Mosquito Repellent NOT DEET

Hi,

I am taking a liberty to post this in Wetpixel, but it is in General Chat.

What mozzie repellent to use? DEET will turn your rubbery camera body coating in to a gooey mess.

The CDC recommendations below. Picaridin is soluble in alcohol. This may eat up the camera coating. Oil of eucalyptus sounds equipment deadly also. I have no idea what IR3535 is (miracle weight loss formula?).

Do you have any equipment friendly mosquito repellent suggestions?

• <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">DEET (Chemical Name: N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide or N,N-diethly-3-methyl-benzamide) <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">Picaridin (KBR 3023, Chemical Name: 2-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperidinecarboxylic acid 1-methylpropyl ester ) <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus* or PMD (Chemical Name: para-Menthane-3,8-diol) the synthesized version of oil of lemon eucalyptus
  
• IR3535 (Chemical Name: 3-[N-Butyl-N-acetyl]-aminopropionic acid, ethyl ester)
  

Regards,

Bob

Hi there

We mix Detol and baby oil together, about 1:3 ratio, it lasts about 3 hours.

The other thing that you can do now is buy Mosquito bands that contain citronella and ward of mosquitos........

Hope this helps

Hi,

I am taking a liberty to post this in Wetpixel, but it is in General Chat.

What mozzie repellent to use? DEET will turn your rubbery camera body coating in to a gooey mess.

 

The CDC recommendations below. Picaridin is soluble in alcohol. This may eat up the camera coating. Oil of eucalyptus sounds equipment deadly also. I have no idea what IR3535 is (miracle weight loss formula?).

 

Do you have any equipment friendly mosquito repellent suggestions?

 

• <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">DEET (Chemical Name: N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide or N,N-diethly-3-methyl-benzamide) <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">Picaridin (KBR 3023, Chemical Name: 2-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperidinecarboxylic acid 1-methylpropyl ester ) <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus* or PMD (Chemical Name: para-Menthane-3,8-diol) the synthesized version of oil of lemon eucalyptus
  
• IR3535 (Chemical Name: 3-[N-Butyl-N-acetyl]-aminopropionic acid, ethyl ester)
  

Regards,

Bob

Picaridin is mostly safe for plastics while as you know DEET kills many of them. I have a wonderful perfectly opaque Suunto Mosquito (yes I know) scratch guard that was crystal clear until it met some DEET. Just because something is soluble in alcohol it doesn't mean it will dissolve plastics. If you believe the folks who invented it (Bayer of aspirin fame) it should be a lot less damaging than DEET to most plastics.

Bill

Huge fan of Cutter's Advanced with Picaridin. Doesn't smell bad, no burning or stinging, no headaches like I get when I use DEET, camera gear and plastic stuff all safe, and even works for the no-seeums in Roatan.

Decades ago, I acquired an electronic mosquito repellent labelled 'Radarcan' which plugs in to a two pin mains socket. It emits a barely audible high frequency whine and is effective over short ranges, i.e. around a bed

Thanks for posting!

Huge fan of Cutter's Advanced with Picaridin. Doesn't smell bad, no burning or stinging, no headaches like I get when I use DEET, camera gear and plastic stuff all safe, and even works for the no-seeums in Roatan.

Thank you all for your input. It looks like for on the body protection is Picaridin.

deepsea,

Please note that excessive exposure to Dettol has been associated with severe side affects. Try a Google search.

Regards,

Bob

is that what happened to her?!? always wondered...

Deep6

Thanks, funny the chemist is the one who recommends it.

Mikey

... DEET will turn your rubbery camera body coating in to a gooey mess...

I thought that you applied mozzie repellant to your skin, not your camera...

Tim

Another alternative is a repellant you can add to your clothing, good for six weeks or so, even thru washings. I used some on my last trip, and didn't get bit very often at all although I only used a skin treatment (Picaridin) on ankles, neck, and exposed forearms. I can't swear it works but I did research it a bit and remember finding some consumer report type documents that indicated it was effective.

They usually contain Permethrin or a variant thereof. Read the directions - gotta be sprayed on the clothes to wet them (not while being worn!!) and allowed to dry. I didn't notice any residual odor or alteration of the fabric (breathability of the fiber, etc.) Also make sure you do the spraying outside and not around any cats, as permethrin is also used in roach foggers and the like and supposedly can be highly toxic to felines*. I even sprayed down my photo vest and had lenses in the pockets etc (later, not during spraying, duh!) without ill effect that I noticed. I'm pretty sure any hydrocarbon type compounds are entirely in the propellant or wetting agent and evaporate off

Brand I used was Sawyer, called "Family Insect Repellent" (nope, didn't repel the annoying neighborhood kids, unfortunately), as it was a huge can for the same price as the smaller can from Cutter with a higher percentage of the active ingredient.

One other suggestion: if you DO get bit, and you have 'skeeter syndrome' like I do (you'll know it if you do: the initial bite irritation isn't bad, goes away in a couple hours, but about a 12-24 hrs later you have a huge raised welt that itches like hell until you claw it open and end up getting scabs and secondary infections as a result), then take Zyrtec or one of the generic equivalents, it will really help. The late-reaction irritation isn't actually an allergic reaction to the mosquito saliva at all, its some sort of cell-mediated immune system response. A lot of antihystamines don't really do much of anything for that reaction, but the citrazine (?) in Zyrtec does. My experience with this helping might be placebo effect, but I was told this by an allergist, whom I went to see after getting totally eaten on the bald scalp while soaking in a hot tub one fall afternoon and looking like I had some sort of flesh eating bacteria by a couple days after. Unfortunately there's not currently any desensitization program for mosquitos like there is for wasp venom and whatnot.

*Edit: I just read that it is also highly toxic to fish, so do NOT intermingle your 'on land wear' with your dive gear!!

I thought that you applied mozzie repellant to your skin, not your camera...

 

Tim

 

Oh Tim you wag! I suppose you only handle your camera with white gloves and shoot with arms fully extended.

On a more serious note, thanks for all the submissions (including Tim's).

Bob

I like the "Don't Bite Me Patch". Still have yet to find someone who will put one on and stand in a cloud of mosquitos to test it.

You might also try Cactus Juice . . .

You might also try Cactus Juice . . .

Yes! Cactus juice is the ONLY non-DEET alternative that has really worked for me in the deep mangrove swamps of Florida. The Cutter Advanced doesn't do anything for no-see-ums, and barely deters the super-aggressive mosquitoes out here. But Cactus Juice really does work.

Yes! Cactus juice is the ONLY non-DEET alternative that has really worked for me in the deep mangrove swamps of Florida. The Cutter Advanced doesn't do anything for no-see-ums, and barely deters the super-aggressive mosquitoes out here. But Cactus Juice really does work.

I think it depends on the individual, because when I go to Roatan, Cactus Juice does nothing for me for the no-see-ums and mosquitoes, but Cutter's Advanced works for both.

Just back from a trip to Redang in Malaysia, no mozzies thankfully during that part of the trip but I did get bitten 5 times in Singapore whilst drinking at Clark Quay. Serve me right for wearing shorts and not thinking about it.

Drink dark rum ... apparently the smell comes through the skin pores and repels the mozzies. I combine this with these nasty smelling mosquite coils.

Tiger balm on the bites if you have them stops the itch

I am just back from Alaska. While not tropical, it does have a lot of mosquitoes. I was sloughing around a boggy lake with tons of mozzies near Paxson. My wife and I used wipes with picaridin. The bugs would swarm near us, but would not land. Another person using 100% DEET was bitten. Go figure.

Bob