We check out Nikwax's new insect repellant with the help of Kielder midges.
Nikwax SkitoStop - Quick
Test
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Price:
£6.99
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Size:
100 ml (SkitoStop)
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Features: Range of DEET-free
insect repellants including aftersun, bite relief gel, sun screen,
normal and spray-on for fabrics. Claimed to repel mosquitos,
midges and other biting insects.
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What's It
For?
Range of stuff designed to repel bitey things without using evil,
plastic and body-eating DEET. Range includes straight repellant,
repellant with sun screen, after sun with repellant, bite relief gel
and spray for clothing and tent fabrics.
The Techy
Bits
SkitoStop doesn't use DEET - which gets a bad press and damages both
plastics and synthetic fabrics in high concentrations - instead it
includes a huge list of other stuff including Citric Acid, p-Mentha -3,
8-diol and so on, most of which we've never heard of. It's claimed to
be effective for up to six hours.
How It
Performed
Put simply, it seems to work pretty well. It smells slightly
pungent, but not unpleasant and, more to the point, the standard, easy
to use spray, seems to repel everything the Peak has to offer and stays
effective unless you're sweating on an industrial level.
As a further test, we hightailed it up to the Montane Kielder 100 and
tried it out on the notorious Kielder midges. We have to say,
cautiously, that it seemed to work. Or at least the midgies seemed to
prefer other people.
A cautious thumbs up, not tested on ferocious Scottish midgies yet, but
so far seems to do the job for us. A note of caution is that repellent
seems variable, some works with some bities for some people, some
doesn't, but this is definitely worth a try if you're after a
DEET-free, effective repellent that's not some terrifying Finnish tree
resin...
Buy if you
want an effective, DEET-free insect repellent or any of its variants.
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DEET-free, seems
reasonably effective, lasts fine and easy to apply.
Nothing
really.
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Know more or want to?
If you'd like to add your own
experiences of this
product check out our user review system and post your opinions to
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