Insect repellant

[Iceni]

Sorry if this is the wrong discussion but this is really not medical, more financial...

I react very badly to insect bites and have found a repellant that works for me - except it has doubled in price (up to almost 10 €) and as you only get 40 ml in a thick cream it is starting to become very very expensive. I have dug out the dregs a children's sun tan lotion of very ancient vintage which has a repellant built in but of course this came from the UK but does work. I need something that works on biting flies which we have in abundance at the moment - inside the house the sticky fly paper seems to keep them under control but I really cannot see me walking down the street with flypaper hanging from my arms

Do any of you have any recommendations for a repellant that is easy to buy in supermarkets or one that is cost effective (I have only found them in pharmacies here hence the huge price).

Thanks.

[Coco]

Ohhh someone come up with an answer please!!  I'm covered with VERY itchy bites too.  I react quite badly and they're pretty red and swollen

What's the name of your expensive one Di?  Just in case I have to resort to it?

Anyone know of anything better than Apaisyl to soothe the itching once you've been bitten?

[Motorhead]

Back home in the islands where man-eating midges are plentiful and money is short there are 3 methods of relief. Now going out in the boat or having a very smelly pipe are probably not all that practical in this case but the 3rd one could be.

Get some horse insect repellent from a veterinary/equine supplies place. Very effective and cheap as chips although you do end up smelling rather weird.

[opas]

I looked only this morning  in Intermarche at the roll on insect stuff that I bought last year(threw the old one out) it comes in at under 4 euros, think I bought 2 last summer....It worked a treat to ease the itching.....not sure of the name as I didn`t buy one, will go tomorrow to the larger intermarche ,(on my way to do another errand) as being the tight pursed northern gal that I am , hoping that there may be Euros on my saver card with this product!

Will post the name tomorrow.

Mrs o

[Iceni]

[quote]Ohhh someone come up with an answer please!! I'm covered with VERY itchy bites too. I react quite badly and they're pretty red and swollen What's the name of your expensive one Di? Just in case I...[/quote]

Hi Coco

Mousti Cologne - the one I use has a sun factor of 5 and is €9+ for 40 ml. Now I get through this like stink as I use it at least twice a day - so the cost is not good.

As for horse medicine - I tend not to use things that are not made for humans as horses have a slightly (joke) thicker skin and I have no interest in absorbing large amounts of highly toxic chemicals. John used to keep horses and I am sure that if this was a cost effective method the accountant in him would have mentioned it.

I also try to steer clear of large amounts of DEET. This is absorbed into the bloodstream and can have nasty side effects. Products with large amounts of DEET should only be used on clothes - and it can damage the clothes and melt sunglasses - so you can see why I would rather live without it.

Hope this helps.

[Lori]

Funny I posted a similar question on the gardening site. I too have what seems like hundreds of those tiny fly bites all over me. They itch like crazy and god forbid you scratch them, cause you'll never be able to stop !

My current guests sprayed me with something called PIPOL. It comes in a small spray bottle, looks like around 40 ml and is clear. It says it has menthol, fermaldehyde and a third ingredient - I forget. Anyway, it worked really well. They told me they used to buy it in France, but had heard they stopped selling it here. They got it at the pharmacy years ago and just stocked up. Have no idea what it costs, but intend to stop by the pharmacy to ask them if it is sold here. Will take their bottle with me to make sure there is no question as to what it is. Will advise after the trip to the pharm.

[Motorhead]

Who said anything about highly toxic or even just plain old toxic chemicals. Read the labels and use some common sense it's not sheep dip y'know. Used for years in the Islands with no ill effects (apart from ponging like a citrus tree).

[Lori]

Motorhead - is it the PIPOL you are talking about?? My guests bought it from a French pharmacist who told them it was for use on us human kind...

When I saw the ingredients, I certainly thought it was weird, but it worked really well and the pharmacist told them there were no side effects ...??

[Hoddy]

 

I’m sure someone has done some research into why some of  us react so badly to insect bites when others don’t. I know that Di and Coco are at least as fair-skinned as I am and wonder if this may be a factor.

I shall be very interested in the recommendations for repellents. In the meantime Coco would you like to join me in an experiment I’m currently conducting ? I read somewhere that vinegar was just as good as proprietary soothing products. At the moment I’m using Butix, which I think is wonderful, on the bites on my left leg and vinegar on the right one. You might like to do the same with your Apaisyl. They might even award us a doctorate.

Hoddy

[Hagar]

Tiger Balm is the most effective treatment I have found for all manner of insect bites. It contains an analgesic (sp?) so itching stops pretty quickly and I find that almost all such bites dissappear completely within 2-3 days.

rgds

Hagar 

[Deimos]

When visiting the tropics many people use DEET. It is actually horrible stuff (tends to “dissolve plastic” so you “stick to things”). I hate the stuff but it is meant to work.

Also, I was told that if you eat lots of a particular vitamin, mosquitoes don’t like you any more. Not tried it myself but have seen it said/written in several places. Cannot remember which vitamin (I have a feeling its vitamin B but not 100%). I have it written down somewhere so if people want to know and nobody else knows off the top of their head I can look it up.

Regards

Ian

[benson]

Cinq sur cinq from pharmacie around 5 euros is a repellant and treatment in 1. No one complains of itching after being sprayed in my house.

Lavender is excellent for detering mozzies I use air freshener type or candles and you can buy in balm form for rubbing on skin.  Also eating garlic apparently is helpful!

[Coco]

Ahh Tiger Balm, hadn't thought of that, I've got some upstairs, I'll give it a try.

Now Hoddy, what sort of vinegar are you using?   I don't fancy walking round smelling like an old fish and chip van

[Hoddy]

I wish I could say that it's "vinaigre balsamique enleve en futs de chene" (sorry no accents).

The truth is it's vinaigre d'alcool colore - Shopi's cheapest !

I don't think it smells too bad. My neighbour wasn't noticeably repelled this afternoon when he came round with the daily offering from his garden.

Hoddy

[JohnM]

Hoddy, can you hang fire on that research? If you are after the doctorate, you might as well do it properly and try for a EU research grant? Play this right and you may never have to do any proper work again... grant money, lecture tour, fete opening's, you name it..... all for walking round smelling like a chip shop.

 

[Triskell DreamsOh just stop it and help me find me keys!]

Marmite !

[Teamedup]

Lori it is called Pipiol and it works really really well on bites.

 

I have bought all sorts of insect repellant over the years. In our household it is either me or eldest son who gets bitten. And as he is no longer here it is me. I have yet to find anything that works well, just the pipiol that gives relief.

 

[Patf]

I use a spray Tiq'Aouta which is soothing and has a nice fresh smell. It's expensive - 9 euro. But for mosquito bites I resort to pricking the bump with a sterilised pin to release the fluid which causes the itching.I believe you can buy a gadget from the chemist's which does the same thing. Also if you get bitten a lot, cover up.Pat.

[SaligoBay]

Like TU, I'm obviously very tasty too.   Tea Tree Balm stops the itching, I have some in the same little pots that you get Tiger Balm in. 

Inside the house, those little bottles that you plug into the electric socket, they seem to work, and they don't smell either.

[Lori]

Thanks Teamedup. I went to the pharmacy here in Bedoin yesterday and found the PIPIOL. 6.55 Euros, so not cheap, but you don't need to use too much at one time to get relief. I was pleased to find it as I need to mow the lawn today !! I also picked up a repellant/bite relief combination to spray on before I mow. With temps expected to reach 37 today, the recommendation from the pharmacist that I wear sleaves and pants is impossible.. I'd drop dead of heat stroke. Our garden is 3000 m2 and 75% under direct sunshine. Hard to believe there is still grass there, but the recent afternoon storms have revived the dying stuff.

Anyway, glad to hear someone else has heard of the PIPIOL. Thanks to my current guests, I now have it too.

L

[Iceni]

Being fed up with looking like 'spotty muldoon' we have added a couple of new methods to stop me getting bitten.

old methods -

1. use Mousti Cologne when I go out
2. use plug in mozzie killer (but I still think most of my bites are biting flies and not mozzies as it is too early)
3. hang up fly paper and change when they look too horrible to cope with

Now I was still getting bitten so we have added

1. very bright plastic bead curtain on door which is open all day and night when it is hot
2. mozzie net around bed
3. little light box which is supposed to electrocute insects (don't like them as they kill moths but needs must at the moment).

I now seem to be a bite free zone. I went out last night to pick our gooseberries after covering myself in cheap insect repellant and was driven back in minutes by flies that were trying to land on me (one got my ear) I then put the mousti cologne on and went out and they buzzed around but none tried to land. Stayed out till dark weeding.

The mozzie net is actually giving us a better nights sleep as we now realise that whatever flies and other insects evaded our evening 'dance of the yellow fly swatter' were annoying us during the night - or is it just that we now feel that they won't annoy us so sleep better - don't know but we went from feeling very enclosed the first time we used it to being totally convinced that we should have put it up sooner.

[Catalpa]

[quote]I’m sure someone has done some research into why some of us react so badly to insect bites when others don’t. I know that Di and Coco are at least as fair-skinned as I am and wonder if this may be a ...[/quote]

I didn't know that could be a factor. I'm fair haired / skinned and I react very badly to most insect bites. I'm sitting looking at a burgeoning horsefly bite on my arm - which most creams (Onctose) and anti-histamines (Telfast 180mg) either don't touch or at best keep under control while the bite takes a week (via a blister) to calm down.

I will try control experiments with vinegar and Tiger Balm. I have plenty of sites from which to make my choice! As far as repellents go, most work for me - I just don't like using chemicals 24/7 in summer. I prefer spraying my clothes and shoes but after a few months, the chemicals do seem to bleach / rot the fabric. This year I'm going to try a mossie net on the bed and fly screens on the windows. When I get a ceiling to suspend net from and windows in which to fit screens. The joy of building.

[Pixietoadstool]

Although I am dark haired I am certainly fair skinned (but not as fair as Catalpa) - my melanin is concentrated in numerous freckles and I really get badly bitten too although generally I don't react as badly as Catalpa.

Currently I have 22 bites on my left leg, 7 on my right (what is so attractive about my left leg - the numbers on that one increase every night) and about 10 or 12 on my back plus numerous others especially the feet. They are mosquito bites mostly - I have seen and heard them so Iceni it is NOT too early for mozzies even in the UK!

I have found that the cheapest nastiest gin is the best repellant ... not just when you drink it (anaesthetising the sufferer) but also good when rubbed on skin!  Must be something about the juniper berries that the flies don't like.  I know citronella is meant to work (and any other lemon scented oils) but I have never found these nor lavender to be much help.

V

 

[Iceni]

Hi Pixie, I was going by what our friends say about this region and mozzies NOT the UK. In the UK we lived by a river and mozzies were an all year round problem. We could never eat out in the summer and tried all repellants and still looked like hedgehogs with the amount of the ruddy things sticking to us. I once got bitten through new thick jeans and boot socks - I felt the bite and was amazed how long the ruddy biting/sucking parts were. It is the big black ones that give me the most reaction and I got bitten through my gardening trousers here a couple of weeks ago - again by a huge black mozzie who had forgotten the anesthetic (?sp).

It's worth putting doors, windows and ceilings in just to be able to put up netting, beaded curtains and nets - took us a year or so to get that far

[Teamedup]

Lori, my son got a wasp sting when we were at a public swimming pool and they put pipiol on him and he said he got instant relief. I bought some on the way home and we always have some in.

 

If any of you think that these things are expensive then just be thankful you haven't had to buy treatments for the dreaded poux.