[pct-l] Ultrathon bug juice loses

[ecotopia at mindspring.com (Terriann McGlenn)]

Wanted to give the list an update on the bug juice/insect repellant
discussion.  I am a born and raised 100% Deet person and have not varied,
until now.  This past week my husband and I hiked into the Pesayten
Wilderness in WA to Horseshoe Basin for 4 days and took along the (list
member recommended) Ultrathon Insect Repellant with 34.34% DEET and "up to
12 hours of protection against mosquitoes".  Well it failed miserably!  We
had a full bloom of wildflowers (beautiful) and insects in the basin.  The
day started with mosquitoes, graduated to black flies and horse flies and
back to mosquitoes in the evening.  Both the humans and their dog companions
used the repellant and had the same results.  We applied the Ultrathon first
thing in the morning to cook breakfast and it worked for about 2 hours at
which point the timer on the timed release started ticking toward 'useless'
very quickly.  By 3 hours we were either re-applying the repellant or going
out of our minds.  We used up almost the complete 2 oz tube over 4 days on 2
people and 2 small dogs just to keep sane.  Oh, and it also managed to quite
nicely cancel out our sunscreen when applied either under or over in layers
(never happens with 100% DEET), so both my husband and I have interesting
bite and tan/burn lines on our face and arms where either the sun or bugs
got first shot at our skin.

When in doubt, take the 100% DEET or risk insanity.  JMO

Terriann McGlenn
253-941-7888