Bendigo retailers are scrambling to meet demand for mosquito repellents and bite treatments as an infestation of water-borne bugs continues to wreak havoc on locals. 

Chemist Warehouse Bendigo retail co-ordinator Kim Marlow said the store's shelves were emptied by Bendigonians plagued by the irritating bug. 

Customers were looking for "the heavy duty stuff", Ms Marlow said.

She said there had never been this amount of demand for repellent in her three years working in a pharmacy.

Bendigo man Cameron Crothers posted a picture on Twitter from inside one of the city's supermarkets last night, showing shelves once stocked with anti-mosquito measures almost bare. 

And it is not just preventative lotions and potions being bought in big numbers. 

Ms Marlow said treatments to soothe itching mosquito bites had also been popular.  

"They're (customers) talking about the huge numbers of them," she said. 

The insect's population, which has exploded after September flooding, is leaving some residents no choice but to call in the heavy artillery. 

Bunnings Epsom lifestypes co-ordinator Anthony Thomas said his hardware store had only just received a new shipment of 'bug zappers'.

Citronella candles and repellent coils were also proving popular among shoppers who shared horrors stories of swarms of unusually large mosquitoes, Mr Thomas said.