Mosquito Spray

[lrs]

What brand of mosquito spray works best for Alaska?

[mirage1988]

To add to that- do you use thermacells up there?

[Winter Hawk]

Cutters - Alaska aftershave!

Anything with Deet in it, the higher the percentage the better.

-WH-

[Dand]

Lately I've been liking the Repel 30%  and Deep Woods Off at 29 or 30%.  I used to like the high percent DEET formulas but no more. Just re-apply the other stuff a little more often. I started getting a little concerned about the health effects of being slathered in 100% deet all summer and have found for me, the 25-35% stuff generally works good enough. Also got tired of the damage the 100% deet did to stuff - touch many plastics and your hands are sticky and the plastic item damaged.

We finally have had enough warm days the mosquitos woke up this evening. Got a little chewed while I seeded my little garden (no bug dope on).  But the Mosquito Magnet is close by and was whirring away. It helps around the yard.

[Rex in OTZ]

Mosqito's, no-see-ums, white socks, hornets, bumble bees, deer fly's just to name a few can be expected to be found up the Arctic Coast in early summer, them darn little gants shure leave a nasty bite outta ya and they dont heal any time soon, I like wearing a good bug jacket of fine mesh I had Bug Armor but the no-see-ums crawl right through the weave and leave fireant painfull like bites all over you.

Deet is my buddy I like the Deep woods Off and Muskoil

Gotta remember to watch your plastic lensed glassis mine got etched last summer and have a permanent dirty apperance like you got spray'd with water and it dried specks, only these dont clean off!!

[corbanzo]

I guess I am an oxymoron when it comes to bug spray.  I love fishing and I love bens 100.  (100% deet)  It will melt through monofilament like you wouldn't believe, but it WORKS.  Just make sure you wash your hands and you should be good.  Been a while since I melted anything too bad.  Word of advice, anytime you wash your hands, whatever you are using, never wash above your palm going up to the wrist.  The wrist is a naturally warm area when they skeeters lover, and often goes unprotected and taken advantage of.  Oh yeah, and dont forget the small of your back and your ankles where seams in your clothes allow entry. 

I've never had any problems with bens damaging synthetic clothes.  Others may have, it's pretty potent stuff. 

[Rex in OTZ]

Them biteing ganats (white socks) were out early and in force, they dident even slow down on 40% DEET Deep woods OFF, they swarmed us and had a feast! lucky we had bug jackets so only the wrist's were mauled kept our shirt tails tucked and taped the pant legs was awlfull hot working in them conditions but whats a guy to do?
They were so thick they blackened our jackets, the constant Humm of insects when its still is a little odd but one gets used to all sorts of stuff. Never a dull moment in Alaska.
We set up Buehuac smudge and kept them lil fiends at bay till a breeze picked up and carried off our protective smoke layer.

[Dand]

Rex, your mention of a smudge brings to mind a trick I've used during the no-see-um season here in Dillingham.  When I run the weed eater or chain saw on a calm day I'll add a little more oil to the fuel to really smoke up the area. Between that and good ear muffs really helped make things bearable. Running the weed eater is bad because it stirs up the bugs from the brush and grass.  We have a strong crop of skeeters here right now and the white sox are coming on strong. Spent 3 says up on the Nushagak R and I'm sure glad we found an open sand bar. With a little drift wood fire going and frequent breezes it wasn't bad.  It got real calm for an hour one evening and the woods seemed to be humming.  I saw a lot of camps in thick brushy areas - I don't know why those spots are used instead of the bars - high water maybe. I did notice most folks have a good screen tent.  As it was, I didn't use much bug dope thanks to frequent breezes and staying out on the water a fair bit.

[Dand]

Since we are on the bug dope topic I decided to do a test last night while on a hike. Like one of my other posts says, we  have a strong crop of bugs right now - white sox and mosquitoes right now.  The no-see-ums come later. I did a 3 mile hike over bog, thick alders and wet tundra. On the out going part I started with some Cutter Advanced that uses 7% Picardin as the active ingredient.  I've heard this stuff is popular in Europe.

The stuff seemed to work but not for very long.  It was quite warm and I was hiking hard and was quickly sweating heavily.  The thick bugs kept me moving pretty steady except a few times when I was hacking a trail thru some alders.  I think I reapplied the stuff about 3 time on the 1.5 miles in. Like they say, it doesn't have the strong smell of DEET based repellent.

 After working a bit at my cabin I boogied home, this time with deep woods off well applied. Granted the temps had cooled a little so the bugs might have been slowing down but there still seemed like a plentiful cloud around me most of the return hike.  I think I resprayed with the Picardin stuff once on the way back - I did the back of my hands and watched for bugs now and then - they stayed off me for a little while.

Over all I would not bank on 7% Picardin for lots of protection but it might work as a short term option for folks who can't take DEET repellent. The container says it won't harm plastics and suggests its ok for kids  - "protection for the whole family" is how they term it.

So it might be worth a try or try a stronger formula if you can find it.  But carry some of your favorite DEET as back up.

I'm eager to try it out when the noseeums are thick - that will be the telling test. If it repels them it will be a miracle as those things seem to consider DEET as "a seasoning for their snacks".

[bilmac]

I think the GI issue repellent we used in Nam was 100% deet . It was close anyhow because it sure melted plastic. I'm not positive but I think it gave me a bad case of warts on the backs of my hands.

[williamlayton]

Now bugs abd skeeters are a subject I can identify with---along with a whole laundry list of biting, stinging bloodsucking suckers.
When I was a young'un working in the woods and swamps I would soak a tee shirt the night before in off or whatever and let it dry. That seemed too help.
Nothing being fool proof.
Blessings

[Dand]

Wm you are pretty tough then -interesting idea.  One year while I was working for Fish & Game, a dealer asked us to field test some special bug jackets. We were to soak the jackets in DEET (100% I think), dry them and wear them.  They were some sort of loose mesh and snagged on everything.  Maybe we didn't dry them enough but one day of trials and the smell nauseated me a lot. And by the time these were brought out, we'd been living with the bugs for 1  1/2 months and were pretty tolerant of them. I never tried it again.  Now there are very fine mesh No-See-Um jackets on the market and some work pretty well, especially for little kids. But they seem hot to me and I don't wear mine much except occasionally when picking huckleberries in the thick brush on a very calm day.