Insect Repellant

[Heritage-Angler]

Every once in a while, you come across a product that is too good not to share.

While fishing Spring Creek in the canyon section this weekend, the mosquitos were brutal. My fishing buddy (AFISHN) was kind enough to share some of his favorite bug juice with me when I discovered my bottle of bug juice had dried up. He uses this stuff up in Maine, and says it's the best thing to combat black flies and mosquitos. It also repels ticks (woohoo!).

It's all natural, DEET free, and it really works!

http://www.whitemountaininsectrepellent.com/

As we all know, Deet works, but it's really bad for fly lines - it dissolves them. I've used several DEET free products, but they only worked so-so.

The website for this product specifically states this stuff won't harm fishing gear and fly lines (and it didn't). Just a few drops applied to exposed skin areas worked great! Smells like cedar trees, and the smell isn't noticeable after a little while.

It's kinda pricey buying from the company directly, but I found out that Tractor Supply sells the 1.25 oz bottles for $3.99. Since only a few drops covers your arms, hands, neck, and face, one bottle should last a while.

Thanks for the tip, Tom!

 

[AkDan76]

boy I'll have to find this.

Deet put me in the hospital for 3 days! Watch yourselves. At least up here, the dang things are terrible everywhere all the time. Good ole 98% army issue bens, one way trip to the ER. To heck with rod finishes and fly lines LOL!

I'm stuck to 15%...can use 25 but generally break out into a sweat pretty fast. Try to keep it off my skin as much as possible, but dang they are brutal! And they only get smaller with every hatching...by fall they were itty bitty, noiseless mean devils. Pray you don't get into the whitesox chasing arctic char on the tundra...even the caribou run mad!

Thanks for the tip!

 

[mike_richardson]

get a thermacell with the hip holster or clip it to your vest. Best insect repellant out there.

 

[AkDan76]

Didnt believe you were supposed to use the thermacells around water? I use one bear hunting.

 

[RLeep2]

I quit monkeying around with chemical repellants and electron beam emitters with UHF rabbit ears or whatever a thermacell is.

I go to Wally World and buy headnets. They're cheap, organic, DEET-free, effective and it took me about 8 seconds to get used to the very minor effect they have on visual acuity.

That's just me, though.. We all have different levels of tolerance for skeeters, gnats, etc. Mine is pretty high. They don't really bother me that much and they almost have to be carrying me off bodily before I'll put the headnet on.

 

[troutpoop]

I will try the stuff from TSC.
I had considered the possibility of training a few Bats to live in my fishing hat and just drop out to gobble up the skeeters. My wife said no?

 

[jeremymcon]

AkDan76 wrote:
boy I'll have to find this.

Deet put me in the hospital for 3 days! Watch yourselves. At least up here, the dang things are terrible everywhere all the time. Good ole 98% army issue bens, one way trip to the ER. To heck with rod finishes and fly lines LOL!

Holy crap to the hospital? What happened? I use deet spray occasionally and haven't had a problem, but I'd like to learn from your mistake to avoid the ER.

 

[AkDan76]

Yup hospital. Had a reaction to the bens 98 or 99% deet.

I fish quite a bit, even more back than, gas was cheap and I drove a car with great gas mileage compared to my Tacoma.

I'd spray my hands, neck face and cloths. That was enough after days of doing it. Swollen lymphnodes, sweating like I was in a sauna, basically sicker than a skunk (its been 20 years exact symptoms I don't remember, other than I felt like a dead guy!) Went to the hospital spent that night and 2 more days so not a full 3 before I was released. I was a single guy in the barracks at the time, most of my unit was tdy to anchorage for a ceremony, I 'lucked out'. instead of going on quarters they kept me in the hospital to keep an eye on me being I had no leadership around.

How to avoid it is don't wear it! Its bad crap! The higher the % the worse it is. Now if I wear anything over 25% or so I typically start sweating...even 25% after a day or two I can tell it. Toxicity poisoning can happen from any chemical. Once you get it, it takes less and less of it to form a reaction. It all sounds good until you end up like myself. Hopefully I have another 40 years of fly fishing ahead of me...that's an awful lot of bug dope!!!!!

The bug tamer jacket is the cats meow when bugs are bad. As are the thermacells, but they even make me wonder about the fumes (you're not smelling) over time. toxic to fish and aquatic species. I don't use mine fishing but will have it in camp. Obviously heed the warning on the thermacells as fisherman.

I have yet to find a non deet product that really works. I'm excited on this one, minus the cost. I'll report back, lord knows I have enough mosquitos to get a good idea if it works or not and for how long.

 

[Heritage-Angler]

Yeah, DEET is some nasty stuff. I keep a bottle of it that's close to 100% in my truck, but I only resort to it when things are REALLY bad. Usually just spray a bit on the underside of my hat brim, but the fumes make me woozy, and I swear I can actually taste it after a while.

The stuff I used to carry I found in an archery shop many years ago. It also contained cedar oil, IIRC, and I used to hunt from a stand in hemlocks and cedars, so it made sense to use it - from a smell standpoint. I was really shocked how well it worked, but I couldn't find it anymore to buy more. The label fell off the bottle, so I don't even know who made it. I think it was a local concoction.

I nursed that bottle for years, but ran out last weekend.

I've only used the White Mountain stuff one weekend, but it worked even better than my old bug juice. Not one bite after I put it on. The bugs wouldn't even land on me anymore.

I'm curious to see how this stuff works for others.

 

[RLeep2]

Although I still go with head nets when it becomes really, really necessary to do something about bugs, reading this thread made me curious about this White Mountain stuff. So, I went to the nearby Tractor Supply and picked up a bottle.

I field tested it on Monday while smallmouth fishing. There were very few skeeters around to see how they reacted, but as usual, lots of deerflies. Of all the biting insects, I think deerflies are the ones that annoy me most and generally, it takes a lot of bugs to annoy me. But deerflies gather in groups of 3-4 on the back of my hands and fidget around as they prepare to bite me and this drives me bat***t...

So, I slathered some of this White Mountain stuff on my hands. I found that it does work, if we define "work" in a pretty broad sense.
It was somewhat more effective than carrying a rolled up newspaper with me but definitely less effective than even the low concentration (7%) Picaridin-based stuff, which isn't really very effective. The White Mountain repellant kept the deerflies away for about 20 minutes or so. Its also pretty slick on your skin even after being vigorously rubbed in. It got on the cork grip and I almost threw my rod across the creek a couple times while casting.

This is on deerflies though, which can be pretty tough to repel. It might work a lot better on skeeters and gnats, etc.

 

[pcray1231]

The head nets are not enough for me. It might work for your face and neck. But those skeeters bite right through my shirt, and tear up my arms and torso. At the jam, I went an hour or two without bug spray and there was a clear "wader line" around my chest, above which was covered in skeeter bites. I'd need a full body net, lol.

The DEET works. I hate it with a passion, though I've never had a "medical" reaction to it. It just smells terrible, ruins waders and fly lines and tippets, spraying it leaves a bad taste in the air, and I worry about the environmental effects. But it works. After that hour or two of getting eaten alive, a buddy showed up carrying insect spray, and it was like INSTANT relief.

Permethrin is interesting to me. It's what the insect resistant clothing has in it, including military uniforms and mosquito nets are usually impregnated with it as well. Lice and scabies Rx topical cures are permethrin based. But you can buy detergents over the counter and make any clothing do that. No smell, not nearly as toxic to humans, doesn't harm plastics, and instead of spraying it everywhere you can just wash your clothes in it. More effective than DEET on ticks. In my experiences so far, it's somewhat effective on skeeters and black flies, but not as effective as high % DEET products. That said, not all DEET products are as effective as others, and I haven't yet "optimized" which Permethrin products are better.

The downside? Incredibly toxic to fish. (and cats, which is why you should NEVER give a flea treatment meant for dogs to a cat or for a dog that's near cats, it will kill the cat). Apply to clothing at home and make sure it's dry, DO NOT spray it streamside.

 

[Heritage-Angler]

Pat - I use a permethrin spray on all my "fishing clothes" that aren't the insect shield kind. Mostly for tick protection, but it does seem to keep skeeters from biting through my shirts. This is the stuff I use:

http://duranon.com/

I was actually wearing an insect shield shirt at the Jam, but when I rolled my sleeves up 'cause I was roasting, the buffet was ON! That was one of the worst skeeter attacks I've experienced South of Canada.

No more DEET for this boy. I wanna carry a bottle of bug juice in my vest for those "special occasions", and not have to worry about trashing my fly line. As long as it works, I'm gonna stick with the permethrin/White Mountain combo, and concentrate on fishing - instead of slapping myself silly(er).

Like the song says........ :lol:

 

[poopdeck]

I have been using Permethrin for 15 or so years. It's all I use. My understanding is it is safe if sprayed on clothing and permitted to dry before wearing. Never heard of washing clothes in it. Hang clothes from tree spray real good and let dry. Great against ticks. A good stoogie keeps bugs away from face

 

[AkDan76]

I wonder about washing cloths poopdeck.

I use it on my turkey gear as well (permethrine). It does work extremely well on ticks!

PcRay,

If you really want a bug jacket that works find yourself a bug tamer jacket. I've sat in bear stands in a brown tshirt with this on with bugs like you've likely never seen and not got whacked through it. Hands are exposed though. Quite frankly I wont be in the bear woods without it!

I used to wear it fishing...my gal still does. I have a 2nd much cheaper version of one but the thicker mesh is on the outside which is basically worth less. it helps to a degree.

As far as I'm concerned and I'm by no means a chemical weenie, I work with the crap daily. Keep as much off you as you possibly can! toxicity poisoning is no joke and it doesn't go away! Every bought you have will get worse and worse over the years! I have to use juice of any kind extremely limited. I hate spraying my cloths with the permethrine, but those dam ticks are beyond belief in MO/KS!

 

[wmlures]

I manufacture the White Mountain Insect Repellent in NH and am an avid outdoorsman. Heritage Angler you might have bought it at the Penn.Bowhunters reunion in Forksville PA where I had a booth in the Flag Building selling deer lure and my repellent. Most Tractor Supply Stores should have it available but some of the smaller of their stores don't have it (limited space they say). I used to have a plate with my repellent and put a roll of 2lb leader tippet in it to prove it will not damage fly fishing equipment. Like any other repellent it will work for some and some will not like it but it's a real alternative to deet. It was tested against 25% deet and it tested as well as the deet. I like a dark brown woolybugger and a sinking line.

 

[Bamboozle]

I have use the Sawyer Permethrin for years.

They USED to sell a kit containing a bottle of permethrin, a giant Zip-Loc bag, plastic gloves and a length of string (for garment retrieval). You would dump the permethrin along with two fills of water in the empty permethrin bottle into the Zip-Loc bag. That amount of liquid would effectively protect 3 garments. Soak for a few hours and then hang outside until completely dry.

Now all they offer is a pump spray bottle which may do two garments on a good day but I have ONE soak kit left. I use the spray on my fishing hat.

I do my fishing shirt, pants and hat once a year just before Memorial Day. I once questioned the effectiveness of it when my shirt was hanging out to dry because I saw a huge crane fly sitting on the back of it. I walked up and poked the fly and it was DEAD!!

Permethrin is not a repellent, it's an insecticide!

That system combined with a Buzz-Off bandanna around my neck and an ample supply of stogies works like a charm for me. I may get an occasional mosquito bite on my hands but that's it.

The only thing that was totally unfazed by any of this were the Tachinid flies that were released by the State up in Potter/Tioga a few years back to combat the Gypsy Moths. Those pesky little bastards didn't bite, but would land on you by the hundreds making you feel like a cow in a pasture. Fortunately they disappeared as suddenly as they appeared.

I carry repellant but I never use it because of the DEET and the effect it can have on plastics however I once had some sun screen soften the paint on a casting reel of mine so there are other things out there to beware of.

If I ever give up the cigars I'll try the White Mountain stuff, thanks!!

 

[AFISHN]

wmlures.Welcome to the forum.
I was the person who introduced Heritage Angler to your product.I usually buy it in Errol,NH or the fly shop in Oquasic,ME on my annual trips to that area.

Gave a bottle 3 yrs ago to my daughter on her trip to Belize.She said the no- se -ums there completely avoided her.Her extensively bitten friends there were begging for a few drops...which she charitably parceled out in small doses.
We have an annual jamboree to which I invite you to attend.Plus: a small donation of a 6 pack of your bug spry for our raffle there would be greatly appreciated 🙂

 

[SteveG]

I swung by tractor supply the other day and got a bottle. I'vehad two outings with it, in thick cover, and I am impressed. It even smells ok. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[wmlures]

Yes AFISHN L.L. Cote and River's Edge Sports each sell at least 144 bottles every season. Interesting note about your daughter in Belize. We have sold to many anglers going to that country and have reported similar results. They usually buy it from our website in our four ounce size...and yes it is pricy but it's the shipping that costs the most. I have emailed you for information on your jamboree. Tight lines WMIR

 

[wmlures]

AFISHN...I emailed you about your jamboree but don't know if you got the message since I didn't get any reply.
whitemountaininsectrepellent.com