Originally Posted by cyccommute
Click
here for a DEET data sheet. If you want a much more scientific paper, you can get it
here. The upshot of both is that it is effective but can cause rashes if used in too high a concentration. The Cornell paper says that it has an LD50 in rats of 1500 to 2700mg/kg. What that means is that if you force feed a 2.2 pound rat 2.7g of the stuff, half of the group will die. That's 0.8% of the rats body weight so for you and a friend of around 180 lbs, you'd have to down around 1.4 pounds of the stuff to possibly kill one of you.
DEET is nasty smelling and tastes really horrible (which would make downing 1.4 pounds of the stuff difficult!) but it does keep the mosquitoes away. It doesn't kill them, just confuses them. From what I've read elsewhere about the "natural" products, you'd be just as well off using remedies that Lewis and Clark used, like mud, bear fat and dung. The natural repellants are equally as effective...which is to say they aren't
Thanks for the link cyccommute. I think DEET might be the ticket for me. I am however worried about it being nasty smelling. The taste does not have me worried, as I know I won't be tasting it, not to talk of eating it.
Is the smell really really bad?
I'll also stay far away from the "natural repellants" like bear fat and dung.
On a lighter note, isn't it possible that another bear might get angry, or maybe amorous from catching a whiff of some bear dung or fat in the air? Kinda like human pheromones/perfume with the fat and "another bear taking a dump in my territory" with the dung. The last thing I want to do is turn a bear on, or get it angry, on what is my very first backpacking trip.
Regards,