Mosquitos!

Eycom wrote:
In certain areas of Florida, especially during the rainy season, we either wear Deet or sit outside in front of a box fan to keep the slow, low flying C-130s from hauling us off.

this
Box fan ,if deet is not a option use a fan ,mossies are poor fliyers and a fan puts out too much head wind.
The traps are this seasons gimmick.

DEET products are one of the few PROVEN effective repellants. LOTS of superstitions about things that smell good, taste good etc. (mainly because people don't LIKE the way deet feels, smells or tastes and they'd rather get bitten than handle something unpleasent. Kind of like going fishing with Balogna as bate :)

A bunch of us used to do a golf week in Myrtle Beach every spring. They're big enough to carry away a small dog down there. We used to go through three or four cans of Deep Woods OFF every day. We sprayed all exposed skin, our socks and golf shirts.
Lots of places sell electric mosquito swatters. They look like a badminton racket and the handle holds a couple of "D" batteries. The mosquitos never see it coming until there's a spark and a zap! Very satisfying feedback.

Fish 'n ' Grits wrote:
Therma cells and OFF! clip ons work for us. This year seems extra bad for skeeters here, too.

Thermacells and citranella candles. Work for us most of the time. Ocassionally we have to use the "dry" OFF repellant.

What are thermacells?

What actually works is to treat your clothes with permethrin which is cheap if you do it yourself and what the US soliders do in Afghanistan and Iraq. This keeps the mosquitos from sitting on your pant leg or shirt sleeve and then bitting you. Second line of defense is a pecardin spray that I spray on exposed areas and then rub across my skin as otherwise the mosquitos find untouched areas to bite.

I buy the permethrin in quart container for $34 that is a 37% solution and will last for years. I dilute 1oz. permethrin per 80oz. of water and then spray the mixture on our clothes using a $5 garden pump sprayer and let the clothing drip dry. It costs less than a nickel per item and the treatment lasts though 50 washings. I treat shirts, shorts, pants, and socks.

Since doing this 10 years ago for a multi-week trip to SE Asia and my wife and I having zero bites during that time, it is now standarded practice for all our outdoor clothing. It works for mosquitos, sand flys, chiggers, fleas, and ticks.

You pay about 50x as much when you buy brand name 8oz. spray bottles that are pre-diluted and or you can buy pre-treated shirts and pants and pay an extra $10 per garment. I prefer to treat the clothing myself as I can treat everything including blue jeans and socks which would otherwise be untreated.

Mosquitos are annoying but ticks are more of a health concern in the USA as they carry at least 22 known diseases, some of which are fatal and known are pleasant. Killing off the foxes and wolves in the east resulted in an explosion of the white footed mice population which provide hosts for juevenile ticks and nymphs and so created an explosion in the tick population (and Lyme and other diseases).

brirene wrote:
I've found those clip on battery operated repellent fans to actually work pretty well. Can't think of who makes them right now, but they're all over. In addition to the beer, of course!

They do work pretty well. They are an "OFF" product. We have even just put them on each end of the picnic table and stayed pretty comfortable - in northern Idaho. Have replaceable cartridges. We use new cartridges each season.

I buy the permethrin in quart container for $34 that is a 37% solution and will last for years. I dilute 1oz. permethrin per 80oz. of water and then spray the mixture on our clothes using a $5 garden pump sprayer and let the clothing drip dry. It costs less than a nickel per item and the treatment lasts though 50 washings. I treat shirts, shorts, pants, and socks.

We did this to our military uniforms (BDU), worked great when we were South America.

I will agree on the handheld bug zapper too. Great feeling of redemption hearing that 'sizzling' sound when you get one of those suckers.

RVcrazy wrote:
What are thermacells?

Thermacell

I've used these for years. They are excellent if there is not a major breeze or very windy. A slight breeze is good, you set them up wind of you and let it drift through the seating area you want protected.
Calm nights, we place them under our chairs around the campfire.

Occasionally supplement w/citronella candles. If it's real bad, we break the dry off bug repellant out.

Saves us from having bug spray all over us when we go to bed.

I've heard good reports and my only experience is with these models. I've also heard the lantern models work ok, but not as effective as this type.

Look at the bright side, at least they weren't giant tsetse flies carrying off little children (The In-Laws 1979)

Plan for home made mosquito trap

Another home made plan for a trap.