A friend of mine said he read in a magazine that large doses of vitamin B(s) keep bugs from biting you. Another person said his doctor had also told him that. Anyone ever heard of this? It could come in handy during camping, etc.
I’ve never heard that but you should probably find out which B-vitamin exactly (or what combo)if you OD on something like Niacin it’s gonna put you in some pain (cramps, vomiting diarrhea, body flush (piss a lot)) doesn’t sound to fun. All though most of the other B-vitamins are realitivly safe and don’t really have an effect on you if you OD.
Formerly known as Nec3f on the AOL SDMB
Never heard that one, but I have heard that mosquitoes get fairly upset (crying, pouting, not biting you type of upset) if you take a little extra zinc. I have not seen any real evidence of this working, but I perceive that it works for me (could be coincidence).
Yes, I have a friend that swears by the Vitamin B bug repellant. He takes it every time he goes out to play golf and never gets bug bites. But, I think that he, like me, is one of those people that are sorta bug bite resistant. I never get mosquito bites and never use any kind of bug repellant. Guess I am just naturally a repellant person… 
well, I don’t know about vitamin B or zinc, but for the past couple of years I have taken garlic to keep the bugs away. I thought it worked, but then I read an article saying that garlic doesn’t do much of anything. So I thought I would experiment. During a 2 week camping trip…week one=no garlic=many many mosquito bits. week two=garlic daily=no more mosquito bites. I was in the same place and didnt put anything on my skin at all. So I figure garlic works. 
tipi
Possible explanation of tipiwoo’s camping experience…
After taking the garlic, tipiwoo’s camping mates began to avoid tipiwoo, but they still stayed with each other. Considering that mosquitoes are attracted to carbon dioxide, the mosquitoes obviously bit all of tipiwoo’s camping mates, thus keeping the mosquitoes away from tipiwoo. This happened because there was a higher concentration of carbon dioxide around the group, rather than around the individual.
What have we learned here? Garlic is an all or nothing herb. You can take garlic, and repel all life forms; or not take garlic, and have your friends bite you (or something like that). Thanks for the tip, tip.
OK, but how do you get the bugs to take the vitamins? And what exactly constitutes a “large dose” for a mosquito?
The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik