some friends of ours went with us a couple years ago to va beach. His wife was eaten alive the first night there. We had spray on and citranella candles/tiki's going but we go to the beach the next day and I felt sorry for her. She literally had hundreds of bites all over her legs. That was day 1 and it never got any better for her the next 6 days. Fortunately no one in our family is that sensitive to it....my wife would probably be the closest....but it's still no fun trying to sit by the fire and constantly swatting them off of you.
We love going there and it's great for the kids so I want to find a solution or at least something that reduces them but if it doesn't improve we'll have to find a different vacation spot.