Dam mosquitoes. >:(
Are there any practical ways of ridding them?
Mosquitos are a great sign that you shouldn’t be where you are. Living near standing water, for instance.
True. Is there not a natural way of lotion or ointment to get rid of them though?
In some places maybe, but mosquitos are a fact of life in many areas and not a sign that you are doing something wrong. There are various ways to make living with them not a problem by using smoke, clothing, and helpful plants.
This is from Tamarack Song.
Mosquito Bite Prevention:
Location
• Stay in the breeze. Mosquito can fly only eight m.p.h., so it doesn’t take much to waft her away.
• Create a breeze. A 50 yard dash will leave the swarm lost and confused. Repeat as necessary.
• Choose a high sunny location. Mosquito dehydrates easily, so seeks shade and low areas where the humidity is higher. If all else fails, climb a tree or perch atop a rock.
Clothing
• Wear long, loose-fitting garb to keep Mosquito from biting through to skin. Earth hues disguise us in the Woods; green is best, brown rates second. White masks your silhouette in the open. Blue is worst; Mosquito mistakes it for a flowering plant from which she draws sustaining juices. Red flags her in also, as well as other insects. (Below-waist colors aren’t as critical; Mosquito will bite regardless.)
• Air out outdoor clothing so that it does not harbor attractive odors.
• Drape a Fern frond, long hair or something similar over head and face. Mosquito doesn’t like close overhead shadows or feeling boxed in while feeding.
Movement
• Go slowly, remain calm. The more we sweat, breathe and agitate, the more Mosquitoes we will attract and from a farther distance.
• Walk first in line. The cumulative draw of a group of people is felt more the farther back in line one is.
Diet
• Eat raw garlic. The essence laces breath and exudes from skin pores, masking your lunch call.
• Eat foods and drink aromatic teas indigenous to your area. You’ll then smell like you belong. (I learned this from the local Natives, who did it to camouflage for the hunt.)
• Avoid stimulants and sugar. They rev up the metabolism, which sends out louder invitations.
Skin Slatherings
• Oil your skin. Mosquitoes are obsessive about keeping their wings grease-free.
• Apply an aromatic oil such as Cedar (or other conifer) or crushed orange peel, onion or garlic. Give special attention to the warmest, leanest parts of your body  neck, armpits, ears, wrists  wherever blood vessels are close to the surface.
• Teas of the above will work also, but lose effectiveness when they dry. Sweat keeps them active.
• Smoke skin, hair and clothing. Make a small smudge fire, hold clothing over smoke and work into hair.
• Avoid scented personal care products and laundry detergents. They are seductive perfume to Mosquito when activated by body heat.
Time
• Choose midday or after dark to be out. Mosquitoes are most active at dawn and dusk.
• Choose a cool over a hot day, a sunny over a cloudy day, a low-humidity over a high-humidity day.
For Your Camp
• Welcome Dragonflies and foster ponds  their breeding ground. They can consume their weight in Mosquitoes in a half hour, they’ll fly miles for the meal, and they can spot the buggers 50 feet away. Immature Mosquitos, called wrigglers, are water dwellers and the favorite food of Dragonfly larvae–also water dwellers. Old favorites like Bats and Purple Martins include an average of only a couple percent Mosquitoes in their diets.
• Keep a section of yard open to sun and breeze.
When On the Trail
• Follow the guidelines under Location in choosing your campsite.
• Make a smudge fire to create a dense, cool, low-hanging smoke. When smoke hangs around, the Mosquitoes don’t.
• Sit tight. If the Mosquito population is light to moderate, those in your immediate vicinity will soon satiate themselves (or get massacred  your choice) and you’ll be left with just the occasional drifter to feed.
• Brush them off. Our most common Mosquitoes take several seconds after landing to bite, so keepin’ them hoppin’ with a periodic sweep can be a temporary fix.
Um, land of 10,000 lakes.
There aint no dry spots here 
Something that always worked for me as a teenager was simply being dirty. Not sweaty or anything, just having a light dust on my skin. I think it made me less palitable. This is anecdotal at best, though, use your grain of salt.
I found that simply smoke works the best, but when that fails I simply chew up some westren red cedar leaves and rub them on my exposed skin. Also, I have heard of people using any old animal fat that they have laying around, but I am not sure exactly how well it works. Westren red cedar was even used by local pnw tribes as a skeeter repellant. I am curious as to find out if diet has any effect on misqiuto behavior. For example, if I were to eat foods higher in sugar, would i attract more? I have found that quite simply, after a extended period in the woods, the bites tend to decrease.
skeeters are pretty fussy about oil getting on their wings, unfortunately, i’m just as fussy about oil/grease on my skin :-\
I use mud. Just cover all my exposed skin in mud, Scout Style, and they pretty much leave me alone. Has the added effect of keeping you cool tempurature-wise.
I love how mosquitoes help keep me on my toes. Oh, how I miss them right now sitting in my air conditioned house and them going out of season. The biting flies now they keep me more than just on my toes, they kick my ass if I don’t ready myself well enough.
holy fuck. this weekend, I tried to go down to a patch of persimmons I know about near the Wabash River, and the mosquitoes literally stopped us. It has never been that bad. At that point, if there was no car invovled, i would have set that whole fucking forest on fire. seriously. it WAS that bad.
usually, I have no problems with them. My lack of soap and processed foods is usually enough. But sometimes, it’s not a good time to leave the nest 
…you mean other than humans?!.. ;D I’d have to say head-lice…
Alex
Nonhemophagic predatory treehole mosquitos are my friends. And mosqito fish(Gambusia). Epazote leaves crushed and rubbed on the skin. Camphor weed is just as good and these two plants will also keep gnats out of your ears.
Who else out there has hoarded mosquito head nets?
I have tried tansy crushed and rubbed on my skin with some success.
Tansy is very rare here.
I’ve read that American Beautyberry leaves can repel mosquitos if you rub them on your skin, but I haven’t tried it yet. They grow everywhere here.
If you have wild tarragon growing, that can work as a rub-on repellant.
Yeah, I thought this post would be about humans. Mosquitoes aren’t that bad. I swell up and itch like crazy from mosquito in most locales. (I have noticed a difference in allergic reactions in very different geographic locations.) But seriously, humans are way worse.