pets and mosquitos

Posted by: Jimshaw

pets and mosquitos - 08/15/10 12:17 PM

When Bigfoot and I were camped in the Cascades about a month ago, the mosquitos nearly carried us off, but the subject here is pets. Bigfoots dog Benie was chewed alive. We covered him with his blanket but even though he pulled his head under it, the bugs still got him. I told Bigfoot to sew a piece of mosquito netting to the end of Benies Blanket so he could cover the dogs face with it. I also suggested a mosquito headnet for dogs. Now I'm trying to design a mosquito headnet for a Llama.

I have a mosquito net teepee and when I got up at 7:15, bigfoot and Benie had been sitting under it since 5:30 am. I slept in a small tent with mosquito screening, but bf was in a hammock without netting and his DEET had exploded inside his first aid kit because he came up from sa level and didn't purge the bottle before going to altitude.

Please consider your canine buddy as you smear DEET on yourself.
Jim
Posted by: chimpac

Re: pets and mosquitos - 08/18/10 03:12 AM

Mosquitos do not like smoke. When I am burning my woodstove under a tarp I put green stuff on the stove to make a bit of smoke.
Posted by: GDeadphans

Re: pets and mosquitos - 08/18/10 01:37 PM

purge the can? Really? I never knew that.
Posted by: Jimshaw

Re: pets and mosquitos - 08/18/10 11:33 PM

All,
Yeh purge bottles before or as you go to altitude. If you left the tops loose most things would be ok but then they might tip and spill, but as one who often went from sealevel to 10,000' in a day, your toothpaste, sunlotion, alcohol bottle, canteen, etc can "explode" either in your pack or when you open it. Might want to tap a bottle down on a rock a couple times so the gas bubble is in the top above the liquids, then scrack the top and hopefully let off the pressure without incident.

Anyway DEET is horrible but it works. I carry a bottle of 100% DEET in liquid form but I wait to see if theres mosquitos before I'll pull it out.

My dog likes to sleep under an old bath towel as shes part greyhoound and short haired. I'm going to sew a piece of no-see-um cloth onto the side of a towel for her.
Jim
Posted by: OregonMouse

Re: pets and mosquitos - 08/19/10 01:37 AM

That's why Hysson sleeps in my tent. IMHO, he deserves a bug-free space, too. In return, he keeps my feet warm!
Posted by: dkramalc

Re: pets and mosquitos - 08/19/10 12:18 PM

Jimshaw - have you tried the lemon eucalyptus oil repellent? It certainly works well enough for me, and is much less "horrible". A Wall St. Journal article several years back rated it as effective as 21% DEET. It keeps mosquitoes off, but not for as long (a couple of hours, which is fine for me)as 100% DEET (I think that stuff lasts 6-8 hours, but it's been 15 years since I've used that).

(I have no connection to this product, I just happen to like it after having finally tried it this summer in some fairly nasty mosquito times, i.e. 30-40 mosquitoes landing on my arms within a minute or so without repellent).

I found one curious thing, possibly related to your comment about purging bottles. The spray dispenser for the lemon eucalyptus worked fine at sea level, then would not work when I got to 8000 feet (I ended up just wiping it on), even after purging. The next morning it worked fine (having cooled off?) but ceased to work again after it warmed up. Same experience next day. I transferred it to a different spray bottle (left over from an older repellent) when I got home, and the next trip it worked just fine, so it's something about that manufacturer's spray design (Repel). Or possibly that one particular unit had a malfunction.
Posted by: Jimshaw

Re: pets and mosquitos - 08/19/10 05:56 PM

I think Oregon early season mosquitos are indifferent to any "organic" solution that I've seen. It seems that only pure DEET of nets work. I wouldn't want to put anything on my dog that she would lick off.
Jim
Posted by: ndsol

Re: pets and mosquitos - 08/20/10 01:11 PM

I had that happen to me last week with a bottle of sun screen. It was last opened at sea level and when I went to put some on at over 14,000', the stuff shot out. At least the bottle didn't explode in my pack.
Posted by: dkramalc

Re: pets and mosquitos - 08/21/10 01:09 PM

Well, since I'm retiring in 6 weeks, I'm hoping we can visit a friend in Portland next season and hike with him. Maybe I'll get a chance to try the stuff against your mosquitoes.

I do know that my old non-DEET choice, Bite Blocker, which was rated less effective than lemon eucalyptus, worked fine in SE Alaska about 10 years ago when I was there in summer. Those are the only two "herbal" type repellents that have ever worked at all for me, but they've both been pretty good. Bite Blocker is a little thicker and tends to gum up its spray bottle, but smells less obnoxious (kind of vanilla spice-y) and might even be non-toxic for pets, not sure (active ingredient is actually some sort of modified soy oil). I would not put the lemon eucalyptus on a pet, for sure.

I saw something in my local drugstore a while back that was similar to an air freshener cage, you put refills into it and are supposed to wear the thing to keep mosquitoes away. If it works, it might be something you could hang off a dog's collar. Don't remember what it was called, though.
Posted by: squark

Re: pets and mosquitos - 03/18/11 05:52 AM

Do you find topicals such as Frontline or Advantage to be ineffective?
Posted by: skcreidc

Re: pets and mosquitos - 03/18/11 01:07 PM

OM's response is why I haven't gone over to hammock. I want a tent to protect my dog. Advantix works well for ticks, but only so-so for skeeters.