Biting insects are attracted to strong fragrances, whether in the form of body wash, lotion, hairspray, etc. At least in my experience. I don't see this thread going very far except "yeah man, you shouldn't wear ___ before going into the woods," so I'm going to go ahead and close it.
If you eat more fresh garlic (not dried), they probably won't bite you as much. If you want other ways to avoid the biting insects, use the search engine as there's gotta be a thread on that topic already (and if not, drop me or Simply_Live) a line and we'll reopen this for you for that purpose.