Incense to ward off insects

[D.M. Procida]

What's a suitable thing to burn, in the garden, under a canopy? Something not too harsh to human sensibilities would be strongly preferred.

Daniele

[John Rumm]

A parachute! ;-)

(failing that, try Citronella oil in a oil burning lamp or torch)

[Jerry Built]

Failing that, some mosquito coils.

J.B.

[G&M]

A Maplin insect killer. Doesn't burn until it gets an insect but then oh boy does it go !

[Huge]

Smells vile, though.

[robert]

Citronella would be favourite. In the Highlands, where midges are a problem, lots of citronella candles are sold.

[Colin Wilson]

My wife is particularly prone to insect bites, so one time I came up with the idea of body lotion with a squirt of the stuff in.

Boy did she puke. She won`t have anything with citronella in the house now :-}

[G&M]

So is lots of malt whiskey. Does that help too ?

[robert]

I don't know because we drink it rather than waste it putting it on our skin. However you could buy an expensive malt and do your own experiment. feel free to post the results here.

[Steve Firth]

Cruel bugger. We have mossys the size of pigeons in Italy. Wifey decided to coat me with insect repellent after I got eaten alive after one day in the fields. She chose Tesco Citronella insect repellent.

I appear to be allergic to it. A few seconds after slapping it on, I was doing a good impression of Gollum, rolling around on the floor screaming "it burns precious, it burns".

Looked like I'd been flayed alive afterwards.

[G&M]

And those candles don't ?

[raden]

ISTR that catnip is good for repelling mosquitos (New Scientist last year, or was it the year before? - I must be going senile)

Else - garlic

[FrancisJK]

My Ma was in hospital, so had her teeth in. Her gums got sore so she used Bonjella.

A few days later, her bum got sore.

Brainwave.

"I'll use the Bonjella"

Bonjella is about 33% alcohol!

We had Lift-off!!!

Francis

[David]

it is an invaluable aid towards just ignoring the little buggers, however it does require considerable doses to be taken at regular intervals to be effective.

cheers

David

[Mary Fisher]

But does citronella work?

I think it smells awful and I've never observed that there were fewer insects in an area where it was being burned than where it wasn't.

I react very badly (locally, not allergically) to insect bites, also, for a special reason, it's important for me not to be bitten on my right arm and I'd love to have an effective repellent but I've not found anything at all which works.

Believe me, I've tried.

What's worse is that it's not just mosquitoes and midges which et me, aphids do too. No-one believes me until they observe it.

Mary

[robert]

If you find it doesn't work use "Deet" (sorry I am too lazy to look at the bottle to see what this is an abbreviation for)

[John Laird]

Diethyltoluamide. It will attack some fabrics and plastics so you need to be a bit careful ;-)

Some people swear by products in the Avon Skin-so-Soft range, especially if they don't much fancy covering themselves in paint stripper.

[Mary Fisher]

Tried that. Honestly. It doesn't work on me at least. Perhaps I have very attractive pheromones - to insects.

Mary

[Steve Firth]

Are you sure you don't mean a stake through the heart or holy water?

[Mary Fisher]

Mosquitoes don't have a heart, as such ...

Mary