While the summer brings trips to the countryside, barbeques and an all-round increase in more outdoor activities, the threat of midges is all too familiar with Scots and many can spend the summer itching away after being bitten. However, herbalist Anna Hill has the answer to keep the midges at bay, with a host of repellents which are sure to leave you with a scratch free summer.
Midges are common all over Europe, but the ones we find in Scotland - Culicoides impunctatus - are particularly ferocious. The female of the species is the one that bites due to a need for a feast of blood before laying her eggs between June and September.
Initially it was suspected that the cold winter had killed many of the midges, but with a warm summer expected their numbers may be on the rise. Luckily Anna has a few suggestions to keep them at bay.
The little vampires, as they have been describe, curiously enough don’t like garlic and so eating garlic will deter the midges according to Anna. However, if you don’t want to smell of garlic there are other answers, but not necessarily insect repellent sprays.
“The problem with insect repellents is that we need to keep smelling of it and we need to keep re-applying it,” explained Anna.
“So if you’re in Scotland for the whole summer your going to keep applying it over and over again, but if you can use something a bit more natural then it sits a bit easier with me.”
Anna makes her own concoction using lavender, bog myrtle and vodka, and explained: “I use vodka for two reasons. One is that oil will dissolve in the vodka, but also when you spray it on the vodka will evaporate off and just leave the essential oils, the smell on you so you won’t get wet.”
As for after you have been bitten, Anna advises on applying lavender oil, tea-tree oil or by making a paste using bicarbonate of soda mixed with water which takes away the itching of your bites.
Aside from the natural products there are a host of other solutions to midges including Avon skin-so-soft moisturiser which, although not intended as a repellent, works due to the scented oils in the cream. It is also becoming a big hit with soldiers on duty abroad despite being a “girly smell”.
