CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 14years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
1 times as many is too many!
Should this be in "Wildlife highlight of the day"?
"People should wear long sleeved tops and trousers. A good repellent is key. They like dark colours and hot, sweaty people; the worst thing you can do is start jumping up and down in a swarm of them.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/news/Heavy-snow-means-800-times.6729537.jp
This is why I have abandoned walking for cycling, more of a sporting chance for me to outrun them
I've already started increasing my garlic intake. I wonder if I'll finally be driven to get some goggles this year...
"if there's a wet Spring"
...are the important words that The Scotsman headline omitted.
Surely most of them will die due to lack of food? Or maybe sheep/deer/people will die due to blood loss? Eek.
You have go over 11mph or they will catch and eat you.
The worst midgie experience I ever has was belaying a climb with a stagnant pool near the bottom. When you belay you need both hands on the rope all the time so I had no choice to sit it out, all the while shouting at the leader to get up the bl**y rock!
When it came for my turn I arrived at the (mercifully clear) top of the first pitch before my partner had time to pull the rope in.
Worst experience I had - my wife hit a rock with the front wheel of the car in Glen Nevis. She went off and left me to replace the wheel. The bites sort of joined up into one overall redness.
I do find tho that after the first proper 'midging' of the year the bites never irritate for more than an hour or two after that. I think my body has learned to differentiate.
nicotine incense sticks work well ,but there are some health issues !
Worst and strangely only real attack was deepest summer, one evening, carron valley, before the trails were built, biking away quite happily, stopped for a blether with my mate, 2 seconds later could only hear buzzin in my ears,my eyes went dark and i could feel them crawling up my nose ! orrible ! Was like being at a BDSM club, oops sorry wrong forum !!
I've been assured that high levels of Vitamin B12 help scare them away - so will be taking intravenous Marmite XO for the rest of the year.
Caledonian Challenge, 2008, Kinlochleven, stopped to do a bootlace and (schoolboy error) lifted up my midge net hat thing to grab a drink of water... Once the midges are in your midge net they have you
I used to work in argyll for the Forestry Commission... it was bad enough they issued as much jungle formula as you wanted whenever you wanted. The worst still makes me shudder, to keep it short, you couldn't see skin for the midges (bleurgh).
Apparently these days they issue "Skin so soft" which a gruff burly forester I know swears by!
"Why not order and try a bottle? Remember if you don't like it we promise you your money back!"
"
Local cyclists on the CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum are coming up with solutions to the prediction that there will be 800 times as many midges this year than normal, reported by the Scotsman.
"
http://guardian.co.uk/edinburgh/2011/mar/08/edinburgh-festival-fireworks-tickets-midges-cyclists
Yes, skin so soft is the stuff.
Strangely, it is not marketed as such, seemingly Avon are not too keen to spread the fact that one of their "luxury skin care" products is the deadliest insect repellent known to man. :-D
I once found a repellent which worked but it just displaced the zone of attack to just inside my hairline.
"Strangely, it is not marketed as such"
Although they do allow Tiso to sell it, which is kind of marketing it as a midge repellant.
Hi Folks from the midge forecast team. Let me say I was the most shocked person when I read the x800 headline in the papers yesterday as we had said no such thing to the journalists.
Currently we think midge numbers may be up at the start of the year but it would be impossible for Scotland to have 800 times more midges as some areas are already at saturation point.
The figure was derived from our data of 20,000 midges to be trapped on an average night at our test site, however at peak periods during the season we can catch up to 16 million midges per night. A good start to the season means it is more likely that peak numbers will occur in more places - but that is normal for each year.
I would like to talk about the repellent side of things, but Im not allowed to about the moisturiser.
If is was in the Hootsman teat it with a pinch of salt, yes we had snow on the ground for a longer period that we are now used to. However, there was also a prolonged deep frost before the snow came and since most of the snow melted it has been drier that average, both of these factors will effect midge densities...
It's only the female midges which bite anyway, so if you keep away from them you should be ok.
Cue some mid-nineties indie-schmindie music from Space
"Hi Folks from the midge forecast team"
SEE - CCE always attracts the people who know!
AND there's a (free) App for that - REALLY!!!!
Good linkee, Stepdoh!
Yes, skin so soft is the stuff.
Standard issue with the RSPB in Abernethy forest. Magical stuff - you need to get the dry oil spray. Some bozos from my work turned up with big bottles of the body lotion on the Caley Challenge. Wonderfully soft and smooth skin but eaten alive by midges.
Yes we have an app for that.
However having to hold myself back from some of the comments. As I said I am not allowed to mention the moisturiser but isnt it strange Avon in America range of insect repellents all contain scientifically proven repellent compounds such as IR3535 or Picaridine as well at around 10%?
On the west coast of NZ the sandflies are really awful, fairly voracious too. You usually doused yourself in vast quantities of DEET. Suspect it's not very good for you :)
I dislike clegs / horseflies more than midges. Midges are an annoyance. Clegs fly in silently, land and then YEOW!, bite you through your clothes.
"Yes we have an app for that."
We looked at the cost of making an Android app in January, the price to have it developed was more than twice what we paid last year for the iphone app. Its not a definite no at the moment but it looks like our budget for smidge advertising will be going on outdoor events rather than extending the apps as we feel it will be a better use.
Thanks David. It's alright I can always just use the website! I'm assuming the app is just a portal onto the website anyway.
I'm just a disgruntled Android owner getting miffed at businesses always jumping on the iPhone bandwagon.
Hi David,
Saw your post and the point about being quoted 2x iPhone app price for Android. This surprised me (I develop for both, did the CycleStreets iPhone app), there's no reason per-se, developers will quote high from time to time just like builders do :-(
I'd be happy to talk about these things (no obligation, of course) if you still fancy the idea. I could quote for a piece of work or answer the "what can you do for £X" question. I'm alan dot paxton at gmail dot com (http://www.isomaly.com/)
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