[pct-l] Picaridin vs Sierra skeeters

[wpsnotebook at charter.net (Richard Woods)]

Just finished the PCT bit northbound from Meiss Meadow to Granite Chief 
via Echo Lakes and Desolation Valley.
I carried both Cutter Advanced (with picaridin) and 100% Deet.
Yes, when you first put the CA on, it smells maybe a little like corn 
chips (I thought more like tomato plants) but any scent fades quickly. 
Kept them off for about twenty minutes. I sweat a lot so those were the 
first parts of me to get attacked. So I'd mop off, spray down, and 
twenty minutes later I'm listening to the "Skeeter Orbit Blues" again. 
That lasted about a half a day. It does work, maybe in your yard, 
sitting around the patio, but not if you're doing any serious huffin' 
and puffin. Glad I backed up the experiment with 100% deet. Still 
wasn't enough in some spots, but 100% deet gave me relief in the drier 
zones.

As noted by many, this is a really wet summer, so any seep, trickle, or 
creek bottom will have its own population of mosquitos. My best 
strategy was to camp downwind and higher from any water source. For 
instance, came over Dick's Pass, and dropped down to Dicks Lake in the 
evening. But turned and ran back up the hill to where I had a fighting 
chance. Haven't seen clouds of mosquitos like that since Alaska. 
Decided to camp high, dry and downwind, rather than venture near the 
lake for water. Blew through in the morning to reach a seasonal trickle 
on the other side.

I gave my CA Picaridin to a wayward soul headed southbound to Carson 
Pass with no repellent at all. It was 85 degrees and he was bundled up 
with nothing but his eyeballs and hands exposed. Yerch. I plan to send 
a note to Cutter recommending that they need to make this stuff 
somewhat waterproof and bump up the protection if they want a better 
product.

Mo Jo