[pct-l] Mosquitos

[Eric Lee (GAMES)]

Ellen wrote:
>
Yet I keep hearing how bad they can be in Oregon with the snow melt.
Does anything help?
>

In serious mosquito conditions, you should generally think of clothing as your first and best line of defense, with repellent providing backup.  Repellent alone rarely works well enough during the height of the bug season.

My preferred strategy is to wear a bite-resistant long-sleeved shirt and long pants (which I wear all the time while backpacking anyway) and to carry a headnet.  If you're mostly defending against mosquitoes rather than noseeums, then you can use a looser-weave mesh that's not quite as obnoxious to wear, like this one:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/ultralight_headnet.html

I'm not a fan of repellent in general, but I carry some for use in dire conditions.  If you need to use repellent and are ok with DEET, 3M Ultrathon is one of the most effective formulas available.  More info here:

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Ultrathon/Products/

Eric