@Canoedogs: Love the recipes. The cure is worse than the ailment! Reminds me of The Black Fly Song ...

Now the bull cook's name was blind river joe
If it hadn't been for him we'd have never pulled through
For he bound up our bruises, and he kidded us for fun
And he lathered us with bacon grease and balsam gum

[For] the black flies, the little black flies
Always the black fly, no matter where you go
I'll die with the black fly a-picking my bones
In north on-tar-i-o-i-o, in north on-tar-i-o


@Roarmeister: Some people do swear by garlic, eating several raw cloves a day. This certainly will repel human females; I'm not sure about mosquito females.


For me, nothing works but DEET. Preferably on clothes, but on skin if they're really bad. If the bugs get dense enough, trust me, you won't care about hypothetical long-term effects.