Stinkin' mosquitoes!!!

[Sgritn]

I went hiking with a friend today on part of the Midstate Trail (the section in Rutland and Barre, MA) since we finally had a really nice day around here. We were having a great time until we got to a stretch where the mosquitoes were horrendous! We each had a thick cloud of the buggers following us for at least half a mile, and of course we got our share of bites (boy was I glad I was wearing long pants). And we were wearing repellent (lemon eucalyptus). I ended up having to pull out my windshirt, even though it was a warm day, and put that on just to keep the bugs off, and my friend borrowed my rain poncho to do the same. We had done about seven and a half miles at that point, and would have liked to do quite a bit more, but the bugs were so bad we decided to have someone pick us up and take us back to our car!! Next time we will bring head nets...anyone else having major mosquito issues in their area? I think it has to do with all the rain we've had here lately. Whatever it is, yuck!

Jolt, you may want to try a mixture of peppermint oil in water. A natural pesticide which will not harm your body.

[OakLeaf]

We discussed this all a few months back... If I have to wear repellent, I still swear by Bite Blocker (active ingredients soybean oil and geranium oil). Won't melt plastic, doesn't make my skin crawl, has a strong but not unpleasant fragrance, works as well as the chemical repellents. (although it does need to be reapplied a little more often than high concentrations of DEET) - but my mosquito block of choice is still a spun polypro painter's coverall.

But yeah... the fact that only about 1% of mosquitoes are infected with WNV isn't much consolation when I can get 100 bites in a single week if I go out unprotected...

[SlowButSteady]

It won't work with a moving...stopping...moving some more situation, but I'd sit naked in the Everglades with my Thermacell, and I'm a swamp rat.

Sadly, our swamps are drying up. No rain. "Extreme" drought declared.

Our creek has completely dried up. Pond is working on it.

Still, a bug found me when I was out riding in full sun today.

Camphor...yeah, it works on bug bites. That's why our grandmothers used it. Mine kept hers in a jug with a cork.

[anakiwa]

I'm being eaten alive this summer (we've had a lot of rain and there's still a lot of water in the woods)- I can't even pick one tomato from the garden without coming back with bites.

A few years ago the New England Journal of Medicine published a randomized controlled trial comparing various mosquito repellants (how they ever got volunteers is beyond me) http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/347/1/13 - the bottom line is that DEET is the only thing that works reliably.

[emily_in_nc]

Much to our horror, we discovered this very week that our three eco-friendly (and invaluable during NC's drought) rain barrels that DH installed this year were absolutely teaming with mosquito larvae. It's been a bad year for skeeters around here, but if all the larvae in those barrels had matured, we would have had to run for the hills from the swarms of blood-suckers!

Unfortunately, the rain barrels have been decommissioned for now, at least.

Sigh...

[OakLeaf]

If you make sure to drain the rain barrels weekly, the mosquito larvae won't survive to adulthood. Water really shouldn't be stored in open containers longer than a week anyhow, mosquitoes or no mosquitoes.


And... that NEJM study doesn't say the other repellents aren't RELIABLE, it just says that high concentration DEET is the only one that lasts for hours on end without being re-applied. I don't see the problem with re-applying a safer repellent (that incidentally smells much better and doesn't melt your clothes, electronic gizmos and sunglasses either). Sunblock has to be reapplied every couple of hours, after all; why not repellent?

[emily_in_nc]

If you make sure to drain the rain barrels weekly, the mosquito larvae won't survive to adulthood. Water really shouldn't be stored in open containers longer than a week anyhow, mosquitoes or no mosquitoes.

The thing that was strange, though, is that the containers (large garbage cans) were had sealed lids on top, and the rainwater flowed in through the downspouts, which entered on the side (up high). So the skeeters had to slip in the cracks around the downspout to get in there to breed, crafty varmints!

You're right, though -- we'll definitely need to drain them regularly when we get them set back up (unless DH is just "done" with dealing with them, which he might be). That means they'll be empty a good bit of time since our rains have only been sporadic lately, but whenever we do get a nice little rain, like last night (unexpectedly), they'll fill back up.

Emily

[pardes]

I have never had a problem with mosquitos while biking. I think they figure from my huffing and puffing that I'll be dead in two minutes anyway so why bother.

[madscot13]

why would you build a nation's capital on a marsh?

Minnesota I understand; it was left over land that no one wanted. DC was built up from a stinkin' swamp. And I swear there must be something in the water (other than personal care products, or perhaps because of personal care products) there bites just won't go away.