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Sand flies and midgies - what repellent do you use?


mrsswordfisherman

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When i was a youngster in Queensland, we used Baby Oil during the day, sandflies drown in it.

Then RID on a night as the mozzies started.

Wouldn't highly recommend it though, as we trended to quickly cook with the baby oil!!

Apparantley being highly tanned is not recommended today.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

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Hi Donna,

Midgies are a fact of life up here on the Gold Coast. Any of the tropical strength repellents work ok but Bushmans is far and away better than the others. Bushman repellent contains DEET. Heaven only knows what it might be doing to my body chemistry and I know it really irritates some people's skin but it works.

As Ian said, oil works well. Midgies don't bite, they pee or regurgitate or something and that's what causes the 'bites'. In oil, they both get stuck and also the pee can't touch your skin so you're doubly protected. A few old guys up this way use home-made concoctions mixing stuff like Aerogard with coconut oil or baby oil. They swear by it but spending a day fishing covered in greasy oil isn't much fun so I stick with the nasty chemicals.

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Basically anything with Deet works. Also, long term exposure to them builds a pretty good immunity. I get "bitten" by them or peed on or whatever, but never end up with welts or sores from scratching them, I used to but I think I have become immune to them. I have been going to Yamba for 30 years or so and it can be pretty bad for them.

Matt

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