[katiejay]

I've been searching the threads for info on how to deal with sandflies (will have nightmares for a week from some of the pics on here!), but can't find anything specific (apart from maybe Avon Skin So Soft - and Avon don't seem to have any of the Woodland fragrance left anywhere!). Can anyone recommend something for protection against sandflies, particularly for children? We will be camping (MHome) in March on South Island, so it looks like we'll be asking for trouble. Is it best to buy something in NZ or is there something we can bring from UK (if it's allowed through customs!) that will do the trick? :uhoh

[sarahw]

I'd buy in NZ - the pharmacy will be able to advise you on what is best - I use Scratchy & Itchy (a natural product) for sand-fly bites - you get immune to them after a while - didn't get any this year but last year we were bitten to pieces! I don't like repellants so would rather treat a bite, but with kids you'd probably be better off using a repellant since they can be pretty nasty. I seem to remember a product called RID that I used some time ago but I don't know if that was only available in Australia.

[Angelonthemove]

Hi We live in Cyprus and the sand flys are in abundance. the annoying thing is you can not see them, until they have bitten you.

Different things work for different different people. I have heard B6 supplement can help against mozzies too.

I was back in the UK and bought loads of Boots own Roll On insect repellent (yellow bottle like deoderant size). Easy to use and no fumes. So I'd say that better for little ones. I roll it all up and down arms legs and neck and even the soles of my feet. You have to put it on before the suns starts going down, and even early morning, if you are an early rises. Followed by antisan if you get bitten have tubes in yor bag, car everywhere soon stops the itch.

Inside houses the only thing we found to work is those spiral VAPE green things you burn.

Plus they will only bite you when they can not travel any further up your clothes and get stuck so loose clothing helps.

[adamsat]

We suffered really badly last summer. We live on a property that's on the foothills of the Southern Alps and has running water passing through it, so just going outside on a summers evening is a bit of an extreme sport. Then someone in work gave us some NZ army surplus stuff. No brand name, just a plain dark green container. He gave me two types, one a roll on stick and a sray that was also a sun block. I hate to think what is in them but they really do work.

[katiejay]

I think I'll take all your tips and try them out! Not sure about the army surplus stuff, though - best not to experiment too much with that on the kids!! Someone told me Marmite works because it contains vitamin B - that ties in with Angelonthemove's suggestion, and at least the boys do eat Marmite. Presumably, from what you've said, we'll only have a problem evenings and early mornings, so if we stay inside when it's dark we'll be ok provided we use mozzie nets? I'm guessing the overnight boat trip through Milford Sound could be asking for trouble!

[Debbie P.]

Hi,

I think the Woodland has been rebranded as Skin-So-Soft Soft & Fresh - found details of it on http://avonshop.co.uk.

[marcia]

:confused: What is it from the avon range that you is a 'good repellant' is it the dry oil spray or moisturiser ?????

[katiejay]

:cheers Ah, Debbie - thank you. I'm going to buy loads! Marcia - I've read the dry oil spray is the best, but also that 'layering' is probably the most effective - so you shower with it and then put dry oil spray on afterwards.
I know tea-tree oil is said to be good for keeping fleas away - we bath the dog in it! So maybe that might work on sandflies/mozzies as well.

[katandbob]

has anyone ever had a sandfly bite go sore, as in deep hole that doesnt bleed? itches like I cant describe :mad:

getting a bit worried about one on my ankle - plus its drivin me mad! :confused:

kat

[KerryS]

Vitamin B works by emitting a chemical smell that deters both sandflies and mosquitoes. You'd need to eat lots of marmite to have an effect, or you could try adding a spoonful of brewers yeast to your diet. It's pretty cheap to buy a huge tub of it, and doesn't really taste of much.
Thankfully I'm one of those people who never really seem to get bitten - maybe I just smell all the time?

[Angelonthemove]

Hi guys

We are now in Wellington and staying at a hotel, we have been bitten every day since we got here. So we went and got some insect spray that is no odour and did every room and vent. Low and behold we have not been bitten since. So beware of hotel rooms with no escape fbecause of now open window for the little bitters so they carry on through every season.

Move into rented tomorrow and will spray every room we go into before I move my stuff in!!!

Angela

[diforsyth]

Used a multipurpose insect killer spray call "Raid", made by JohnsonWax tonight it lived up to slogan by killing "most flying AND most crawling insects" within a couple of minutes. It's totally odourless and there hasn't been anything else come in since. :nice1

[upnorthkyosa]

Here in Wisconsin we have all manner of biting insects. Mosquitos, deerflies, horseflies, stableflies, blackflies, gnats, etc. In the early summer, there are literally clouds of the little #@#@!(! and on bad evenings, you can slap and kill 7-9 with a single swat.

Are the sandflies and other biting insects this bad in NZ?

Over here, when it gets real bad, we wear long sleeves and pants complete with a hat and headnet in order to keep the bugs off of us. We also use products with DEET, a chemical that fools the bugs and was developed by the military. Do you guys have any products like that over there? Would DEET work on sandflies?

[Carol]

Are the sandflies and other biting insects this bad in NZ?

?

Yes!!!

And they seem to thrive on "fresh blood"
Sprays are a must.
Or cover up....
They particularly love ankles and feet for some reason!

[Moorf]

Is anyone in Canterbury/Chch getting bitten? I am usually a buffet for mozzies and sandflys (or noseeums as they were in Scotland :D ) but I haven't been bitten lots since moving to NZ :confused:

[herseymusic]

"Dimp" is the ingredient which works best for repelling sandflies. This usually comes in combination with DEET for other insects. Since sandflies are my only real concern, I just look for the repellent with the most dimp and the least deet.

But I'm pretty hard out when it comes to sandflies - I only use repellent when tramping in Fiordland. Otherwise, I just cover up and do the old "sandfly wave" to keep them away from my face.

[Bean]

Hi

I have to recommend Avon-skin-so-soft dry oil spray. It worked for us even camping in doubtful sound (fiordland), apart from the problem that it does wash off.....so no skinny dipping.......

It works on the midgee here in Scotland and certainly seems to have protected us in NZ.

I wonder if you folks in NZ have heard of the midge-o-cutor.......it runs on gas and you leave it ticking over in the garden, so it attracts all the midges around the house, and then collects them in a bag. Midges are territorial apparently..... so once removed it takes a while for more to reappear...

http://www.midgeater.co.uk/2006/

You can get cheaper versions.... it really works.....and it might work on sandflies.....????

Bean

[Carol]

Once you have been bitten...
Lavender essential oil - put directly onto the bite - is the only thing we use now for relieving bites.
You can get a fantastic lavender "salve" from the Paua Shell factory in Carterton. Easier for kids to apply.
:nice1 :nice1 :nice1

It is also amazing stuff for dealing with burns eg off an iron/oven.
(Apparantly they used to use it in the 1st World War on burns victims)

[Moorf]

I wonder if you folks in NZ have heard of the midge-o-cutor.......

Wow, they developed it huh? That machine was in the papers when we lived in Perthshire - we used to have huge black funnels of midges in our garden above the pines and hedgerows and nearly bought one!

Will definitely try the lavendar for bites too :nice1

[katiejay]

Not really for midges/sandflies, but my lovely husband bought me an electric tennis racquet which gives me way more pleasure than it should for anyone in their right mind!! My husband is alergic to wasps, so they are nothing short of spawn of the devil as far as I'm concerned, and I have to admit (animal lover that I purport to be) I REALLY enjoy electrocuting them...........should I seek counselling for this??? I've GOT to bring it to NZ when we come, as long as I'm allowed to - I suppose in theory it could be regarded as a threat - to anything quite small, wearing a black and yellow striped jumper, that is!!
Katie
:D

[nippa&pippa]

Is anyone in Canterbury/Chch getting bitten? I am usually a buffet for mozzies and sandflys (or noseeums as they were in Scotland :D ) but I haven't been bitten lots since moving to NZ :confused:

When i went over to nz for a month in april, we went to chch first for first week, before hire campervan and we did toured south island, no problems, no bite then toured north island. Wasn't till we arrive north-east of north island, i did experiences my first sandfly bites, oh hell! since then from this place to auckland, i was forever bitten, even everyday i put insect repellant!! i was only one in family got bitten badly whereas my children escaped it :mad: and my husband had few :laugh . It took few months back in UK to clear my bites up after few course of antibiotics

Sophia x

[katiejay]

:nice1 Just thought you might like to know - Avon's SSS Woodland Fresh is on offer at the moment (UK anyway) - buy one, get one free. I've stocked up ready for our trip out in March - that's flights booked (check); motorhome booked (check); cars hired (check); Skin So Soft (packed!). I like to plan ahead!!

[Simon & Emily]

Talking to the locals about the sandflies, I'm told that anything with a strong smell will deter them. They suggest, if you have nothing else, that even washing up liquid will stop them, but i haven't tried that one yet!!!

We are overrun with the little critters - and they pack a hell of a punch. They seem to really start itching about 24-36 hours after being bitten, and itch for weeks. If you scratch them and take the head off, drawing blood, they go on itching forever. I don't know if it's all in the mind, but once that I got in September seem to start itching again when I got a crop of new ones this week, and they had scabbed over and I thought were done and dusted.

I'm told that lavender, tea-tree and eucaliptus oils will all work if you add a few drops to a base cream. Sunscreen here seems to work as well, although interestingly those I've brought from the UK don't deter them at all.

The thought of flys didn't enter our heads when we bought this place - doh - as we didn't get a single bite in five weeks in Christchurch, nor in the two weeks we were in central Rotorua, even at the lakeside. We are currently trying to find flyscreens for the windows. It's begining to heat up, so we can't go much longer without windows open at night, but the windows must have, in the evening, at least a thousand of the little darlings crawling over each and everyone.

And then there's the huge blowflies - or flies on steroids, as we've lovingly re-named them :laugh At least you can hear them comming, though!

Emily

[Simon & Emily]

Oh, and you don't seem to get imune to them either. Some of the local schoolkids are covered in them, and talking to others - both Maori and European - they all get bitten just as much as we do.

I just worry about covering us all from head to toe in repelent day after day after day....... although we have to have the sunblock, so I guess it's just one of those things you have to do. I'll let you know if we grow any more arms or legs. Although thinking about it, extra arms may be good for swatting them, although extra legs would give them more of a viable target area :D

Emily