DEET aka…
Around here we call DEET “Adirondack Cologne.” Regardless of what you use, the one variable is the individuals own metabolism. Skin So Soft wll work iwth one person and not another. Same with the eucalyptus oils, and the cactus juice and the tabackky.
Personally, I’m a DEET guy…but my actual expose to the bugs is usually limited to the carry from the car to the water. Once paddling, the bugs aren’t much of a problem. In camp, the smoke from the campfire usually follows me everywhere, and that takes care of the bugs. SO I don’t need 8 hours of protection. One hour max is usually enough.
Have you ever pinched your skin while a mosquito is biting you? It traps its little proboscis in your hide and the little bloodsucker ends up sucking more blood than he can hold. In a few moments he explodes. It’s not a pretty sight, but strangely satisfying.
Why the bitterness?
I know people that sound like you coffee. (I used to be one thats why I find satisfaction writing this) Your bitter, not because someone else has a better way but because they might think they have a better way, while your way goes by the wayside uncelebrated. And by the way, it takes about 60 seconds to aply bug spray(which may save your life) and maybe 2 or 3 minutes for sunscreen. Which is probablly as long as it takes you to tie your shoes and adjust your sock suspenders. And when it comes to waisting time I won’t wait for you either. My hightech gear is lighter and I’m probably a lot healthy and faster too.
Coffee, I need to take you to the Texas
bayou I camped on several years ago for the longest weekend of my life.The local cattle, no BS , were dying from lack of blood from the mosquitoes.Those things could bite you through a web chair. They turned your clothes black from the shear mass of them. We used every repellant known to man and still were repeatedly bitten.And mosqitoes don’t typically like me.
As for sunscreen, how do you spell Melanoma? No ears? Snap on nose? Death at 45 ?
Great
You sound like my kind of guy (No not that way, I am married). Like myself, you sound like a smart butt. Makes life more fun.
read it again…“used to use”.
More about DEET
Personally, I haven’t noticed any difference between one brand of DEET and another, and it seems unlikely there would be a difference, but I prefer the 100-percent stuff partly because it’s not so greasy. When I want 100-percent, I get whatever brand I can find (usually either Deep-Woods Off or Muskol). Unlike Consumer Reports, I’ve found that 100-percent DEET lasts MUCH longer than the 30-percent stuff in real-world conditions (such as heavy exercise and sweating). If I don’t need such long-lasting protection, I use a miniscule amount of 100-percent DEET and spread it around thoroughly. The drip bottles or “spritz” bottles are a lot better than aerosols, because it forces you to use a sensible measured dose and then spread it where it’s needed, rather than “fogging” yourself unnecessarily. Also, a small amount of non-aerosol DEET can be applied to a large area of clothing if you rub it between the palms of your hands, then add a little water and wipe it on your clothes. Add water two or three more times (without using any more repellant on your hands) and you can rub even more onto your clothes.
As to the 100-percent stuff not really being 100 percent, look at the label and the remainder is listed as “other isomers”. My guess (but what do I know?) is that after DEET is produced, they either don’t need to or don’t bother to purify it to the greatest possible degree, but that’s not the same thing as putting something “else” to the mixture.
Don’t speak for me, Thanks.
DEET is the only proven…
chemical treatment that works. Actually calling it a “repellant” is a misnomer because it does not repell any known insect. Rather it blocks an insect’s ability to sense that we are warm blooded mammals. In other words if you have 100% DEET on, the insect cannot tell the difference between you and a tree. This is not a guarantee that any given insect would not sting you, but is it less likely. And they can and do still fly up your nose if they find it.
In very high insect density situations, therefore, the best solution is to use the insect proof clothing that is available from companies like LL Bean, REI, and Cabella’s. I find the clothing hot down here in South Florida, but anyone who has visited a place like Lignum Vitae Key will attest that the the bug screen clothing is the only real answer in very bad conditions. The clothing is also much more eco-friendly than DEET.
DEET will dissolve anything plastic, too, so be careful what you touch if the stuff is on your hands.
Regards,
Bill
You went from one extreme to the other
What made you stop using the other stuff?
Bug suits
I have one. Being a mechanical barrier, it definitely works. But it needs tweaking. I think the hood, jacket, and pants should have some kind of collapsing offsets that hold the fabric away from the skin at all places. Sort of a one-person walking tent with separate legs.
It works for me
The place was Florida, hot and humid and VERY buggy. I forgot my bug repellent and was miserable. The woman at the campground offered me Skin-so-soft and said “it only works on some people”.
Well, it works for me.
It smells better than most of stuff on the market. Besides, Avon didn’t designed it to be bug repellents, just skin moisturizer. It’s people who used it found it happens to repel bugs FOR SOME PEOPLE, not everyone.
People can be so narrow-minded! Just because something doesn’t work for you, doesn’t mean it doesn’t for anyone else. And the same goes for more than just bug repellants, too!!!
Ex’s Smell Nasty
I think that stuff my “x” used is pretty good. Drove me away!!! (LOL)
DEET or others
"Personally, I haven’t noticed any difference between one brand of DEET and another"
Neither do I. So far, every kind of bug spray I tried from supermarkets works for me, even Skin-so-soft.
I’m not that “attractive” to bugs. So I only need to use the stuff in high bug density area. Florida swamps, Alaska and the Adrondecks are the only places I use these things at all. Since I often don’t travel with bug sprays, I grab whatever I can find in the local drug store, and my preference are based on better (or less yucky) smell.
bug suit
if you’re really in a buggy area, say, like the Everglades, just get a bug suit. Make sure it’s for no-see-ums. I’ve walked through some of the most remote swamps in this region and came away with only a few bites. And if you think the bugs are bad where you come from, spend a few hot, muggy weeks in the coastal Everglades. It will make you appreciate your home paddling areas.
Motivation To Practice Braces & Rescues
The bugs remind me that I really should be spending some time underwater
I used to use it due to all the “hype”…
about the different things “supposedly” contracted by misquitos. After years of getting bitten & sitting on fire ant mounds/logs, I realized that it was mostly a watse of money to keep buying & waste of time to keep applying. Now if I here a misquito, I sawt it away or stand in the smoke path from the fire for afew minutes. That seems to do the trick better than any “off the shelf” product.
The military stuff I was refering, did work great! But it took 24 hours to prep your equipment, just took too long.
There has been two or three reported case of west niles here in the past four years. I don’t see any cause for alarm. Besides How can a disease be new? If it is “new”, then it has to be man made. Diseases have been around forever only it takes time to discover it’s exact existance & name it. I think (personally) that west niles has been around alot longer than when they say it was “discovered” (discovered being the key word here). Who knows, maybe even countless lives have been claimed by it that we know nothing about. I just refuse to live in fear of the unevetabble. Things will always happen, good & bad. You just need to find the peace to accept them.
That is why I nolonger waste the time going to the store & the money buying the product & more time going to the woods & even more time putting it on. I eliminate the “waste” and go from home to the woods.
Paddle easy,
Coffee
When I was a smoker…
…decades ago, mosquitos left me alone, but I don’t regret quitting. I also think the concept of “biochemical individuality” applies-different lotions for different folks. It’s not like skegs, where there’s Only One Right Answer.
B-1
I read on the net last year about a fisherman who took one B-1 tablet a day during fishing season.I tried it and it worked really well.I didn’t get bit all last summer.The only problem occured when I would sweat you could smell the B-1.Not all the time ,only when I sweated alot.I am going to do it again this year.
just wanted to comment…
…that those bracelets that you snap around your wrist are only marginally useful if you take them off and use them to SWAT at the bugs.