We bought some PreVent from the outdoor show at the NEC, try anything once. They don't usually bite me too much. Husband uses Boots sun cream with insect repellant which works well. I use the Avon skin so soft shower gel and cream.
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 Mozzies are relatively easy to repel with sprays, creams, etc, midges are not.
Kev is right on this. Unless you know the person who nicked the midge trap from Kingshouse hotel, expose no skin, buy a head net and retire to the pub until it gets dark.
Praying for breeze may also help, although even the extremely sheltered campsite at Tyndrum is likely to thwart the Lord's powers of intervention.
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Having had some awful experiences in Skye, Torridon and Loch Maree area I believe that there is no effective repellent for the Scottish Midge!.The only thing that works for me is to stay away from them and restrict my walking to the winter and spring times which for my money are the far better times for the outdoors
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 Mike the reason toothpaste works is it contains peppermint . An aromatherapist will tell you to use peppermint oil for itching and I have found it to be very good but dont use it neat.
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 Kill a few and pin their corpses to your hat. I'm sure that would put the others off.
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 Trouble is Richard when you use a 12 bore their isn't enough bits large enough to put a pin through
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 Leading on from Parky's contribution, I use "natural" remedies on my dogs to prevent paracitic organisms. I give them daily doses of garlic capsules and they have remained flea free, even when being exposed to flea infested "contacts."
Last year, a night before a caving trip I had cooked myself and the wife some garlic bread, but she did not want hers, so I did not waste it, and unwisely in one respect, I polished off both bagettes.
The following day evryone else on the caving trip was having a go at me for the "odour.: The tables were turned however wneh we left the cave and began the 2 mile walk back along the Llangattock escarpment.
Ther were under a constant bombardment by every "nasty" imaginable and were being bitten to hell. I on the other hand was left totally alone, and one of the party to this day swears they could see the "no fly" zone around my head!!!
Don't know if it is coincidence, but Garlic does seem to work in both these scenarios.
Of course, it is a trade off between being bite free and becoming the most unsociable person among a group!!!
(Not so bad if everyone has been eating Garlic the night before. Funny how the only person(s) who can't detect the odour is the person who smells of it!!!
;-)
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 just pretend you're being "spanish" for the day
calamar a la plancha con mucho ajo is a gastronomic treat.....yum! yum!
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 Would garlic capsules work with humans then? They are *supposed* to leave your breath odour free (though I've never tried them, so don't know if that's the case).
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Skanky, you trying to deter people or midges? - not clear from your post ;oP.
Mucho garlic can rot the seam taping on your tent. True.
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Sorry, mosquitos. I already know how to deter people :(
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 Since we've moved on from midgies, any suggestions to repel boarding ticks, seeing as the season seems to have started again?
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 Avon Skin so Soft keeps midges at bay, they kinda drown in it, and it makes me smell lovely too.
Apparently if you get ticks cover them with Vaseline, they can't breathe through it so drop off by themselves.
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 Better than vaseline is crawling insect spray. Apply with a cotton bud direct to the tick's body. Alternative poisons come in small bottles from the vets. Spray and forget. Tick falls off, dead.
Ether, surgical spirit, rum, brandy all work too but you have to unscrew (quarter turn anticlockwise)the little sod when its pissed. Never pull them straight out and don't squeeze the soft ones.
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 Just my luck I'd get a clockwise-threaded tick!
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 thanks to all you listers that guided me though the bits and bobs i needed to get through the west highland way relatively unbitten in the middle of the feasting season...
we were fortunate enough to be in a breeze on a few sites so they werent a problem there, but in other places they varied between being pesky and a tidal wave of bity marauding devils
a combination of skin-so-soft and the occasional spray of deet around the tent flap kept em at bay except for beinglas farm where they were so bad about 200 came in the tent whenever we went in or out.. im itching like mad now just rememebering it.. absolutely horriffic.. funny thing is, once they got in they just chilled out & walked up and down the edges till the morning
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