[pct-l] Mosquitos

[Brian Lewis]

As with so many things, I think the right approach with mosquitos is
to try out the various (sometimes even conflicting) ideas you hear,
and settle on the ones that seem to work best for you.

One person mentioned the idea of light clothing, and cited the example
of putting their pack down and having the mosquitos swarm around the
pack (or at least some of them ...).  I had this experience many times
this year too, but hadn't attributed it to the color of my clothing,
but to whatever smells or chemicals or whatever were on my backpack
(sweat).  I'm not saying my guess was necessarily right, just that
different infrerences can sometimes be drawn from similar data.

Another person talked about wearing heavy enough clothing that bugs
can't bite through.  The catch is, as a thru-hiker (and not even an
ultralighter), I didn't want to carry multiple shirts, and I mostly
wanted one thin enough to breathe well and dry quickly.  I wore the
same shirt for almost the entire trip, and just dealt with the fact
that things can bite me through it.

I almost left Kennedy Meadows this year wearing one of the buzz-off
shirts, but mailed it home after having heard from two other thru's
both of whom developed a rash on their backs from wearing the shirt,
and then looking up a review of these shirts that mentioned the same
issue.  Remember, as a thru-hiker, you're not wearing it for just a
weekend, but all day, every day, day after day.  It was also heavier
and thicker than the thin long-sleeved button-up high SPF shirt that I
loved for the whole trip.

One idea I didn't read about is the idea of "just keep moving".  This
was my main defense against mosquitos (worked a lot less well recently
against very small in-your-face type flies).  Only in the latter part
of the Sierras and yes, Oregon as of Elk Lake forward for a good bit
did the mosquitos sometimes still swarm and follow me.   The "keep
moving" strategy works well for thru-hikers when they're fully up to
speed, as you don't need breaks much; it's only an issue when the
trail quality is pretty bad or a lot of uphill.
I always had it in the back of my mind that if it got bad enough I
could put up my tent to eat lunch in (of course I always ate dinner
and breakfast in the tent when bugs were bad).  I never did have to
put it up for lunch.  Even in the worst of times, it seemed that if I
paid attention, I could stumble upon a relatively bug-free zone and
survive lunchtime relatively unbitten.

One learns to minimize and be fast about out-of-tent activities in the
morning and evening; having a pee bottle helps, as does just sleeping
with your food if you're comfortable doing that.

So, stay in the tent as much as possible morning and evening, keep
moving pretty much all day --- this approach worked pretty well for
*me* in high bug areas, so that while I carried DEET, I very
infrequently used it.  It was comforting to have it as a last-ditch
solution, but it's nasty stuff, regardless of its toxicity to humans.


Gadget, '08   http://postholer.com/brianle