PAMR MX wrote:I will come say hello when i see a family dressed in white wearing head nets and gloves soaked in DEET. Look for the guy in flip flops and a t shirt.
Seriously tho i never use anything as strong as 100 and never spray that cancer on my skin. You will however find me washing engine parts with my bare hands in 100LL the next day. Its fine it evaporates fast right?

The mosquitos dont bug my kids a whole lot. They are easy. Spray some deet on their clothes and away they go. They do tend to freak out from the horse flies. The fun REALLY begins when you get some hitch hikers. Yeah those free loadin flies. Flying in my airplane one might think a bear was hiding under the seat only to jump out mid flight to terrerize my kids. Their screams would make you think thats the case. One lone fly or mosquito will send them into hysteria. Only during take off. Your wife will not be able to reach either so good luck with that.

Hehe! That's funny. And was going to be a follow up question: How to keep bugs in the plane to a minimum.

Thanks for all the good advice. We flew the kids to Vegas for spring break so my internet time is limited. As soon as I have a few minutes, I'll look at all that has been posted and ask any follow up questions.

To get the flys, skeeters, hornets, whatever out of the plane when flying carry a 5 or 6 foot section of clear plastic tubing. Stick one end out the window or vent and use the other end like a vacuum cleaner hose and suck em out of the plane.


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DENNY wrote:They do make a net tent/gazebo you can hang from your wing that everyone can sit and relax in

One of my favorite purchases from our time in Fairbanks was a pop-up screen room.

Kind of like this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0114N0S ... reen+house

Except I got it at Fred Meyer's for $60. We lived in that thing one summer, since it was too hot to stay inside and too buggy to stay outside. I've used it a couple of times camping in the lower 48 as well. Mine isn't too heavy or bulky for the size it'll keep bug free.

Our field crews used a screen house for cooking, lounging, etc when in a long duration location. They're nice to have if you're going to be camped in bug country for a few days.

MTV

Barnstormer wrote:To get the flys, skeeters, hornets, whatever out of the plane when flying carry a 5 or 6 foot section of clear plastic tubing. Stick one end out the window or vent and use the other end like a vacuum cleaner hose and suck em out of the plane.


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In my days moving crews and working on the Yukon Flats, my entertainment between stops was killing the accumulation of bugs from the last stop. They are kind of stunned by the vibration (I'm guessing) of the engine, and therefore easy marks.......payback is a bitch.

I never kept score, but the carcasses stacked up during the course of a day's work.

MTV

That was always the drill when flying mail from village to village.

Land. Open and shut doors as quick as possible. Fly to next village, and...

Squish, squish, squish against the windshield until you got 'em all as you flogged along through the air. Repeat all day long.

Then, at the end of the day, sit there with your can of Pledge and a towel, scrubbing it all clean.

Gump

CamTom12 wrote:https://www.amazon.com/Coghlans-0057-Bug-Jacket-Medium/dp/B000NDWOH6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1491184008&sr=8-2&keywords=bug+shirt

These work real good, and you don't have to put chemicals on your young kids.

Cary, I don't know if its different down in Los Anchorage, but in the interior I swear the mosquitos could carry you away some years.

I remember that they seem to grow in "hatches." When the ground thawed you'd get the big, slow and stupid ones, then enough of them would lay eggs after a few weeks and you'd get the small, fast, and smart ones. Eventually those would get bigger and dumber and slower, rinse and repeat.

Ok, spring break is over and I can get back to my todo list.

Thanks for the recommendation Cam. I'll make sure to get some ordered. Do you see a reason to have this and a head net? Or just use this jacket all the time when needed?

PAMR MX wrote:I will come say hello when i see a family dressed in white wearing head nets and gloves soaked in DEET. Look for the guy in flip flops and a t shirt.
Seriously tho i never use anything as strong as 100 and never spray that cancer on my skin. You will however find me washing engine parts with my bare hands in 100LL the next day. Its fine it evaporates fast right?

The mosquitos dont bug my kids a whole lot. They are easy. Spray some deet on their clothes and away they go. They do tend to freak out from the horse flies. The fun REALLY begins when you get some hitch hikers. Yeah those free loadin flies. Flying in my airplane one might think a bear was hiding under the seat only to jump out mid flight to terrerize my kids. Their screams would make you think thats the case. One lone fly or mosquito will send them into hysteria. Only during take off. Your wife will not be able to reach either so good luck with that.

Hehe! Yeah, been there. And I'm sure it will happen again. I do hope we get the chance to say hello!

TomD wrote:An alternative to DEET is Picaridin (20%) which was shown to be as effective as DEET in N. Australia. Picaridin does not smell, is not oily and does not melt plastic things, but does repel mosquitoes really well.

I have been using it for at least five years and find it to be very effective. I changed from DEET when a bottle of DEET in my kit leaked and totally melted the back off a travel alarm.

Some of the Australian lit. suggests using the 10% concentration for kids, but I have no idea about that.

Evidently you can buy the 20% concentration picaridin in the USA now. Sawyer makes a 20% available from Amazon. Looks to be cheaper than the Autan I purchased through Pharmacy2U or Chemist Direct in the UK before it was available in the US.

Thanks for this Tom. I'll look into it.

hotrod180 wrote:Better take Sprocket along and stake him out as a sacrificial lamb.

Hehe, yeah, he will be along. Not sure how good of a decoy he will be. He's a little lacking on stuffing these days.

DENNY wrote:Long sleeve shirts and pants go a long way in preventing bites. You can get that stuff from the sport stores to soak you clothing in, it works great even north of the brooks. It is likely to cause some kind of cancer so don't know if I would use it on kids. I would use the spray DEET stuff. Give the hats and shirts a good spray and very light spray on the skin. Burning the smudge pot type of stuff good. They do make a net tent/gazebo you can hang from your wing that everyone can sit and relax in (oh ya its kids never mind) I think picking the proper camping spot, sand, gravel, and breeze is key. If you can get any type of fire a little smoke goes a long way.
DENNY

Any idea who makes the wing tent setup? Yeah, kids may be on the go but that doesn't mean I can't supervise from the tent!

We have a tent that has vestibule and I've thought about getting one of those big bed nets to drape over it just as another layer to try to keep the bugs out.

iceman wrote:Cory, trust me on this cause it works.... I use it every summer on my idaho trip to JC and never have a problerm with any bugs much less mosquitos.... take along a box of the dryer sheets you put in your dryer when drying your clothes... rub a dryer sheet on your clothes and hat and exposed skin.... it works believe me... and you'll smell good too....

Interesting. We will give this a try. Thanks!

Coghlans Mosquito Net Backwoods is one of the manufacturers, REI, Cabela's and Amazon has similar stuff. Do a search and look at images it will give you some ideas. The nice thing is they are light and cheap (20 bucks or so). Test fit before you leave to make sure it will work for you. They have full gazebo types I make my buddy with the 185 carry but looks like you are already going to be heavy.
DENNY

DENNY wrote:Coghlans Mosquito Net Backwoods is one of the manufacturers, REI, Cabela's and Amazon has similar stuff. Do a search and look at images it will give you some ideas. The nice thing is they are light and cheap (20 bucks or so). Test fit before you leave to make sure it will work for you. They have full gazebo types I make my buddy with the 185 carry but looks like you are already going to be heavy.
DENNY

Yeah, it won't have room for the full size pop-up types, but if I could find something that is just the netting that drapes over a wing it hangs from a wing, that could be doable.


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When do you leave? I can ship my bug room to you to borrow for the trip. It's just sitting in my garage right now.

Thanks for the offer. What kind of dimensions and weight? I found one on Amazon that is 87" x71" x87"that looks like it will work well. It's inexpensive and might be good to have on hand for other trips too.


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Dimensions are 92x92x84, but I can't get the weight for you until next week

I guess from what I'm reading here that some folks seem to naturally repel, or at least aren't seriously affected, by mosquitoes and other bugs, while others seem to be their lunch. We just didn't have many issues with them in Alaska, which as I said, involved camping almost every weekend as far "upstate" as Fairbanks and as far "downstate" as Seward, Homer, etc.

On the same note, I don't seem to have many issues at OSH and other allegedly bug infested locales, although I take some minor measures to eliminate what little issues I have. But I watch my row neighbors swatting and complaining, while I sit there mostly unbothered. I routinely put an OFF fan in the tent, which totally eliminates them inside. I recently bought a solar bug zapper to minimize them for my lollygagging outside, but I don't know yet whether it will accomplish anything.

At home, we have a bug zapper plugged in all summer, which makes using the deck more pleasant for others, but truly, even with it turned off, I can sit out there all evening and maybe get one bite, while others come inside all lumpy and scratching.

I just saw a short squib on TV last night, where someone showed a "delicacy" made up of large grasshoppers coated with some sort of syrup coating, and the claim was that eating them would totally eliminate problems with bug bites. Not sure I'd use that solution, but maybe for others???

Cary

My mom (god rest her kinda hippy soul) swore by Vitamin B1. We had to take it every morning to keep the mosquitoes away. I really can't tell you if it worked or not because both my brother and I took it, it would have been better if she made him be the control subject of the test.

CamTom12 wrote:Dimensions are 92x92x84, but I can't get the weight for you until next week

No problem. I totally missed the dimensions were right on the bag in the pic you posted! Also, could you give me an idea of its size when it's packed? Thanks! No hurry. We are leaving the first week of June.


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