The problem with DEET is that although it is an undoubtedly an effective insect repellent (but not the most effective) there is evidence to show its harmful effects. There may not be any deaths officially attributed directly to DEET (although there is some debate about its association with gulf war one syndrome, which itself officially doesn't exist either apparently). Just because its been in use for more than 40 years doesn't mean much either because it is very difficult to produce a medical study whereby diffuse brain cell death from its use 40 year prior to getting Alzheimer's disease is quite a challenging one to produce statistically.


Any target shooters out there, I wonder if DEET would make a difference to your performance?

I wish I still had my first set of ALICE gear. It didn't like DEET, but the DEET found it yummy.

I think it really depends on where you are.. The worst condition I've been in required 100% DEET. That was the ONLY thing that worked against those baseball sized mosquitoes in Vietnam back in 1997.

Not thinking of the health concerns, the one thing I found interesting was how "accurate" the effectiveness timeframe was.. I forget whether I applied 6 times every 4 hours or 4 times every 6 hours, but the mosquitoes reminded me like clockwork.

The one thing I HATED were the mosquitoes hanging out under the chairs and tables.. Getting bit in the back of the knee sucks..

I've been using the REPEL all natural stuff (lemon eucalyptus) for several years now, and am quite happy with its performance. In a non-scientific test I did during a month-long stay in the woods (yes, a whole month) it proved better at repelling giant, blood-sucking Southern Oregon mosquitoes than Deep Woods Off.

-=[ Grant ]=-

I read up a little on mosquito repellents. It appears that DEET does not really repel. It makes you smell like a plant and so the mosquitoes are not interested in you. What attracts them is the smell of fermented sweat. Staying is sweaty clothes might have more to do with the mosquitoes biting than the kind of repellent you use.

Thoughts?

Here in South Lousy-anna, the beer we drink and the Cayenne pepper that we consume make our sweat unappetizng to the Lousy-anna State Bird - the MOSQUITO

I had the opportunity to speak with a reasercher who specialized in mosquito borne illness and he confirmed that mosquitoes are also attracted to drastic color variations. I asked him this becasuse on one of my camping trips (which I nicknamed skeeter island) I noticed they literally swarmed around anything we had that was black or very dark colored, almost like it was bait. Apparently colors that don't contrast too drastically with the environment are better for keeping the skeeters away.

That's simple. Mosquito's pray is any warmblooded animal. They have special IR receptors in their antennas for hunting (along with the smell sensors). Black or dark color things warms up faster under the sun, and stays warm longer...

I think all people are different...

I know my father and I are rarely bitten and if we are we don't notice it for a day or so. While on the other hand the woman get HUGE bumps and are itching like crazy that night.

Me too, I rarely get bitten even without repellent, and when I do it's completely gone (the bump) in hours. For mosquitos that is. Undesirable body chemistry??

I guess the biggest problem I have with repellent is it removes paint from my gear and melts some synthetic fabrics and permanently stains others. OTOH, I have caught serious diseases in Africa from mosquitos. All it takes is one bug bite. Some can stay in your body for years and manifest when you're weak from something else. Some of those diseases or similar are migrating to here. So I'm doing the repellent thing again, trying to stay with the more modern formulations around 30% DEET that are slow release. From what I've read, many of the more sophisticated ~30% formulations are similar in effectiveness to the old 100% DEET styles. But I carry the old 100% DEET (AFAIK now "illegal" to sell in Canada) JIC it gets serious. Or I become attractive...