Bug Off MIA !

[Fear Roback]

Question today is "Bug Spray" What have you found works the best for you for the outside events ?

[Zorak]

DEET. More DEET = better, so long as you keep it away from plastics.

[Dahm]

May 14, 2012 14:10:29 GMT -5 Zorak said:

DEET. More DEET = better, so long as you keep it away from plastics.

As far as I know, DEET has been pulled from the market Looks like I'm wrong, at least in reasonable levels. You may be able to get like 15% stuff still. When I hiked the Appalachian Trail I used 100% DEET. It might singe your skin but you aren't bothered by the bugs.

This stuff:

www.adventuremedicalkits.com/product.php?product=70&catname=Deet%20&%20Permethrin%20Based%20Repellents&prodname=Ben's®%2030%20Deet%20Tick%20&%20Insect%20Repellent%20Spray

[Tank]

I've been using Cutter Advanced with Picaridin for the last six or seven years. It has worked better than anything else I've used. I just did a little more reading, a moment ago, and evidently you can get up to a 20% concentration of this chemical, in some pro versions. People claim it doesn't irritate the skin and it also does not attack plastics.

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BPR1AQ/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1/180-4118490-9923828?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_r=00AX12F9P9KW7R3HCS9W&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_i=B004YQZ5EW

[Krutch]

When I hiked the Appalachian Trail I used 100% DEET.

That stuff is sketchy, I have had a few "bad experiences."

[Dahm]

May 14, 2012 18:08:51 GMT -5 Krutch said:

When I hiked the Appalachian Trail I used 100% DEET.

That stuff is sketchy, I have had a few "bad experiences."

What kind of "bad experiences?"

That stuff probably saved me from getting malaria on the Pacific Crest Trail at the top of a mountain where there was a crystal clear lake and a few thousand mosquitos to go along with it.

[AtsJason]

I prefer to use the wild insects as target practice. Can surely sharpen your cqb skills.

Oh and if you get bit by a bug, make sure to call your hit.

[M.S.-ARC]

^That really didn't add anything to this thread.

On topic: I've also heard that wiping dryer sheets all over and keeping a few in your pockets helps keep the bugs away.

[BoredKender]

A lot of surplus stores also sell the 100% DEET, I know for sure Youngs in GR does.

[Krutch]

Bad experiences as accidentally getting some on my face. It made my face go practically numb. I cant explain why, thats just what happened.

[Timm]

Swallow two match heads from MRE matches. Worked for me at Pine Planes last year. Makes your sweat smell a little funny, but not one mosquito bite all 21 hours.

[TheEnd]

I wasn't aware they sold 100% DEET. I'm going to go get some of that for sure. I have a mosquito bite allergy and they sometimes swell up like golf balls. I'll take numb skin and brain damage over feeling like a pin cushion full of golf balls any day.

Fuck mosquitos, fuck summer.

[Zorak]

I've seen 100% DEET for sale in small bottles at Meijer. I don't buy it anymore after the time a bottle leaked in the trunk of my station wagon. The smell lingered forever and ever. 40% DEET (I usually get Repel Sportsman Max) has worked well for me almost all the time. The one occasion I can recall where it didn't, it failed because the mosquitos were thick as fog. I'd put my mask on when we were about to start a game, and there'd me mosquitos lined up inside, waiting for their chance to fortify their regular diet with a little aqueous humour.

[Striker]

I used the 100% Deet stuff very very liberally for three summers straight doing outdoor landscaping upkeep in extremely dense and wet areas. The Deet did keep the cloud of mosquitoes away other than a stray bite or two everyday.

Now on the con side, it did take paint off of a bumper... but, it never "bugged" my skin. I do worry a little about what long-term damage bathing in that shit will cause but no problems yet.