Re: HELP!! I am going mad!

Rather than using the 100% DEET repellents, try the newer timed-release DEET repellents. We used these in Alaska a couple years back for the first time. With me, the "organics" keep the little beasts (mosquitoes, gnats, noseeums, etc) away for about a minute or less. 100% DEET seems to keep them at bay for a half hour. But the timed-release products seem to be effective for 6 to 8 hours. One other factor is the foods you eat. As a non-red-meat eater, I include a lot of fruits in my diet. Bananas seem to attract mosquitoes especially well, but peaches and other soft fruits are pretty effective attractants as well (even the dried fruits that I take in the backcountry). Garlic and onions seem to help reduce my natural attraction for the 6-legged flying ones.

I don't have trouble with chiggers, but in our local hills, I do pick up some ticks (we have the dreaded Lyme-carrying deer ticks in some areas here). The time-released DEET products seem to be quite effective against ticks, so I would expect it to work well against their 8-legged cousins, the chiggers, as well.