[pct-l] insect repellent

[mardav@charter.net (Marion Davison)]

I agree and reiterate, do not venture into the High Sierra in early
season (prior to Aug. 1) without insect repellent!  They appear in great
profusion very quickly after snowmelt anywhere the ground is wet.  They
make meadows and woodlands a living hell for the unprotected.  
100% DEET (a.k.a. Jungle Juice) is a powerful solvent of plastic.  It
will melt your watchband, cloud the watch crystal, and glue your hands
to your trekking pole handles.  And it definitely doesn't belong
anywhere near your eyes or any other mucous membrane. If you put it in a
pump bottle, it would likely melt the inner mechanism of the pump, which
is why the pump would quickly cease to function.
We use Cutter Outdoorsman which comes in a plastic pump bottle.  It is a
22% DEET product.  It is sufficient for exposed areas of skin, which in
our case is hands, wrists, neck, ankles.  We wear voluminous thin silk
shirts and thin, baggy nylon long pants for hiking, which provide sun
and insect protection for the rest of the body.  We wear a headnet in
places where bugs are truly vicious, and just spray our hats, neck, and
under the chin in places where they are bearable.  We never apply DEET
containing products to the face because we find it quite painful if it
gets in eyes, nose or mouth. Inexpensive headnets are available from
Campmor.  We wear them over our boonie hats. We also have bug shirts,
but haven't had to use them yet. 
  We are llama packers who hike a 300 mile section in the High Sierra
each summer.  This year we are doing the Tahoe Rim Trail, then the TYT
south through Emigrant Basin, and returning to Echo Lake on the PCT   (a
figure 8 loop with self-resupply in the middle of the loop).  
Marion Davison