[pct-l] Pct-L Digest, Vol 35, Issue 63

[Kevin Cook]

Now that you mention this, I do recall hearing this before. I wonder if
there are any negative side effects to high doses of B1? I don't really like
Deet, but I'll use it if I have to. If a high dose of B1 will achieve the
same result, that sure sounds preferable.

Anyone know about 1/Thiamine?

On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 12:45 PM, greg mushial <gmushial at gmdr.com> wrote:

> > Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2010 14:19:25 -0700
> > From: Kevin Cook <hikelite at gmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: [pct-l] bug question
> > To: Austin Williams <austinwilliams123 at gmail.com>
> > Cc: pct-l at backcountry.net
> > Message-ID:
> > <AANLkTi=rW2Gz7ibCHQKXUoyfFpwUCmYrMZrQ3Aqi9Cvs at mail.gmail.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> >
> > I'm trying to get an idea of where thru hikers hit a lot of mosquitoes.
> > Describing what you did to deal with them could also be helpful, but
> > mostly
> > I'm trying to determine where I'll want a refuge.
> >
> > Thanks :)
> >
>
> In the mosquito replies, the one thing I don't see mentioned is: the use of
> thiamine as a repellent. For the summer of '74 a friend and myself  rode a
> bicycles from vancouver to stjohns nfl (actually he stopped in montreal
> with
> knee problems) - 5600 miles over 14 weeks. At the beginning we were being
> eat'n alive by the mosquitos (the canadian national airforce??). But when
> we
> got to Kamaloops (about mile 400) we ran into an old logger that told us
> about using thiamine (mononitrate, and not hcl). Thiamine is water
> soluable,
> so when you overdose, ie, have more in your body than it needs, you pee it
> out, and most importantly, sweat it out. I don't remember the exact doseage
> were ended up taking (though something like 10x the RDA) - I know chris and
> myself were taking different amounts to achieve this effect...  but it
> worked. All the way through the canadian rockies and especially in the east
> (ontario and the maritines), the mosquitoes would buzz you, would fly about
> 2-3" above one's skin, but wouldn't land. Like all good conditioned
> animales, when one heard the buzzing, one would slap... but over time, one
> just got used to the buzzing and tried to ignore it, finally coming to
> understand there was no relationship btwn it and actually being bit. I know
> that others around us were using OFF, deet100% etc and were kind of doing
> as
> well as us, but were always asking if the mosquitoes weren't bothering us.
> We'd try to explain, but it seemed that no-one would believe us that all we
> were doing was taking our thiamine in the morning. Other's wondered if it
> was the only getting a bath/shower once a week that was doing it; others
> were asking about if we were eating garlic. But we kept telling them that
> all we were doing was B1. Anyway: completed the trip, with zero mosquito
> problems (bites). Around here (redding) we don't have enough mosquitoes to
> experiment with B1 again...  but I was wondering if anyone else was doing
> such, or had experimented with such. I'm pretty sure for my thru I'll be
> going back to the B1 route, rather than using the heavy chemicals. YMMV
> HYOH
> TheDuck
>
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-- 
~ Kevin
Soon To Be PCT Thru Hiker!
"The indoor life is the next best thing to premature burial." Edward Abbey