Bugs, Bugs and More Bugs!

Written in the UP of Michigan, after watching a million flies land on our Living Room!

We have been fortunate enough to have very little interaction with bugs from Washington to North Dakota. But once we hit Minnesota, it was over (Defeated by the Minnesota State Bird). So with that, I would like to share a bit about what we have done to reduce our bug issues.

1. Deet – This has become our best friend! We thought of something awesome and it seems to be working. We take 100% Deet and mix it with Witch Hazel (making a 50% blend). This mixture goes on much nicer, feels less sticky and still seems to work against mosquitos.
2. Citronella – We have come up with a citronella oil and witch hazel mixture that seems to work adequately against No-See-Ums. Nothing else seems to do the trick with these bugs! One note, you need to reapply often with this stuff.
3. Permethrin – This stuff is awesome, if you haven’t tried it yet, then you should. We originally bought the spray and sprayed a few shirts and pants but we needed more clothes done. We also sprayed our tent and living room. Since the spray is pretty expensive, we ordered concentrate and are now making our own. We have been going for a 0.56% permethrin solution (seems to be what some of our bug resistant clothes come with). We have soaked a ton more shirts, pants and socks and hung to dry. We have also sprayed our tent (again), the awning and our chairs. We will probably do more!    Update… use the concentrate at your own risk (i.e. research the particular brand first).  We found some brands are not rated for use on clothing because of additional chemicals added to the compound.   
4. Clothes – We tend to always wear long pants and shirts (ideally ones with permethrin). This has limited our bites, but is somewhat annoying when it is warm out. So we make a choice, bites or sweat?!?
5. Dogs – Our dogs take a pill called Bravecto, this kills all fleas, ticks and mosquitoes when they bite. We loved this stuff before traveling and we now love it even more! One chewy tablet lasts 3 months!  (in heavy tick areas, every 2 months is allowed.)  Definitely ask your vet about this, because not only does it work well, but it feels less toxic than applying directly to the skin like many flea meds.  
6. Living Room – We own a Clam Quick Set Escape room, which has No-See-Um mesh. This has actually worked wonderfully for us to just get away! (side note: we would have preferred to buy the Quick-Set Pavilion since the walls come pre-attached and roll up)

What has NOT worked…

1. Mint, Lavender and Witch Hazel mixture. While this smells awesome and I read online that it works against mosquitoes, I will say that so far it has not. It does feel nice and has a bit of a soothing effect if you have already been bitten, so we now use this as more of an after-bite.
2. 30% Deet or less, honestly you need the big guns for these mosquitoes!
3. Clothes without permethrin (unless they are really thick or 2 layers) – I have actually seen a mosquito bite me through jeans!
4. Hope 🙂

We will continue to test out various things and keep this updated if we find some new magical solution!