Bug Dope Choices

[Blissful]

we used Bens I tried that natural stuff and the deerflies at HF by the Potomac thought it was candy

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

Along the lines of the 'Don't Bite me' patch, I've had good results from taking a 250 mg thiamine capsule every morning and eating plenty of garlic. Bugs used to love me - now they don't.

[Obiwan]

Eat lots of garlic, it also repels other hikers!

And (presumably) vampires!

[Dogwood]

You might think you're in a Hindu Shrine, Buddhist Temple, or on Hight/Ashbury Sts., but another thing that I find helps keep the flying insects away is to bring along some incense. Light some up as you're setting up camp, eating dinner as you unwind from the day's hiking adventures, and overlooking your favorite scenery. It's cheap, light wt, can get the fragrances(smells?) you desire, and it doesn't have the possible negative side effects of some of the more questionable insect repellants.

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

You might think you're in a Hindu Shrine, Buddhist Temple, or on Hight/Ashbury Sts., but another thing that I find helps keep the flying insects away is to bring along some incense. Light some up as you're setting up camp, eating dinner as you unwind from the day's hiking adventures, and overlooking your favorite scenery. It's cheap, light wt, can get the fragrances(smells?) you desire, and it doesn't have the possible negative side effects of some of the more questionable insect repellants.

Hmmm... wonder if the fruity scents would attract bears?

[Jonnycat]

another thing that I find helps keep the flying insects away is to bring along some incense.

I used one of those "mosquito coils" once, then I discovered that they only work when there is no breeze.

[Gaiter]

Tonic water....

Tonic water (or Indian tonic water) is a carbonated soft drink flavoured with quinine, which gives it a distinctively bitter taste.
The drink has garnered its name from the medicinal effects of this bitter flavouring. The quinine was added to the drink as a prophylactic against malaria, since it was originally intended for consumption in tropical areas of South Asia and Africa, where that disease is endemic. The mixed drink gin and tonic originated in British colonial India when the British population would mix their medicinal quinine tonic with gin to make it more palatable..

[TIDE-HSV]

For many years, quinine was the only treatment known to ameliorate the symptoms caused by the malaria parasite. Later, there was a synthetic analog, Quninalone (sp?). My mother had malaria her entire adult life, so I grew up watching the effects of the chills and fevers of the outbreaks. She passed away in 1979, before more effective treatments were available...

[Erin]

Tennessee tick weekend is this weekend.... annual volunteer work project in water and weeds.....
Last year I used 'Cutter" Lemon Eucalyptis spray and it worked very well to keep the ticks off. I had no ticks. My brother pulled off over 20. I could not find it this year. So now I have Sawyer Insect repellent for my Tennessee tick weekend this weekend. It should have a skull and cross bones on it, but I don't care since I got ehrilichiosis at this same spot in Tennessee in 2007.

[sbhikes]

I never go anywhere without my headnet. I also have a hat that has a curtain to protect my neck that I can use if I don't want to use the headnet. Long sleeves and pants and multiple layers and when all that fails (which it can in those biblical plagues of mosquitoes) I get out the giant can of Repel.

[TIDE-HSV]

I never go anywhere without my headnet. I also have a hat that has a curtain to protect my neck that I can use if I don't want to use the headnet. Long sleeves and pants and multiple layers and when all that fails (which it can in those biblical plagues of mosquitoes) I get out the giant can of Repel.

We have a friend who is extremely allergic to insect bites. The last time she went with us to the Boundary Waters, she had sewn an entire net suit - shirt, pants, hood. She had tried the B vitamin routine before a trip to Okefenokee and almost got eaten alive...

[GolfHiker]

This is really good stuff... from having Tide-HSV's wife to act as my surrogate stand-in, to keorosene rags & vodka, with an assortment of sprays, patches, incense & home remedies. This topic seems to be important to all of us summer hikers. I am writing all of this down, checking it out & going forward with my best protection. Thanks to all.....

[Hikes in Rain]

There's always the Rancid Crabtree method. Don't wash, so you maintain the integrity of your protective crust.

[Marta]

Ah, Rancid Crabtree. I wish he would join Whiteblaze. We could all learn from the master!

(Seriously, back when he was a little lad, my son who could not be coerced, bribed, or wheedled into reading, finally got motivated to work on his skills in order to read Patrick McManus.)

[Hikes in Rain]

Way back when I was a little kid, just learning about the outdoors, Mr. McManus used to write for Field and Stream. I loved those short stories, related to them all, but for some reason, never noted the author for future reference.

MANY decades later, I came across one of those stories, and recognized it. The Internet had been invented then, and I've tracked down everything he's written. His Kid Camping from Aieeee! to Zip, in a first edition, is one of my prized possessions. I re-read it every few months.

Should be required reading, in my never to be humble opinion!

[ki0eh]

After years of sticking to the 3M Ultrathon, last year I switched to mostly using the Cutter Advanced (picaridin) - don't need to worry about melting my wicking clothes that way and it seems to work better for me (although not as long lasting).

[jod]

http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/docu...s-June2007.pdf U.S Army tells the soldiers to use 33% deet and permethrin on clothes.

I use deet for the biting bugs in the Whites. Works for me.