Mosquito Patch

Alright campers/hikers/ranchers etc. I know we have a good deal of folks here who spend a lot of work and recreational time outdoors. I wanted to know if anyone has tried those Vitamin B1 (thiamine) patches that claim to fend off mosquitoes. If you have, were they effective?

I switched from DEET to the more mild Picaridin and found that just as effective for me but you need to reapply a bit more often than DEET. I still use DEET on the pants legs if going into high growth to fend off ticks. Picaridin is what I use for those evening when I'm out in the yard at dusk and want to keep the mosquitoes off.

The appeal of the patch would be the long term protection they claim to have.

When I read your post title, I thought you were talking about my back yard.

DEET is the only thing that works for me. Wife says I'm a mosquito magnet.

BIGIRON said:

When I read your post title, I thought you were talking about my back yard.

DEET is the only thing that works for me. Wife says I'm a mosquito magnet.

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LOL. Actually this drought in SW Ohio has really kept their numbers low but the ones that are left are thirsty. I'm getting hit in the middle of the day and those are the infamous tiger mosquitoes that carry West Nile Virus. As I said for me the Picaridin is working nicely I just need to remember to apply and apply often.

Cool idea. Interesting.

How do you get the mosquitos to wear the patch?

BIGIRON said:

When I read your post title, I thought you were talking about my back yard.

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LOL! I hear you, BIGIRON.

Spring here was fairly dry, but I've been bitten several times while working in the back yard in bright sun.

Little buggers seem to lurk all day in areas with deep shade, just waiting for a victim to happen by.

.

I used a lemon/eucalyptus based repellent last summer during a camping trip up at Yosimite. It seems to work fine; I couldn't remember any bites if I had any. It does have a very strong "lemon and grass" smell to it though.

http://www.repel.com/ProductCategories/Insectrepellents/LemonEucalyptus/

I've also used the Lemon and Eucalyptus and for most things that has done well for me. Although there have been a couple times when it hasn't been enough and I've had to pull out the little bottle of DEET. But then again there have been times when even DEET hasn't been enough. and I was forced to cover up completely and hide. YMMV I guess but I think the lemon Eucalyptus is definitely worth a try.

Hmm. This is all very well and good, but you gentlemen are talking about insects whose presence and activities constitute no more than merely a very feeble and insignificant inconvenience – one scarcely to be noticed. A mild nuisance at worst, easily tolerated.

The somewhat larger mosquitoes to be found in northern parts – Alaska, for example – are considered by some to be slightly more disagreeable, importunate and persistent, but even they are little more than a very minor distraction.

No: if you want to experience an insect that is truly fearsome and savage by nature, implacably relentless in attack, impervious to all known deterrents, overwhelming in number and horrendously, fiendishly adept in torturing a strong man beyond all endurance and reducing him to a gibbering, screaming ruin within mere seconds, you will have to look far further afield. You will need to visit Scotland, and experience… THE SCOTTISH MIDGE.

Patches?!? I have a better idea! :devil:

DM51 said:

Hmm. This is all very well and good, but you gentlemen are talking about insects whose presence and activities constitute no more than merely a very feeble and insignificant inconvenience – one scarcely to be noticed. A mild nuisance at worst, easily tolerated.

The somewhat larger mosquitoes to be found in northern parts – Alaska, for example – are considered by some to be slightly more disagreeable, importunate and persistent, but even they are little more than a very minor distraction.

No: if you want to experience an insect that is truly fearsome and savage by nature, implacably relentless in attack, impervious to all known deterrents, overwhelming in number and horrendously, fiendishly adept in torturing a strong man beyond all endurance and reducing him to a gibbering, screaming ruin within mere seconds, you will have to look far further afield. You will need to visit Scotland, and experience… THE SCOTTISH MIDGE.

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I've had to deal with as bad: the midges called "no-see-ums" that tore me up one year in Florida. They completely avoided the 2 13yr. old Brit kids that were fishing right next to me every night on the pier at the condo complex. Kiddingly they said it must be the beer I was drinking. By the end of that trip I looked like I had smallpox. For something so tiny they provoke a localized itching/swelling response about 6x greater than the average mosquito.

DM51 said:

Hmm. This is all very well and good, but you gentlemen are talking about insects whose presence and activities constitute no more than merely a very feeble and insignificant inconvenience – one scarcely to be noticed. A mild nuisance at worst, easily tolerated.

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I completely disagree with this statement. Couldn't disagree more.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/lyme-disease/DS00116
http://www.lyme.org/otherdis/diseases.html And do your own research.
Anything the size of a pinhead, that has the potential to give you diseases for a week to a lifetime, doesn't sound so insignificant to me.
I think the insect you were describing is the common housefly.

Hey, take it easy, Omega. My whole post was written tongue-in-cheek – I thought that was obvious. Of course I'm not REALLY downplaying the problems of mosquitoes. In fact, if you count malaria, mosquitoes probably kill more people than just about anything else and are maybe the most dangerous creatures on the planet.

But one day you should experience those Scottish midges – lol, they drive you totally nuts like absolutely nothing else can do!

Okay, I thought you were kinda starting a pee-ing match about who's got the worst bugs, my bad. I'm actually concerned about ticks, not mosquitos. So maybe I shouldn't have posted at all. Either way, let's hope the ticks and midges don't conspire together and make Scottick Tidges or something!

I agree, I don't like ticks either. There's another thread going at the moment about ticks, and whether you can see them under colored light:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/167329

Maybe someone could start a general "Nasty bugs" thread. I think the Aussies have some of the worst ones. Maybe Norm or someone could tell us about them.

Deet is about the only thing that seems effective in northern ON- everything else is a before dinner drink. :huh:

Just bought a bottle of Repel Lemon Eycaliptus mentioned in the other thread, today. I'll try that against Deet for now.

I use Tiger Balm Ointment. (use the white instead of red) Very good against mosquito bites and very good for sore muscles. Dual usage especially for campings and hikes.

Sean

I like the picardin based stuff for casual use. It works on me and the kids for most outdoor activities during the day, like taking a walk or something. But for actually working in the yard or for being out in the evening even it is ineffective and we resort back to deet based products.

I haven't tried the patch myself, but I've heard from several of my backpacking friends that it was completely useless to them. So go ahead and give it a try but bring some deet along too when it fails to do anything for you

I dont like how strong smelling the deet stuff is and it does make one feel a bit sticky, but it really does work. Deet is toxic if you eat it, but the toxic reactions in people take really quite a bit, just spraying it on you properly before going outside everyday is not going to lead to any problems. Long term use of deet is safe unless you're allergic to it. There is nothing to worry about as long as you dont eat the stuff. The dose makes the poison, the amount that turns off mosquitoes and ticks does nothing to a person at all. And it's much safer to use this than to let yourself get bitten by those nasty tiger mosquitoes that really do carry bad stuff. I have 2 friends that have over the years ended up in the hospital with encephalitis caused by mosquito bites and know one guy actually diagnosed with west nile virus. These are bad and real things, our fears over deet are mostly groundless and based on a vague feeling of unease caused by reading the warnings on the label and maybe a desire to be more "natural" or something. (oh and by the way, the lemon grass stuff I tried too and it was like wearing nothing at all around here, our mosquitoes were not fooled by it at all and actually while it's less toxic in high doses you're more likely to have an allergic or other skin reaction to high concentrations of that stuff than you are to a quick spray of deet)

Dont get bit, and especially protect your children because a case of encephalitis that would get you a lumbar puncture in the ER some night would kill a child.

Don't use any scented soaps or shampoos; or deodorant. I do this on the days I work on the farm, and it keeps both the deerflies and mosquitos.

OT:I take the air filter off of our tractor and watch it suck in the deer flies that are attracted to the heat/co2

Can we go back to Bitslammers original question? Has anyone tried the Vitamin B1 patch? Believe "Omezone" is brand name.