Gnats have been like invincible two winged meat eating monsters that swarm around you like a angry hive of Bees that has been dumped on the ground. 

In fact I am registered in Gnat Land as Choice Meat Feast. Gnat Land has a profile on me and has the facial recognition code for me. As Soon as I am out side they must somehow communicate that I'm there and to go attack him.
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I have talked to a few people in other States and Gnats have been just as bad there.

I usually walk about three miles a day along a gravel road that runs parallel to the Mississippi which is about 50 yards away most of the distance.
Toward the end of May the Gnats made their appearance. I got eaten up. I started wearing a heavy long sleeve shirt I buttoned the collar and put a Head Net on.

The Gnats and Black Flies were so think I felt like a Bee Keeper. At any one instant I could see 20 of these alien life forms swirling in front of my face.

The darn flies crawled under the edges of the net and got inside.
I was trying to swat them through the head net. I couldn't get home fast enough.

Then I took a long thin bath towel and wrapped it around my neck to make a bulging "Cuff" around my neck to put the head net over so they coulldn't crawl under.

It  was a daily fight. I tried putting DEET on and that helped but did not stop them completely.

Beside there is no way I am taking a DEET bath several times a day. That stuff is absorbed through the skin


Tuesday of this week I returned from town and drove down to the boat launch which is a  block the other side of the  blacktop from my house

When I got down there I found a husband & wife and three sons fishing. The parking lot had an inch of caked mud and the water still covered about a quarter of the lower parking lot.
I parked my car and got out.
In about 10 seconds the Flies found me. I started swinging my hands to keep them away.
I was talking to the husband as I was doing my hand dance.
I had looked at the husband, his wife and all the kids and had noticed they were not being bothered by the bugs.

I said, "How come the Gnats and Flies are not bothering any of you?"

He said We Spray ourselves.
I asked what he used.
He said it's homemade.

Then his wife came with a spray bottle.
She asked if I would like for her to spray some on me.
She sprayed it on my arms, back of my neck and sides of my face.

I stood there and talked to him for about 20 minutes or more and the bugs did not bother me.

I asked him how he made it.

His Recipe

2 Cups Water
1 Cup Vinegar
1/2 Cup Vanilla

He said the Vanilla is to cover up the Vinegar smell.

At home I made it and it works. It didn't work 100 %

I decided to go a step further.

I took a small rag, partly soaked it in the mixture and physically wiped the surface of my arms, Neck, face, ears Plus.

Yesterday I spent about four hours outside from 13:00 to about 17:00.
From time to time a Gnat  buzzed but did not land and stay.

The stuff must have worked. The only place the gnats bothered me was - You Won't Guess Where -
During the afternoon I had THREE Gnats that flew into my left nostril

I didn't have any nibbling on me, buzzing my ears, arms or other.

Maybe youl'll say the Gnats are probably done for - they're gone.

NO They aren't.

This afternoon I went to Iowa to Food Shop. (I live in Illinois)
When I returned the first thing I did was take out my Lab.

The first thing the Gnats did was to start making being outside, a miserable. experience.

Thanks Cy, this is a great tip, we have them out here in Ca, they seem to cycle every 6 or so years and this is one of those bad years.
It doesn't matter if you have screens on your house, they walk right through them, and last night I sat here donating blood to their cause.

I'll give it a shot tonight.

THANK YOU we have them here in Ohio too, lil bastards drive me insane, so much so I can't stand to even tend my roses (which I love to do) when I have a good day and can stand long enough to do them.

Gonna try this mix asap, I'll let you know how it works.

I would like to add this.

In looking up about gnats and repellants on the Internet, I read a study that focused on who got bit. It was found that some people the Gnats don't bother. Not even a little.

I get eggs from a Pig Farmer a few miles away. A month or so ago I stopped to talk to him. We stood in his front yard and talked for about 45 minutes. He was standing there with no shirt on. He's 79. The Gnats were swarming on me and I was flailing a lot with my hands. They also buzzed him quite a bit.

However they did not bite him. I asked him if he had a repellant on. NO he didn't. He thought it might possibly be because he swallowed  a Garlic Clove every morning.   

He said they never bite him, but the Ticks sure did.

With the Gnat mix.

When I sprayed it on it did keep the Gnats away for a time. After about a half hour I did get a few gnasts buzz me.

I didn't want anybody to miss - I used a rag and poured the Mix on it until the rag was dripping wet.

Then I liberally put it directly on my skin s on all potential surfaces. That worked the best.

So vinegar and garlic...
I';ll smell like a salad, but if it works, I'll suffer.
But one question, what o pig eggs look like?  

I just found that amusing, but I may try your remedy this evening.
Only one bite and I get an allergic reaction, I start to itch all over.

Solar

The Mix I posted is Vinegar and Vanilla

The Pig Farmer eats a clove of garlic a day. The Gnats don't bother him. They don't bite him.
It is his hypothesis that it could be the Garlic.

Then it may be he is one of those persons Gnats don't bite.

The Chickens are range fed on his mothers place which three miles from his farm.

When I say Pig Farmer he has about 50 pigs.

I met a lady at the VA that told me her and her husband did have 5,000 pigs.
They mostly gave it up because of the price of Feed. Ethanol production drove the price up very high.