View topic - How to repel no-see-ums

A friend, Gary Barker from Kalispell, Montana, has the following recommendations for repelling no-see-ums. He wrote this description after a trip on the Selway River in Idaho which started with the trip leader and permit holder realizing at the launch site that he had left his bag of kayaking gear in Missoula, four hours away. So he headed back to Missoula to get the gear, leaving the rest of the group sitting in the rain, enjoying the no-see-ums. Gary's recommendations are as follows:

"Someone once said that infinity was like the number of monkeys with typewriters that it takes before you get one that will finally type up the entire works of Shakespeare.

But I didn't truly understand infinity until I encountered no-see-ums. You can go on grinding them into your skin and scalp forever, with no effect on their numbers.

Because they are invisible, science can only theorize that they are part of the annoying, blood sucking fly family. Another school of thought holds that they are bred down from pterodactyls.

There is a successful remedy, however. Deet. 100% pure Deet. Deet is as close to being nuclear as any chemical known to man, except plutonium. It brings an iridescent glow to the skin. This spooks the no-see-ums.

First, put on your drysuit and booties. Next, take the industrial size bottle of Deet. Don't follow the instructions on the bottle. Dump it on your head, so that it runs down your neck and face. Smear it on thick, especially in the eye sockets, on the lips, and between the cheeks and gums. Pour it into your ears, then shake like a dog to remove the excess.

Next, put on your helmet. Crawl into your sleeping bag, head first. Duct tape the entry and zipper from the inside. Smoke a cigarette."

Let me say this about his recommendations: smoking cigarettes can be hazardous to your health. Otherwise, he’s pretty much right on.

Winter camping works much better
Jeff

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Choosing to save a river is more often an act of passion than of careful calculation. You make the choice because the river has touched your life in an intimate and irreversible way, because you are unwilling to accept its loss. — (David Bolling, Ho

Even blackflies are smart enough not to be out there then!!

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

Put on your drysuit. Dump DEET over your head.
Watch drysuit dissolve..
yeah right.

DEET does not work at all for some species of no seeums. Eucalyptus oil does

No seeums are the scourge of Florida. Another type, repelled by bear grease in Maine.

I thought that was Marco Rubio (R), but the no seeums are bad too.

no the scourge is Rick Scott. May he be deposited in the middle of the Everglades with no repellent.

Ultrathon works on the ones in Ontario

We've had success against 'FaceOnFire' in Temagami and elsewhere around NE Ontario using Picaridin-based repellant (Sawyer Fisherman's Formula). Good for mosquitoes and blackflies too! Not greasy or stinky. Doesn't melt plastics. 20% formula seems to work for about two hours or so. My new preference to DEET.

This thread started out when I posted a humorous story about dealing with no-see-ums for the entertainment of members of the forum, but has evolved into a general discussion of how to repel bugs. So here's something which currently isn't a problem in Canada and adjacent areas: Leishmaniasis (Google it, and be prepared to see some truly hideous photographs). This is a flesh-eating parasite in tropical areas of South and Central American which is spread by the bites of sand flies, which are little bugs a fraction the size of mosquitoes. Tyler Bradt, an internationally known whitewater kayaker (Google him) who holds the world record for kayaking down the highest waterfall (Palouse Falls in Washington, 186 feet, Google it), was on a kayak trip on the Amazon when he got chomped by some of those sandflies. Shown below is a picture of him after two months, with an advanced stage of mucosal Leishmaniasis in his lip, nasal passages, throat, and right eye. About a week later the US Center for Disease Control diagnosed the variety of the Leishmaniasis parasites, and he is currently undergoing a thirty day treatment which is very similar to chemotherapy here in Missoula. I hope it works; this is a nasty disease.



So in some situations, I think forget about the repellants. Leave no skin exposed. Wear a bug shirt, bug pants, gloves, etc.