I am normally a big fan of 100% DEET for keeping the mosquitoes at bay, but at work there are a lot of us getting sick from using DEET all the time due to the abundance of mosquitoes. The DEET works great, just constant everyday exposure has been making a lot of us sick. I was looking at the thermacell that a lot of people like but the cost of refills would bankrupt me over time.

In comes option 2, I had found a Canada company The Original Bug Shirt Company that makes a bug suit that is very well built and the kicker is in the fabric, the mosquitoes cannot bite through the fabric even if it is on top of the skin. The material is extremely tight woven and has had a lot of good reviews. The only negative I have found so far is it is hot but as I read the instructions (after math of course) they recommend only wearing a t-shirt or no shirt and shorts. It does breathe quite a bit when walking and with no shirt and shorts under the pants it wasn’t bad.

There is a ton of pockets and cargo pockets plus the middle big pocket acts as a carrier to put everything into. Basically it has its own stuff sack built in to it. Unfortunately the mosquitoes are thinning out with fall approaching but this will give me another option for long term protection from mosquitoes, flies, ticks, leaches, etc.. The shirt has a draw cord to secure the waist and the legs have built in inserts that go into your shoes protecting the ankles.
All in all it looks very well built and rugged, got it today and can’t wait to field test it.
http://www.bugshirt.com/

Not a bad idea at all. Hope you'll post more info on where you got this garment. If you are wearing enough DEET that it's actually making you sick - that's not a good sign. I also use 100% DEET (aka Jungle Juice), but I don't put the stuff on my skin. I rub it on the cuffs of my shirt and pants, around the neckline of my shirt, and on the brim of my cap. Still seems to work OK.

Pete2

Pete I got it from their website, it was shipped from one of there NY warehouses and got to me pretty quick. If it wasn't for the fact we work in a mosquito enriched atmosphere every day plus they love to attack gingers, this should help me out quite a bit. I had always tried to hang around people that eat a lot of banana which they would go munch on them before me but most of my workers are the non healthy eater types like myself. I must admit it appears very well built and their customer service has been excellent. It would be nice if they made there web page more informative and user friendly but as long as it is a good product and they stand behind it, I'm OK with that.

https://nt1.adventuresports.com/product/bugshirt/BugShirtForm.asp?Region=US

It looks hot.

I recently came across some interesting information about killing mosquitoes (carriers of malaria and sleeping sickness) with baited fruit juice. It has a 90% kill rate in West Africa.

A 1% solution of boric acid in fruit juice seems to do the job.

NY Times: Brewing Up Double-Edged Delicacies for Mosquitoes

Malaria Journal: Successful field trial of attractive sugar bait

Sue

Sue,

I saw those articles roo, and was intrigued. Mosquitos around here have been terrible ever since Irene rolled through several weeks ago - there's lots of standing water around.

I wanted to try it out, but could not find boric acid for sale. Where does one get it in non-industrial quantities?

Jesselp

Edit: Found it on Amazon. Boric acid is on the way - of course by the time it gets here it will probably be too cold for mosquitos, but I'll be ready for next year!

Pete, IIRC, you're not supposed to put 100% DEET on clothing. its specific to skin use. 100% will chemically melt some fabric/ clothing material. I know from personal experience it melted the sleeve on some raingear I had on.

If it's been working for you w/ no problems then that's good news for me. I've just always been on the DEET for skin, not for clothes, bus.

Good review and pics Falcon.

Have you looked into treating your field clothes with permethrin? It is very effective in killing, not repelling, bugs and it has essentially no health effects on humans. Teamed up with DEET and proper clothing it is a good system.

For strange bureaucratic reasons, it is a little hard to find permethrin at retail with formulations over 0.5%. However I have read somewhere that you can get permethrin concentrations at 1-10% from veterinary sources.

Regarding DEET, consider the more advanced DEET formulations that use less DEET but in a time release formulation. 3M UltraThon has only about 35% DEET but it is a time release lotion. You get good protection for a longer time with less DEET involved.

I've found boric acid in pint-sized jars at pharmacies (non-prescription). It can be used as an antiseptic/antibacterial/fungus treatment, and also as a flame retardant.

Sue

Boric acid can also be purchased from most of the big box stores. It is just not sold as boric acid, most of the powdered roach poisons are boric acid. So when you are out shopping read the lable. Couple of name brands are Enforcer and Roach Pruf.

Thanks for the article sue, where I work at is very restrictive of us obstructing with there environment. I was wanting to put a mosquito trap out there and they pretty much shut that idea down. They wouldn't let me put any fruit mix jars or nothing on property, I'm stuck with basic defenses I can wear.