Thermacell midge repellent review

[amazon_image id=”B0031ESIVK” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”large” container=”div” container_class=”floatleft”]Thermacell Appliance flying insect repeller – Olive[/amazon_image]I hate midges. I really do. Just after we moved to Scotland I went out on a paid stalk in South-West of the country. It was late July and temperature around 20C. Dressed just with a  shirt and light trousers I expected a pleasant outing. 🙄 It was not pleasant at all and all I remember were clouds of midges that wanted to eat me alive. Even when my guide provided face net, gloves and some midge repellent it was a real torture.

I tried many repellents over the years. Some were a bit better, some didn’t work at all (for me). I tried various dedicated midge repellents, I also tried Avon Skin-so-soft that supposed to be one of the best, but always came back home with midge bite marks that stayed visible and itchy for days.

I heard generally good comments about Thermacell so decided to give it a go. It is not cheap, but from my perspective it is still better than just give up stalking during Summer months. I got [amazon_link id=”B0031ESIVK” target=”_blank” ]Thermacell[/amazon_link], [amazon_link id=”B0031ESIWE” target=”_blank” ]Thermacell Appliance Holster – Real Tree[/amazon_link] and [amazon_link id=”B0031ESIVU” target=”_blank” ]Thermacell butane cartridge and repellent mat Value Refill Pack [/amazon_link] off Amazon. You don’t really need the refill pack as the Thermacell appliance comes with a buttan cartridge and three mats anyway, but holster is quite handy.

I have not been able to try Thermacell in anger so far as was really busy at work and wasn’t doing much stalking, but so far it seems to be working fine. At least better than anything else I tried. A couple of points I found out: it needs some time to start working (I guess the metal plate needs to worm up and heat the mat). I think it also works not too bad when there is no wind, not sure about when there is some breeze but not strong enough to blow midges away. Maybe one just needs to be downwind from Thermacell to be in a midge-free zone. I will sure find out after some time, but so far it looks promising.