas - commercially availalable or home made?

Couldn't be as bad or as big as the Mozzies out in Central Western NSW. I have a fair few relatives out Gilgandra way & some of them are on the land. One of them had a need for a new galvanised water tank to water his stock.

With times being tough & money tight etc caused by the drought, he & his Sons set about building their own water tank. No Silastic to seal the joints by these blokes, they did it the old fashioned way, and used rivets. (no, not bloody pop rivets, the real ones)

For those young fellahs on this Forum who do not know about these things, in order to connect two surfaces with a proper rivet, a hole is drilled, and Dad on the outside of the tank inserts a rivet, and his son who is on the inside of the tank holds a thing called a "dolly" against the rivet while Dad on the outside belts the beejus out of it, thus sealing the surfaces together & making them water tight.

Anyway, back to the Mozzies. Me cousin & his son was in the progress of building a new water tank and the mozzies were bad, real bad mate I"ll tell you, and big. By Cripes, they were big, they were savage as well , worse than the missus after you had a night on the grog.
Anyway, The son was inside the water tank waiting for Dad to poke a rivet though and suddenly there it was, or so he thought, but, alas, it was the beak of one of these central western NSW mozzies, He held the Dolly against the beak & Dad on the outside belted it!! (the rivet that is)
The startled Mozzie flapped his wings & now being permanently attached to the water tank took of like a Tiger Moth & carried the water tank with him with the Son inside, clinging for his life.
Big & savage Mozzies? Youse blokes got no idea until you get out that way!!