BUGS! Dealing with mosquitos, no-see-um's and other flying pests.

[Greenman]

I just finnished reading a thread on Sunscreen killing the reefs (I am sure a few of you seen it as well) and it made me think of Bug Juice. Anyways......

I was looking for an alternative to Deet/Citronella based insect repellant for my Dogs. The mosquito's in Saskatchewan were brutal, not huge like Manitoba, but millions of little ones. So, I was headed out to clear shooting lanes at my local archery clubs 3d range and thought I would try out one of the witch doctor solutions I had read on the interweb (love Corner Gas).

I used 1 part artificial vanilla extract to 6 parts olive oil, and whipped it with a mini AA battery powered drink whisk (very cool and only a $1 at the dollar store). The claim was that the vanilla repelled bugs and the oil help keep it on your skin AND was good for craggy old wood cutter archery shooting, ice fishing guy skin, to make it all soft and such.

So knowing full well I am going out into the woods on a hot day with a bunch of less than merciful guys smelling like a vanilla bean with soft skin to test the "product".

The bottom line is in 6 hours of sweating, cutting and hauling logs, I never got one mosquito bite and not one tick. I did take a bit of verbal abuse which almost made me cry. It's a good thing I am a craggy old wood cutter archery shooting, ice fishing guy who can take it .

So in my highly scientific experiment vanilla worked for me, and dudes only like the smell of vanilla on the fairer sex or in cake.

[Captain Smollett]

I just finnished reading a thread on Sunscreen killing the reefs (I am sure a few of you seen it as well) and it made me think of Bug Juice. Anyways......

I was looking for an alternative to Deet/Citronella based insect repellant for my Dogs. The mosquito's in Saskatchewan were brutal, not huge like Manitoba, but millions of little ones. So, I was headed out to clear shooting lanes at my local archery clubs 3d range and thought I would try out one of the witch doctor solutions I had read on the interweb (love Corner Gas).

I used 1 part artificial vanilla extract to 6 parts olive oil, and whipped it with a mini AA battery powered drink whisk (very cool and only a $1 at the dollar store). The claim was that the vanilla repelled bugs and the oil help keep it on your skin AND was good for craggy old wood cutter archery shooting, ice fishing guy skin, to make it all soft and such.

So knowing full well I am going out into the woods on a hot day with a bunch of less than merciful guys smelling like a vanilla bean with soft skin to test the "product".

The bottom line is in 6 hours of sweating, cutting and hauling logs, I never got one mosquito bite and not one tick. I did take a bit of verbal abuse which almost made me cry. It's a good thing I am a craggy old wood cutter archery shooting, ice fishing guy who can take it .

So in my highly scientific experiment vanilla worked for me, and dudes only like the smell of vanilla on the fairer sex or in cake.

Very Cool.  Grog for the experiment AND the entertaining write-up.

After reading this to my wife, she said, "well, it probably works with ANY scent just to cover your scent."

I promptly replied, "Maybe not ANY scent...I doubt if you use mosquito pheromone it will repel very well..."

I'll spare you the response I got from THAT reply....

[AdriftAtSea]

I think we need to have you do the test over with a control sample.  Say you leave on hand untreated and see if the mosquitos find that hand appealing... it could just be your natural body's defenses that kept the poor little skeeters away.

[Greenman]

No, I am pretty much mosquito bait if I go out with out repellant. Good thing for me that if I don't give in to the urge to scratch in the first 15-20 minutes the bite stop bothering me altogether.

[AdriftAtSea]

That's why I recommended using just a single hand...say your left, if you're a rightie... as the control.  We'd allow you to discontinue the testing regimen if you start getting eaten alive...

[mrb]

Think I will give that a test in Arkansas the spring.

[matt195583]

Another remedy for mosquitos that i use here is eucalyptus oil dettol and baby oil , doesnt smell to bad and skeeters seem to hate it .

[ThistleCap]

Bug repellant I'm sure is standard equipment on any boat, and I've never had a problem for decades, but thought I'd pass on what I learned the hard way.  While working on the interior, supplies were moved around to make room around the work area.  Since the chart table is the largest surface, most stuff was set there until returned to its rightful place.  I had recently finished eight coats of satin varnish on the chart table, but a can of Deep Woods Off aerosol leaked onto the table and completely removed the varnish in four areas.  Going back to the small print on the can, it does warn against using it around synthetic fabrics, plastics, varnished furniture, but I hadn't foreseen the possibility of a weeping container.

[s/v Faith]

That slap sound you may have heard was me slapping my forehead.

  I know that mosquito repellent will damage plastics, but never made a connection to the weird problems we had with the varnish on our combing boards.  I do not recall many times we used it, but apparently it was enough....

  ...Thanks for helping to solve a mystery. 

[AdriftAtSea]

Yes, the stronger DEET formulations are a serious problem, since DEET is a fairly aggressive plasticizer and will damage a lot of common plastics, rubber compounds, paints and varnishes.  It can also damage clothes, particularly synthetics.

[Marc]

I am a strong believer in banannas.  At least 2 a day.  I think it is the potassium that keeps them away.  I was at a campfire last weekend by the lake and everyone was running around for bug spray but me.  It"s the banannas that I tell them.  Marc

[s/v necessity]

Woaa...  now I have to reformulate my hypothesis.  Because normally mosquitoes don't bother me much, but if I have been eating bananas they tear me up!  I have always thought the potassium in them attracted the mosquito's.  On thing is for sure, somehow the bananas are related to mosquito bites.  Perhaps I don't eat enough of them?  For me If I haven't eaten bananas in several days or a week or so, I don't have much problems.  But If I've eaten one recently, definitely as far back as a full day ago, the mosquitoes tear me up. 

[s/v necessity]

Wow this is great.  Doing a quick google on mosquitoes and bananas it seems that both ideas are represented out there.  That avoiding bananas for over a week helps (my experience) and that eating LOTS of bananas helps.  I think the important thing must be that you have to eat LOTS.

    I can tell you from experience that more than once I've been out somewhere where everyone is running for bug spray and I am not being bothered, and then the next day I will be miserable and bug spray doesn't seem to even help much.  Each time I later realize that I had a banana for breakfast.   I've finally gotten to the point where I avoid bananas as much as possible when I think I am going to be in the field for long.  On the other hand I get muscle cramps and bananas do a very good job of preventing them.  Next time I slip up and eat a banana I'll just grab two more and see if it works!

[AdriftAtSea]

If the reason you're eating bananas is to help prevent cramps... eat oranges instead.  Less likely to attract mosquitoes, and has most of the same cramp alleviating benefits as bananas.

[CapnK]

Something happened, between last night, and this night.
...
..
.

MOSQUITOS!!!

...
..
.

Hmm, I don't think that conveys it properly.
...
..
.

Try #2:

MOSQUITOS!!!

Holy Schnikeys! Hardly any last night, but tonight they are so thick that, I kid you not, I have busted out the ShopVac TWICE, and I bet I've sucked up 200 of the little bloodsuckers. This is inside of the boat...

Please come back, Mr Mosquito Spraying Plane. Please?

I'm gonna have to DEET up before I lay down. Tomorrow, a trip to the shop to pick up a few yards of the netting...

[CapnK]

...and it gets even better...

I just saw a roach. A big 'un. Actually, the kind known as a Palmetto Bug - second in size in all of the world only to the roaches in Hawaii. And he was in a place I couldn't kill him before he got away...

So tomorrow, netting *and* Boric Acid powder and tablets...

Sigh.

When it rains, it, well, rains pretty darn hard, I reckon... 

[tomwatt]

I really sympathize with you. That's so unpleasant.
Brings to mind an entertaining (and comforting) newspaper retraction I read some years ago... "contrary to the report in yesterday's paper, chiggers cannot fly."
I've experienced those lovely flying cockroaches in Hawai'i that ought to qualify for the Audobon Society... nothing like getting smacked in the face by one of those guys winging around!
Don't suppose you can get a couple of geckos aboard? They used to run around the house (on the ceiling even) and chase down and eat cockroaches. Don't know if they do mosquitos.
I suppose it's not polite to ask if you have screens on your boat?

[CapnK]

Geckos would be cool. Used to love to watch them hunt those Hawaii megaRoaches. I don't know if they would survive our climate - summer would be OK, but winter gets pretty chilly...

Re: screens - I will have them tonight. They had fallen into disrepair thru disuse, it really has not been an issue at all for a couple of years. That is why last night was so surprising.

Hitchcocks "The Birds" sprang to mind when I switched on the cabin light and saw the flock...

[tomwatt]

My son tried to keep a pet gecko, but it didn't do well over the winter and succumbed. And this was in a terrarium with a little lamp to put out heat. As the temps cooled, it got more and more sluggish, and then stopped eating. Wish I had a solution, like sweaters or something, to offer. Because they are so relentless in tracking down and swallowing cockroaches. Certainly a great solution where it works.
The Birds.
Not a pretty memory.
Hope your night was more pleasant!

[marujo_sortudo]

I find that if you're reading Tristan Jones' The Incredible Voyage, you can easily be glad that you only have mosquitoes to deal with.  Works better than DEET