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[Aquillion]

There's a paper on the history of insect repellents here.  The ancient Egyptians and Romans, say, used lamps with a mixture of oil and vinegar to repel insects, or smeared the stuff on their skin.

It would be useful to be able to do something about flies, and it would add another use for the alchemist's workshop.

[scale_e]

2nd'd

Could be another use for the Cleaning labor.

[Impaler[WrG]]

This is a rather interesting and original suggestion, it would certainly be a good way to prevent those "Bothered by terrible vermin" unhappiness events, it has a good Player vs Environment feel too, is gritty and really puts you into the time period and probably won't be too hard to implement.

[Aquillion]

And, of course, if this was added insects could then be made nastier in some ways (and in certain places) -- in a frozen map it probably wouldn't be necessary, but for a fortress deep in the rainforest it could be absolutely essential to get rid of horrible swarms of bloodsucking insects that give you diseases and so on.

[Neonivek]

Egyptians had Insect Repelling Eye Shadow! Though they apperantly banned the lower classes from using it.

"Only we may have insect free eyeballs!"

[Tormy]

This is a rather interesting and original suggestion, it would certainly be a good way to prevent those "Bothered by terrible vermin" unhappiness events, it has a good Player vs Environment feel too, is gritty and really puts you into the time period and probably won't be too hard to implement.

Agreed. This is a fine little suggestion, even if it sounds trivial. 

[Footkerchief]

Very original.  The next version will have some first hints at hygiene/grooming -- dwarves will use soap for cleaning the wounded and possibly clean themselves when not wounded, as well as groom their scalp/facial hair etc.  So this could be another one of those activities.  Perhaps they'd make it one of their habits depending on whether they had been (or would have been, if they happen to be wearing repellant already) bothered by flies recently.  So they'd start using it of their own volition and stop if it was no longer useful.

[Warlord255]

Insect repellent is a necessity if only because, at present, there is no way to defend against Flies. No matter how many airtight doors you put in, they will ALWAYS get in. A way to ward them off would go a long way towards alleviating certain player's OCD/germophobic inclinations.

[chucks]

I like the idea.  There could be a new labor class called something like 'exterminator' or 'pest extermination'.  It could be related to the animal training and animal care for skill synergies in future work.  You would probably only want one fulltime exterminator for even a very large fortress, but it would be nice to see atleast one dwarf making sure the food stockpiles are free from vermin.

[DennyTom]

I like it but ... I like having vermin as last safety food source - you know ... sometimes, when world has burned, all your fort is 3/7 under water, food stockpile empty and region under siege.

[Impaler[WrG]]

I like the idea.  There could be a new labor class called something like 'exterminator' or 'pest extermination'.  It could be related to the animal training and animal care for skill synergies in future work.  You would probably only want one fulltime exterminator for even a very large fortress, but it would be nice to see atleast one dwarf making sure the food stockpiles are free from vermin.

Wouldn't the existing trapper profession be appropriate for this, they are supposedly the ones keeping away vermin like rats, why not insects.  Admittedly they are not trapped in the same way but if anyone would know how to do it, it would be the trapper.

P.S.  The original Poster should add this idea to the Eternal Suggestions vote so that it is not lost, and don't forget to link the suggestion to this thread.

[Pilsu]

Burning things while miles underground is profoundly stupid. They'd probably be more inclined to use toxins like milk laced with toxic mushrooms

[SirHoneyBadger]

Fly agaric is the one that's commonly mixed into milk and used for killing flies.

Fly agaric-by the way-aside from being somewhat poisonous, is also a strong and unpredictable hallucinogenic. Despite being toxic, it was (and continues to be) used as a food source, after parboiling in lots of water.

[Apegrape]

It would be good if you could make "exterminator patrols" where assigned exterminators would go by regularily with said lamps, smoking them out and so on.