Bug repellent

Going to be up on Lake Winnie in a week for a week, what bug repellent do you recommend?

What bugs are you trying to get away from?
Bug be Gone / works very good for most.
I like the smell too. lol

Not real sure. Fish mostly in SD River system and about all we have to deal with is black flies. I have heard northern MN may have mosquitoes though. LOL what else is there to be concerned about?

I have found a can off the tiki torch lit with citronella oil in it to be most effective. I can lite one up mid ship and never be bothered again. Try it you won’t be disappointed I’m sure.

Anything with 25% + deet will repel mosquitoes. You’re on your own with the flies though.

Thermocells work if you can get one. Also the coils you burn work well. Stick a couple fly swatters in the boat for horseflies.

Ultrathon.. Problem solved

Repel with 40% deet worked great in Canada 2 weeks ago

Feet is a must in my opinion for mosquitoes. Haven’t had anything that helps with the black flys besides strong wind

Muskol. Made in Canada….they know mosquitos.

Off brand makes a 100% deet formula if you want to go all out.

Overall brand doesn’t make any difference. Deet is deet.

Fish also hate deet so be careful with that stuff-I spray the sop of my baseball cap seems to help with flies.

the 100 is only 98.1%… Thermocells only for this guy. In the boat, by the campfire, on the deck, in the bedroom of the fly in fish camp…. tried them bear hunting in Manitoba years ago… I could have shot a commercial for how good they work in terrible conditions. 80 degrees over a pile of rotten food… talk about ringing the dinner bell for EVERYTHING in that woods ! Not one mosquito though !

Does Thermacell work on gnats? There website says mosquitos, biting flies etc, but nothing about gnats.

Years ago I bought a two layer bug suit that I still use if I’m going into a swamp or along a slow creek/river. The suit has an inner layer of a open weave fish netting that the cordage diameter is larger than a mosquito’s sucker and the outer mosquito netting never touches your skin. I don’t remember what the suit was called and couldn’t find it with Google to post a link.

edit: Found it. The suit is called Bug Tamer.
http://www.sierratradingpost.com/shannon-outdoors-original-bug-tamer-hooded-jacket-for-men~p~27592/

Thanks, looks like deet it is.

Huge fan of thermacell as well. Deet works but I don’t like spraying it directly on me, would rather let the thermacell sit in the bow of the boat and create a mosquito-free zone for 3 guys.

I get a rash from Deet. Mosquitoes are annoying to me, but I don’t react to the bites, so I just use a Thermacell and grit it out.

Treat your clothes ahead of time with permethrin. I did this for my bwca trips this year and didn’t have to touch deet once on my trips. For how bad the bugs are up there this year, that is really saying something. Plus, then you don’t have to get deet all over your hands, bait and lures which I always try to avoid at all costs.

I don’t even feel mosquitos biting me anymore and generally I don’t react. I did go up to Elephant one year and I had a pretty good reaction to whatever those mosquitos had something in their saliva and my body reacted to it.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

Treat your clothes ahead of time with permethrin.

Does it work on skeeters and flies? I use it for ticks, and love it.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

I get a rash from deet.

Picaridin is supposed to be roughly as effective as deet for mosquitos and maybe more effective for flies from what I’ve seen. The one I’ve used is http://www.repel.com/products/personal-repellents/other-repellents/tick-defense.aspx which is 15% picaridin but I think the max you can get is 20%. It also (supposedly) doesn’t damage fabrics like deet can.

Edit: I couldn’t remember where I had read about flies but I found it, it was on REI’s page: https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/insect-repellents.html

I just dont get the thermacell; we bought one about 4-5 years ago after hearing the hype, and dont get me wrong, there are awesome reviews on cabelas and from everyone else you talk to, but after using it we still get mosquitos buzzing around us, i’ve sent it in and thermacell even replaced the unit despite it testing just fine. we tried it again this past weekend even after letting it warm up for 20 minutes, still got mosquitos coming to us, not like a swarm but enough to make it annoying, definitely not a coverage of 15’x15′ it claims; more of a 5’x5′ area. maybe with all of the hype I just expected a 100% mosquito free zone

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

Does it work on skeeters and flies? I use it for ticks, and love it.

Permethrin kills ticks and mosquitoes on contact. I’m not sure about flies but they didn’t bother me in the BWCA this year either and this was supposedly one of the worst years in recent memory for flies up there.

when your around a fire or just in a yard i really like the squeeter beater granules. you do need to put it out earlier in the day so it has a chance to work and when the grass is dry. once it gets wet its toast.

i personally think it works just as good onthem blasted ankle biting little flies as it does on the state bird!!!!!

ShldHveBenHreYserdy wrote:

definitely not a coverage of 15’x15′ it claims; more of a 5’x5′ area. maybe with all of the hype I just expected a 100% mosquito free zone

Yeah, 15’X15′ seems a bit generous. I’ve never had issues with them, but I usually have it sitting by me and I am not moving around much.

I’ve found if there is any sort of wind, thermacells are pretty worthless unless you strategically get it placed in the perfect spot up wind of where you are set up. Even then, they aren’t nearly as effective as if there is little to no wind.

LOVE my Thermacell – I have used it on multiple BWCA trips and it works great. Yep, wind will affect it some, but I set mine in the bottom of the boat if I am out fishing and it is awesome. Anytime around camp, I just sit it in the middle of the crowd and NO bugs. I still take some Deep Woods off with DEET, but as others have stated, be careful how you use it. I now just spray my clothes and that seems to work the best, but I HATE putting it on. That is why I am a big Thermacell guy.

Reef W wrote:

Picaridin is supposed to be roughly as effective as deet for mosquitos and maybe more effective for flies from what I’ve seen. The one I’ve used is http://www.repel.com/products/personal-repellents/other-repellents/tick-defense.aspx which is 15% picaridin but I think the max you can get is 20%. It also (supposedly) doesn’t damage fabrics like deet can.

Thanks. I just picked up a can.

Picaridin is also very effective against ticks.