This year, due to the extremely dry weather we've been having they're much depleted in number and we've had some very pleasant evenings sitting out without swarms of the little b*ggers ruining everthing.
Well, for about 10 minutes anyway! Nature abhors a vacuum, so into the gap left by the midges have arrived vast swarms of clegs. I'm not sure if that's a recognised name but it's the local one certainly. These are big vicious horse fly type things and their bites hurt and itch like mad. My OH got two bites close together on his thumb and it swelled up all the way down to his wrist.
There are various contraptions for distracting and despatching them which we'll investigate further but in the meantime I made a salve to help with the bites. It would probably be good for whatever bites you in your areas so I thought I'd share.
I can't give you specific quantities - it was needed too quickly to be accurate I just chucked in the ingredients and slapped them on.
Cocoa butter - not something I use regularly but I put it in to keep the salve semi solid in this heat and it is lovely for skin. You could use beeswax instead but I hadn't got any to hand.
Olive oil
Coconut oil
Put all those in a pan and melted them gently on a very low heat.
Then allowed them to cool a little before adding some Vit E oil - again not absolutely necessary but is great for skin and helps slow the rate the other oils become rancid.
Essential oils
Lavender
German chamomile
Peppermint
I have to say for something thrown together in desperation it works extremely well.
It also works very effectively on hands that had cleared a big patch of alkanet, without gloves. Don't ask me how I know.
