I don't feel the insects were quite so bad my second time out as my first, but maybe I was just used to the bites by then. As it turned out, the very night I went out for the second time the sky was also clear at my family's house some hours' drive to the west and they managed to see the comet too. I'm not quite sure I ever managed to see it without my binoculars, but the tail became obvious enough on looking through them.