Touring - What is the best mosquito defense?

Other than deet, does anyone spray their tend with permetherin, light mosquito coils or anything else to keeep the skeeters at bay that works. I am considering taking my OFF! PowerPad with me. It seems to do ok on my back patio so why not in some nice quiet bog that i decide to set my tent up in.

I have heard that smoking a cigar has been effective in keeping them away.

Ride faster.

For a recent tour in Sri Lanka, I brought along both a DEET-based product and a plant-based product called Natrapel (www.tendercorp.com/natrapel.html). I found that Natrapel worked quite well for me, so I never bothered with DEET. The little vial of Natrapel seems to last quite a while, too. It smells nice and doesn't leave a sticky residue. I use it now when I'm working in my garden, where mosquitoes are a major annoyance in the summer.

On the tour I just did, we bought a small citronella candle at a gas station - that did the trick. My brother told me that some magazine (Backpacker maybe) just did a test of different repellants and the Burts Bees non-toxic stuff did just as well as DEET.

smoke, onions, maby garlic, and cut back on sweeets. Oh yeah, wise sight choices, in the wind, away from swamps.

Infrequent showers.

I used to be a great proponent for natural defenses. However after a recent canoe trip in the Okefenokee I was overwhelmed by the no-see-ums, gnats, mosquitos, and I think there were also vampire bats and flying gators as well. DEET. Simply put it works. It will probably cause cancer in your great grand children, but it works. Try the rest and when you can't stand it anymore, damn the torpedoes and DEET away.
--A

Take bats with you. They eat mosquitos.

Here is a thread that might help.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=195916

You coud try eating vegemite sandwiches. There is something in the stuff that the critters don't like, and it tastes real good too (although the English would swear blind that marmite is better.)

My mother is an entomologist who specializes in minimal pesticide use (and is actually rather well known in that small little world). She uses DEET. Thats good enough for me. Nothing is more effective except wind and riding faster. Other things do "work," but not as well as DEET,
However, take a shower as soon as you can after using it.

Every since I grew up and left home I have chosen to live in dry or Meditteranen (sp?) climates. Ergo no mosquitos. Beats DEET any day.

Every since I grew up and left home I have chosen to live in dry or Meditteranen (sp?) climates. Ergo no mosquitos. Beats DEET any day.
There were more mosquito's in my backyard in Sacramento than anywhere else I've lived.

One thing that works much better than Deet is one of those bugjackets. I forget what they are called, they basically look like cheezecloth, you put them in a sealed bag with some citronella, and then pull them out to wear them. Citronella may not be as nasty as deet, but the jacket has way more than you would put on your skin, so the effect is much more powerful. Of course if the heat allows you can wear a bug proof jacket. MEC sells some.

If the tent has good netting why bother covering it with anything. Just get in there, with a flashlight, kill everything that moves, and then sleep. Use pee bottle.

One thing that is more fun than deet are those tennis racket shaped units that have batteries in them, and you push a buttom and wave it in the air, and the mosquitos that touch the "strings" catch fire or explode. It's actually really effective, in certain situations, and wildly entertaining. I can grab a mosquito out of the air an crush it at will. The problem with the rackets is that one tends to want the light show and goes searching for the device. In the end one takes some hits just getitng the thing out.

The only real solution to bugs is winter.

every time i've been canoeing in canada or the boundary waters i've used deet. the little bastards still bite the living hell out of me. but from experience it's the difference between being able to count the number of bites on me and trying to count the number of stars in the sky.

They won't bite through deet, but a lot of people put it on like cologne, a dab here and there. I've seen guides put it one like it was sun tan lotion. Before West Nile I would put up with some bites rather than bathe in the stuff.

It's actually a misnomer to call the stuff repelent, it just confuses or masks the fact that you are something they want to bite into. So if you don't cover the particular section they are hovering over or if it's clothing that they can bite through and you haven't oversprayed it, then they may well bite you. It's not mosquito tear gas where a stray wiff on the wind might induce suffering and drive them off.

Much bike clothing is: a) too tight to provide protection; b) the wrong colour; c) is adversely affected by deet.

I used to just accept bites as a necessary evil of bike touring, until a friend told me about taking B-12. Apparently, B12 bitters your blood and mosquitos are able to smell it through your skin, and they avoid you. (Eating a ton of garlic works the same way) When I did a weeklong tour this spring I took a 1000microgram B12 pill (probably overkill) each day and I don't remember being bitten once. It wasn't high mosquito season yet (it was pretty damn cold actually) but it was promising.

I don't like using bug repellant so that's not a solution for me.

I don't have any scientific proof of this, just anecdotal evidence...

About three years ago I gave up drinking orange juice in favour of eating whole oranges (peeled of course). I'll eat maybe two or three a week, and since that time I've not been bitten very much by mosquitoes. I've been sweaty, salt-encrusted and breathing hard in the woods (mtb and other sports), and the skeeters have hovered over my skin but refused to land - while others around me have been eaten alive. And I used to get my fair share of bites.

Maybe the citrus has made my blood go sour? Or perhaps that B12 recommendation has some merit!

P.S.: I'll still use DEET for blackflies (noseeums) and horse and deer flies though.

Don't camp in a bog.

Deet, although very effective, tends to dissolve plastic (knob/buttons on radios and electronic gear, sunglasses, eye-glass lenses, cameras etc) and is also carcinogenic. For a more permanent solution set up some bat houses on the south side of your house.

I eat lots of garlic and that tends to repel all manner of pests, incuding mosquitoes. When I'm outdoors or camping, I find a wide-brimmed hat not only keeps the sun off, but is very effective for keeping bugs away when it starts to get dark.

- Wil

Last year I used: OFF Skintastic Insect Repellent. It worked fine when you ride (on the move). It also smells nicely. However, on camping didn’t work too well. I've got some mosquitoes bites. This year for sure I’ll try something else.

I use the bug repellant that is like lotion but it has DEET in it. what's wrong with DEET anyway? How does it harm you/how much do you have to use for it to harm you?

The oils in citrus peels are used in some bug repellants spelling not prob accurate but maybe spelled Pyrethins? I used it years ago on my dogs who were suffering terribly from fleas in the days before the current meds, That and closing a vacation house in Galveston Tx helped a lot........those Galveston fleas were industrial size

Permetherin is great. It's tough to get in NY though.

And check this out...(to bad I live in NY)

http://www.cutterinsectrepellent.com/BrandNav/BrandNews/CAPicardin.htm

I use the bug repellant that is like lotion but it has DEET in it. what's wrong with DEET anyway? How does it harm you/how much do you have to use for it to harm you?
Its absored in the skin and causes cancer. How much do you need to use to caquse cancer? Probably quite a bit, unless you're bathing in DEET daily, i wouldn't worry that much. Esp oif you shower at night after using it.

When I was doing an expedition in Kenya back in 2000 for a month.

Used 50% Deet thing would eat synthetic clothes though, and stank if you put it on in enough amounts to be effective.

I switched to borrowing one of the girls who were on the trip... "skin so soft" by Avon in the uk. Its a wierd skin moisturiser but my god... it stinks, but its damn effective. I went from 1 or 2 bites and sitting having a pint outside at night with a mozzie net over my head and my pint, to sitting out at night and not getting bit at all.

Great stuff!!! just pongs a bit, so just give yourself a decent wash before you head towards civilisation.

I switched to borrowing one of the girls who were on the trip... "skin so soft" by Avon in the uk. Its a wierd skin moisturiser but my god... it stinks, but its damn effective. I went from 1 or 2 bites and sitting having a pint outside at night with a mozzie net over my head and my pint, to sitting out at night and not getting bit at all.

I wish I could find the chart I had found to show the effectiveness of different insect repellants by brand, including kids' stuff and skin so soft. Basically it came down to time of effectiveness. They all work, but skin so soft worked for only 15 min- 1/2 hour, followed by kids' stuff up to 50% (it'll give the skeeters cancer) DEET. It all comes down to time.

Its absored in the skin and causes cancer. How much do you need to use to caquse cancer? Probably quite a bit, unless you're bathing in DEET daily, i wouldn't worry that much. Esp oif you shower at night after using it.

To my knowledge that has never been proved by anyone despite being studied numerous times and being in use for 50 years. Although, it has been shown that a few people may develop allergic reactions to it. In general DEET is very safe.

Ride where it's freezing cold

I study malaria mosquitoes for a living. DEET is most effective, but it DOES react with and melt plastic so be careful for your sunglasses or wristwatch. There does not seem to be a difference in repellancy between DEET at 18% and DEET at 100%, so don't go nuts on the concentration. It has not been shown to cause cancer, despite intense efforts to detect a link, so I trust it.

Skin-so-Soft works, but is pretty mild. No repellant will seem to work when the mosquitoes number in the tens of thousands. The best defense for those situations is to avoid bad areas/hot spots and certain times of day.

Most mosquitoes, and many bloodsucking flies, have a times when they are most aggressive. Outside of these times the numbers attacking can die off dramatically. For many species this typically falls around the hours of sunrise and sunset. There are some species that feed in full light. Still, it can help dramatically to take shelter for a few hours at those times.

Even species that feed primarily in twilight will take advantage of you if you wander into a sheltered area (barn, thick shade, etc.), which is where DEET and clothing choice comes in. I love linen for this reason, and wear a loose fitting long sleeved shirt (sprayed with repellant) and a cloth hat saturated with DEET into the field. My touring tent is essentially a giant mosquito net with a detachable rain tarp, so you might seek tent shelter for an hour or two before trying to cook your dinner.

Many mosquitoes also prefer darker colors, so I wear white shirts and the like, making me look like I'm biking on my way to a meeting. Black, red, and brown are the worst. Mosquitoes can't see red, so they see red as black.

I just read the other posts and someone brought up an excellent suggestion. They sell mosquito net 'hats' at some outdoor stores. Get one. It covers your head with a netting, making you look stupid, but allowing you to set up camp or what have you. In combo with a loose long sleeved shirt and long pants, you'll be mostly set.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=pd_sl_aw_tops-1_blended_14338306_2/103-8724371-7281438?search-alias=aps&keywords=mosquito%20net%20hat

I'm told that in the Amazon, the local population uses their own urine, as a deterrent--pee in your hands and rub it over your body. I have not personally tried it, but I'm sure in a fit of desperation under a mosquito bombardment, without any other defenses, I would try it before going stark raving mad!

fillthecup - have you dabbled w/ permetherin or picardin?
I can personally attest to the time of day thing. A friend and I were fishing at Democrat Point at the very end of Robert Moses State Park here on Long Island. The only way to get there is by several miles of 4x4 driving through scrub pine, bayberry and white sandy beach. Right when the sun went down the mosquitos decended on us. It was maddening. In our eyes, in our noses. I dowsed myself in Backwoods Off, then threw on my Helly Hansen, pulled every drawstring and velcro tab super tight and dowsed it with Off. I could feel the bugs crawling under the drawstring in my hood to bite at me. I lasted about 5 minutes before I had to get out of there, air conditioning blasting to try to create positive pressure to get those skeeters out of my jeep. My friend pulled out a beekeeper's outfit out from somewhere, but he only lasted another 10 minutes. I had mosquito bite welts all over my body for over a month.

What I want to know is what do they eat when I'm not there?

I haven't used permethrin or picaridin, although the WHO are trying to distribute permethrin infused bednets in Africa as part of integrated malaria management program. I wouldn't want permethrin touching my skin though, it's a neurotoxin that is known to cause some bad symptoms if poisoned, and has been linked to cancer. On the other hand, DEET has few reported cases of poisoning, and the symptoms in THOSE involved explosive diarrhea and (not kidding) delusions of grandeur.

There are many other critters that are bloodfeeders, esp around the water. Black flies for one, and they can emerge in the BILLIONS in productive streams and rivers. They also have a peak time of day. Horse and deer flies are horrible because they are so persistant. They fly around you wearing down your spirit until you just don't care. Or they'll bite a chunk of skin out, fly away, and sneak back to lap up the pooled blood.

Almost forgot wind. Mosquitoes are relatively poor fliers, reaching speeds of only 4-5mph tops. If you camp somewhere with a breeze that exceeds this it will effectively ground the mosquitoes.

"skin so soft" has worked for me

Once in a while, a can of Raid Yard Guard™ Outdoor Fogger comes in handy... not exactly PC, but very effective. To quote a friend as he fogged our campsite one evening, "I've had enough of this defensive sh*t... I'm out to kill the bloody bastards."

Once in a while, a can of Raid Yard Guard™ Outdoor Fogger comes in handy... not exactly PC, but very effective. To quote a friend as he fogged our campsite one evening, "I've had enough of this defensive sh*t... I'm out to kill the bloody bastards."

That is pretty much how I feel...kill them all...the little blood sucking, disease spreading *&^%@s!

A tip for those already stung: Heat up a sewing needle and poke the bite. it stops the itching. I'm not sure if that's been proven though.

I grew up and live next to the Okefonokee Swamp in Georgia and we knooooooow mosquitos. There is a thing called a "Thermacell." It uses butane cartidges and insect repellent mats. It heats up the mats which in turns gives off whatever is on the mat. It works great. Bass pro, Cabelas, and Walmart(if you are in the deep south) have them. They are 7"x2" in size. Hunters, fisherman, hikers and backyard enthusist love them. I have 3 and will not enter the woods down here without one. I hate bug spray on me of any kind so these things suit me great.

What is the best mosquito defense?

DEET and three days of below freezing temperatures.

you did say "best" right?

Eucalytpus Oil. I normally use the leaves straight from the tree.

Smoke also stops mozzies. Campfire smoke, or as suggested above a cigar :)