That really bugs me

[atr]

I took off this morning with the camera and put on just over 200 miles on logging roads up here in northwestern Ontario looking for critters . I managed to spot 7 black bears and 2 moose . Wasn't fast enough to get pics of the moose but got some pretty good bear pics . Heavy denim jeans along with a thick shirt with the cuffs buttoned and a baseball cap . Every area of exposed flesh was soaked in Deet and i still managed to get chewed up . The blackflies and mosquitos were so thick that they were getting in my eyes when i was setting up for a shot and i had to breathe with my mouth closed or i'd inhale bugs . 95 degrees today so i had to keep spraying the deet on as i sweat it off . I recall reading that the voyageurs/cour de bois used to boil spruce sap and mix it with ash and then smear it on exposed areas and let it harden so the bugs couldn't bite through . Must have been awefull having that stuff hardened behind your ears , in your ears , on your face and around your neck for months on end . I also read that on top of the spruce gum/ash mixture they'd apply mud and let it harden . Don't know what the bugs are like on the great plains or the Rocky mountains but in the summer in Northwestern Ontario or up in the Northwest Territories the bugs could kill you in a day if you went unprotected . I've seen hunters with hands so badly swollen from bug bites that they couldn't pull the trigger . Imagine those poor guys in days before Deet .

 

[Ohio Joe]

atr,

That sounds awful! Can't speak for the rest of the country, but in my area, tics, deer flies, and moaquitos, though nowhere near on the level you have to deal with...

 

[jtmattison]

I'm heading up to Alaska's interior next week to fish.
I'm sure the bugs will be thick up there too.
Lot's of deet and neoprene waders should be a good defense.
Maybe I'll bring a smokepole to fend them off with.

Huntin

 

[Stumpkiller]

I use the 100% DEET most times, but have two other good solutions. I had to find a substitute for when I fly my model airplanes. The DEET eats into the coverings! Two solutions I have found: If you have access to lemongrass or lemongrass oil it works fairly well. I get a pump spray version of this from a local backpacking supply outlet (Eureka!)

I came across Badger Bug Balm and have had great results.

http://badgersden.com/BadgerBalm/bugbalm.htm
A game biologist from Cornell U. turned me onto this stuff. He spends a lot of time outdoors and swears by it. It doesn't explode your eyeballs when you get it near or in them like DEET will. Works great on the sabertooth NY mosquitoes. (PS It contains olive oil, castor oil and beeswax as well as other oils - should make a great patch lube! :crackup:.)

 

[musketman]

I take vitamin B-12 and the sketters won't even land on me, it seams they don't like the smell of it or something to that nature...

When I take it regulary, I sweat it out my pores and the mosquitoes pass me by...

Or, it could be all the chili I eat... :haha: :crackup:

 

[Zonie]

It ain't the Chili Mooskeetman, it are what the chili makes ye do.
Why Ah heered ye even hired out ta some farmer who wanted some crop circles formed in his field!

Ah feel fer all o ye thats gots to put up with em little Skeeters!
Har in Arizonie thar ain't enough water fer em to make more skeeters (ceptin 'round em fancy places whats got thar own little lakes un golph corses whar they water all o tha time).

It is hot as hadies buts tha lak o sheeters kinda makes up fer it.
No, Ah don't wants ta talk 'bout all o our poisen bugs lik scoropeens, an centerpeeds an black widders cause thay will leave ye alone iffen ye leavs em alone. Sides that, one good stomp wit yer boot an thar ain't enouff o them ta bother ye iffen thay wantted too.