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Mosquito deterrent

Hang up your Chisels and Plane blades and take a load off with a recently turned goblet of your favourite poison, in the lounge of our Gentlemen's (and ladies) Club.

Re: Mosquito deterrent

Postby Woodbloke » 23 Jul 2021, 07:11

RogerS wrote:All I could find was reference to the Marines. I would have thought that it was against the 'hard man' ethos of the SAS. All the web references refer to 'extensive web research' but none give any actual source for this story.


My ‘good authority’ Roger were Royal Signals personnel who were seconded to the SAS. I asked the question, negative reply - Rob
I no longer work for Axminster Tools & Machinery.
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Re: Mosquito deterrent

Postby novocaine » 23 Jul 2021, 08:12

damn it, didn't have my wife with me, a little bugger has bitten my big toe. :lol:
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Re: Mosquito deterrent

Postby clogs » 23 Jul 2021, 17:15

after a days work on smelly old Diesels they prefer the wife.....
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Re: Mosquito deterrent

Postby heimlaga » 24 Jul 2021, 06:59

Having lived two summers at Hepovattnet surrounded by boglands where the air often was gray and misty with midges I can tell that there is only one way to keep most of them out of a house.
Mosquito netting in all open windows and all chimneys and a mosquito curtain insede every door so fewer of them get in when you open the door to get in or out. If you want to keep a door open you need to make an extra door frame covered in mosquito netting and hung on a separate pair of hinges inside the ordinary door.

The most enteprizing midges find their way through any ordinary netting but most will stay on the outside.

The first hundred or so stings every summer are worst. Then you get immunized and from midsummer and onwards they don't really itch any more. The immunity tends to get better over the years.
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Re: Mosquito deterrent

Postby Doug » 24 Jul 2021, 07:47

You’re not doing a good job job on selling Hepovattnet as my next holiday destination :lol:
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Re: Mosquito deterrent

Postby Tiresias » 26 Jul 2021, 13:45

Oh, this one is going to be a lengthy response. Sorry.

I grew up in Zambia, Egypt and Singapore. Firstly, in Lusaka we used nets. Night biters. Then we used those weird green coils that you have to separate carefully, and stick on a pressed metal base. Lovely nostalgic smell for me. But, they have to be placed so the rising smoke intercepts the mosquitoes’ flight paths. I’ve used them under tables before, but you inevitably stand on them. In Cairo we had electric hot pads that took lozenges that achieved the same effect.

In Sing we lived on the top floor of a block on Gilman Heights. The little buggers don’t tend fly above the 10th floor. Not that they can’t, just don’t tend to.

I have probably ingested more cloroquine/analogues than most.

Now a second strand. My partner has spent a lifetime (and still is) on researching into malaria. Spread by mosquitoes. A professor no less. Any inaccuracies in anything that follow are due to my status as a well meaning moron. No blame attaches to my partner.

Never ask a research scientist a question.

Are your mosquitoes day biters or night biters? Anopheles or culicines? (That may be the same question, I tend to glaze over a bit – rather like the response when I start off on one of my rants on property law and negligent valuations). So, I’m summarising somewhat, and my spelling is probably rubbish.

However. The Avon thing is tosh. It may work for some people in some places. Perhaps. But I would prefer to take the judgement of someone who has thousands of mosquitoes in colonies, fed every day on blood from the Glasgow blood bank (yeah, I know – have they become over-friendly, and prone to spending large sums on designer labelled fashion), and when that isn’t available on themselves (only the uninfected ones, obviously). And my partner says it isn't reliably effective.

DEET works best. And physical protection. Screens, nets &c. The anopheles track by carbon dioxide, heat and the smell. They have 10 olfactory receptors that are peculiarly effective. Smelly feet are a particular attractant.

So get yourself some screens. And wash your feet.
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Re: Mosquito deterrent

Postby Lurker » 26 Jul 2021, 13:53

Brilliant!!

I will tell her majesty that she attracts the mozzies due to her smelly feet.
Note: she doesn’t have smelly feet but that’s not going to stop me 8-)
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Re: Mosquito deterrent

Postby Andyp » 26 Jul 2021, 14:54

I of course would not argue with a professor and the exhaustive non-scientific tests carried out in my yoof while wild camping in the highlands of Scotland would probably not stand up in the lab. BUT, we found that Brut spay on deodorant was by far the most effective repellent compared with other spray on men's toiletries and shop bough midge spays.

I'd be interested to know if after many years of having antihistamine injections as a child and young adult (40 yrs ago) has left me with any kind of immunity. I get bitten but they bites do not itch.
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Re: Mosquito deterrent

Postby Tiresias » 26 Jul 2021, 15:01

Lurker wrote:Brilliant!!

I will tell her majesty that she attracts the mozzies due to her smelly feet.
Note: she doesn’t have smelly feet but that’s not going to stop me 8-)


You are a braver person than I am, Gunga Din.
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Re: Mosquito deterrent

Postby Cabinetman » 26 Jul 2021, 15:47

[quote="Andyp"]I of course would not argue with a professor and the exhaustive non-scientific tests carried out in my yoof while wild camping in the highlands of Scotland would probably not stand up in the lab. BUT, we found that Brut spay on deodorant was by far the most effective repellent compared with other spray on men's toiletries and shop bough midge spays.

I'd be interested to know if after many years of having antihistamine injections as a child and young adult (40 yrs ago) has left me with any kind of immunity. I get bitten but they bites do not itch.[/quote


Brut, dear God, keeps everything away!
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