When packing emergency bags — 3-day bags, get home bags, bug out bags, whatever — many people overlook an item they may miss sorely: Insect repellent.
Yeah, I know, space is at a premium in those bags, and you don’t want to carry a bunch of ‘frivolous comforts’ around. Insect repellent isn’t frivolous, though. I wouldn’t call it a lifesaver (although in some situations it might be), but it can definitely be a ‘chronic health problem’ saver, and that’s worth a couple of ounces.
Now, if your plans (and contingency plans) have you staying in cities and other ‘tamed’ places and mostly inside, insect repellent might not be worth your precious space.
However, if you expect to be out in the natural world and it’s not winter, you’ll be happy to have it.
Blood sucking little jerks!
Nobody likes ticks or mosquitoes to start with, the nasty itchy little blood thieves. But they’d literally be nicer if they only sucked your blood. Their real health concern is the diseases they carry. There’s a whole raft of viral, bacterial, or other diseases that use external parasites as vectors (delivery systems). The risks vary by where you live. Here in the midwest,
Heartland virus is pretty common in the ticks, and West Nile virus is possible but not abundant in mosquitoes. On the East Coast, Lyme disease is very common in ticks. In the far south, you might get Zika virus with a mosquito bite. Zika’s often asymptomatic in adults, but does terrible damage to developing fetuses. Malaria isn’t currently a problem in the U.S., but absolutely was before widespread governmental insect control, so could be again.
The official bird of the midwest… the mosquito
Annoying buzz, lasting itch…and oh yeah, maybe some West Nile or Zika or some such too.*
Ticks are ick!
Ticks carry Lyme, Heartland, and other unpleasant viruses**
Because of the disease risk, insect repellent is an important health prep. 40% DEET works very well for clothing or skin application in adults (check labels; it’s not a great idea for young kids) but doesn’t last for days on end. Permethrin will last for weeks and several washings, but it’s not to be used directly on skin. It has to be sprayed on clothing, shoes, and maybe things like tents and left to dry before use.
The insect repellent pen is mightier than the sword?
Emergency bag sized 40% DEET spray is well worth its weight.
The Place is generously supplied with ticks (thanks, deer), so I’m always wearing permethrin on my boots and clothes unless it’s winter. My bags all have little sprayers of 40% DEET; enough for three days worth of use at least (the sprayers are about the size of a large marker).
I’ve tried the ‘no see-um’ netting shirts and pants, hoping to avoid having to wear long sleeves and pants. I found them hotter than I’d hoped, effective against visible ticks, and likely to be bitten through by those blasted ambitious mosquitoes wherever my skin was close enough for their evil syringe mouthparts to reach through the netting. I was left wondering if it worked against the first year (larval, tiny) ticks, as they are too small to reliably see.
Insect Repellent?
Permethrin spray is pre-applied to boots and clothes and left to dry. Lasts weeks, or several washings.
If you don’t have insect repellent, there are some other things that can help. The best no-tech protection is long sleeves and pant legs, and thumb your nose at the fashion police and put the sock tops up over the ends of the pant legs.
No-See-Um clothing, anybody?
No-See-Um pants and jacket. Worked for ticks but was hotter than it looks. Mosquitoes can bite through.
You’ll attract fewer bees if you avoid flowered prints, perfumes, or other scented products. Some plants rubbed on the skin deter (but don’t reliably stop) bites. Marigold is known for repelling mosquitoes and is easy to find; other options like pennyroyal might not be so abundant. I’m told powdered sulphur placed in a sock and slapped around your boots and pant legs (to distribute a bit of the powder) discourages ticks. Sulphur is cheap in bulk and marigolds are easy to grow, so those are useful long-term solutions.
Boots & socks treatments help
The further you make them walk, the fewer of them make it to the Promised Land of your blood-infused skin.
Besides, if there was anyone that was ever sad to *not* have the whine of a mosquito buzzing about her ear when she’s trying to go to sleep, I haven’t met her. There’s no real downside to keeping the parasites away, so long as you don’t get sloppy with the chemicals.
*Thanks to Gilles San Martin from Namur, Belgium (Mosquito sucking blood Uploaded by Jacopo Werther) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
** Thanks to Gary Alpert [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons
After going fishing at a pond with a family of 3 children, their mom/dad, a m-i-law, me and husband, I was the only person not getting chiggar bites. I have no idea why.
Spice is the chigger queen of our family, they take one look at her and shout “buffet!”
You might be getting bites, but not be allergic to their spit. It’s the (incredibly common) allergy that makes the bites itch. They don’t eat much or transmit any diseases that I know of, so getting bit or not, lucky you!
The best thing I’ve found is treating all outdoor wear, including underwear and socks and backpacks, with permethrin. I ahven’t had a live tick on me since I started using it about 3 years ago.Head nets for mosquitoes are light and cheap. Deet works, but it is temporary, it stinks and it makes me feel a little woozy. I wear long sleeves. The Augusta wear shirts are like UnderArmor for about 1/4 the price. They do a good job wicking away the sweat, and the evaporation helps me feel cooler. Sometimes the shirt dries faster than my skin. I never heard of the sulfur thing, so I will add that to my bag of tricks. Looks like a trip to Home Depot is in my near future.
Uncle George just be sure that whatever you get it is pure sulfur. I just checked Home Depot’s website and they have a 20 lb bag of sulfur…but it contains calcium and gypsum and possibly other additives. I bought a 5 lb. bag of it there, but that was 15 years ago. You should be able to find pure sulfur if you shop around online first.
It may still be called ‘flowers of sulphur’ in some places, as that’s the old term for recrystalized (for purification) sulphur.