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 :D.
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.
Quote from: Greenman on February 21, 2009, 06:55:17 AM
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 :D.
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..." ;D ;D ;D
I'll spare you the response I got from THAT reply....
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. :)
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.
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... :)
Think I will give that a test in Arkansas the spring.
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 .
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.
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. ;)
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.
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
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.
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!
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.
Something happened, between last night, and this night.
...
..
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MOSQUITOS!!!
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Hmm, I don't think that conveys it properly.
...
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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...
...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... ::)
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?
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... ;D
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!
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 ;)
While reading Tristan Jones, please bear in mind that while the man was a wonderful story teller, he was also a consumate liar.
Much, if not most of his stories were manufactured out of "whole cloth"
Doesn't diminish the great stories- I have a bookshelf full of his books, but don't take them TOO seriously.
I am surprised we have not discussed this more. There are many wonderful things about being aboard in the summer time. Bugz aint one of them.
We have used 'baby carrage nets' aboard Faith for some time... they are stretchable nets with elastic bands that fit around the companionway quite nicely. They are tough to find, but Campmor has them right now for $5 (http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___86679) (other places are sold out). I guess they could be used on the foredeck hatch, but we have purpose built screens for that.
(http://www.campmor.com/wcsstore/Campmor/static/images/acc/86679.jpg)
On the trip aboard Fairwinds, I was introduced to a large 'cot net' that could be draped over the cockpit (either over the dodger/bimini, or suspended from the boom) and transform the cockpit into a 'bug free zone'.
I am in California right now, and went to look for the net at my local REI.... I was surprised to find they cost $30. I just checked their website (http://www.rei.com/product/729007) and was surprised to find them for about half that;
(http://media.rei.com/media/ii/6cd3eec8-4520-4755-be55-9ab2c80a2369.jpg)
Ya know, we have had so little trouble with Mosquitos it's amazing. Since we got out of Louisiana I think we had the screens inonly two or three nights. Mostly for no-seeums not mosquitos.
Frankly I'm a bit surprised. Delighted of course, but surprised.
MOSQUITOS!!!! I am in Alaska, two of em hit you at the same time up here you fall over :o
Actually so far we haven't had much of a problem, but we are prepared. Mary made up a canopy of no-see-um netting to hang from the awning of the RV, allowing us to go out the side door into a screened porch of sots. I can tell you though there are different qualities and sizes of mesh. Here is a site that tells a little about them.
http://www.mosquitocurtains.com/home/mosquito-netting.html
Well as they say it's all chemical, everyones body chem is differant it seems so one thing works on one and something else works for another. Sugar is quite an attracting culpert,due to health I've had to cut out the sugar much better than when I ingested lbs. of sugar.They say Thymine is also a good preventer. But I'm still stuck on lighting my citronella candle for about fifteen min. before I bed down and they usually look for a less fragrant place.
Quote from: Tim on July 13, 2010, 09:43:24 PM
a screened porch of sots
::) ::) :o :o ;D ;D
(Here, have another grog to help with that...)
QuoteQuote from: Tim on July 13, 2010, 09:43:24 PM
a screened porch of sots
Roll Eyes Roll Eyes Shocked Shocked Grin Grin
(Here, have another grog to help with that...)
LOL now I have to leave it like that, besides it makes it sound more useful to that bunch around you down there ;)
My girlfriend Rachel and I were sailing our new boat around Matagorda bay for a few days this week and for the first time we realized how much we had taken the screens on the ports and hatches of our old boat for granted. Luckily, I remembered seeing a large mosquito net buried in in the bilge somewhere and as the high-pitched whine of mosquito wings grew increasingly louder, I was properly motivated to tear the entire boat apart until I found it, at which point we scrambled to cover all our cowls, vents, ports, hatches, etc before we ran out of blood completely.
The next night, anchored in the lee of Matagorda Island, we were prepared when the sun went down, put the net up quickly and efficiently and suffered very few bites. Still, we also wondered if it had something to do with us being farther away from shore, which begs the question:
How far away from shore do you have to get before the mosquitos can't find you anymore? Obviously, having wings, the little buggers don't need a land bridge to hunt you down. Still, it would seem pretty pointless for swarms of them to roam around, miles offshore or even very far from land. 1/4 mile? 1/2? 10 klicks enough?
Whatever the distance, I'd be happy to shove out just a little bit farther, if you know what I mean.... :P
But they do swarm... of course it may be a locale thing, but since the eastern third of Arkansas is mostly rice fields, as evening approaches, you can see the gray cloud coming at you - people sort of develop an inner clock for when it's time to cut outdoor activity short and head indoors. I understand and sympathize with the size of Alaskan mosquitoes, but in Arkansas they're called "ricebirds".
As a much younger man, I found smoking cigars tended to keep them away. Don't smoke now, but might be tempted to light up a cher-root just to keep them off me.
And folks in Maine/New Hampshire unabashedly wear bug suits:
(http://www.outinstyle.com/Merchant2/graphics/products/detail/RCO-9530_d.jpg)
I've seen people working out in their yards wearing these things, and during black fly season, I more or less live in my headnet.
My neighbor (an older lady) has been out side with dryer sheets hanging off her. I asked her what they were for and she told me that they keep the mosquito's and other bitting bugs away, I tryed them last night when I was out with the telescope and they seem to work fairly well. also cheeper then most bug spray.
Quote from: jotruk on July 23, 2010, 09:09:04 AM
My neighbor (an older lady) has been out side with dryer sheets hanging off her. I asked her what they were for and she told me that they keep the mosquito's and other bitting bugs away, I tryed them last night when I was out with the telescope and they seem to work fairly well. also cheeper then most bug spray.
I go out with dryer sheets hanging on me all the time, but it's by accident... blasted static cling!
:-\
James- usually a couple hundred yards works for distance. If the breeze is solid and off the land you can get a bit closer.
A few points specific to the Pt L area.
Sand Point and Keller bay- little problem unless there is zero wind. Usually.
Airport flats and Decros Point- ditto
Army hole and the mouth of Powderhorn( off Indianola Fishing Center)- have screens ready
We have screens that replace the drop boards-
An addition to the above-
The last three nights we've been anchored in a creek that is less than 100 yds wide, and the wind has gone to zero during the early hours. While we have had little trouble with mosquitos, the no-see-ums have been annoying.
I suspect the saving grace on the Mosquitos has been the tide. In this area tide runs7-8 feet so little water has a chance to stand long enough for the eggs to hatch.
Hey, I know you guys down there bobbing about aren't dummies, and have been taking steps to avoid exposure, but I did want to make sure you got the alert on this:
http://www.wesh.com/health/24343521/detail.html
QuoteDengue Fever is showing up in Central Florida.
Of the half dozen diseases floating around out there that are avoidable, I'd tend to put this one pretty high. And it's mosquito-borne. So do be safe, please.
Yup, when I heard the news on the latest outbreak I saw it as my 'final notice' to move my BOO out of FL