Re: Physical barrier from bugs

Cara Lin Bridgman <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.culture.backpacking.light
Message-ID <[email protected]>
The story from the hammock people is that mosquitoes cannot bite through 
two layers.  Other people report personal experience with mosquitoes 
biting through jeans.  This would be, I assume, one layer, even if 
thick.  Most mosquitoes, however, do not go so far as to stab through 
jeans. 

The hammock people (e.g. Hennessey Hammock) also sell hammocks made from 
different weights of nylon, with the idea that the thicker weights are 
mosquito proof or resistant. 

I got some sort of no-see-um proof head net, but it was hot and it 
blocked visibility.  It was made out of the usual no-see-um netting.  
When  Backpackinglight.com was selling things, they sold a very 
fine-meshed head net.  I got two of those.  They are much ligher and 
much easier to see through.  They're still warmer than no head-net, 
though.  Sorry, I can't tell you who makes them, but someone on this 
list probably can.

Anyway, if you're wanting to keep out mosquitoes, then I'd go with the 
widest open mesh that will do the job.  That depends on the size of your 
mosquitoes...  Keeping out no-see-ums can be another story, hence those 
hot, tightly closed meshes. 

I found out that the biting midges in Taiwan can be kept out by regular 
mosquito netting, even though the midges are small enough to crawl 
through the holes.  These midges tended to crawl on the surface of the 
mesh.  At that time I was using white (really bad for visibility) mesh, 
so I don't know if changing the color would affect the midge behavior.

Speaking of color.  I've heard that dark color clothing attracts 
mosquitoes, but light color does not.  That might be something else to 
try out.

If I were doing a clothes barrier, then I'd just wear ordinary long 
nylon pants and ordinary long shirts.  If the cloth is loose on your 
body, then it's hard for mosquitoes to bite through.  Hennessey also 
noticed that there tended to be fewer mosquito hangers-on when using 
they used their bottom entry hammocks.  This suggests that long skirts 
might work as well as long pants (and would be cooler).

CL

AlinaN wrote:
> Hi,
> So I have posted on natural bug sprays some time ago. Now I would like to know if anyone uses physical barriers to protect themselves from bugs and how does it work out for you. 
> I am thinking of getting this head net http://www.coghlans.com/products/mosquito-head-net-8941 Does anyone have it? Do you liked it? Any problems with it? Are you using any other head nets?
> There is also this shirt http://www.bugshirt.com/ but I see that people complain about it being hot.
> I read somewhere that you should wear tightly woven clothes but what does it mean exactly? How do I recognize that something is woven tightly enough? Any particular fabrics, brand names?
> Anything else that works well as a physical barrier?
> Thank you.
>
>
>
>
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-- 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cara Lin Bridgman         cara.lin-zimPVJFJEBseIZ0/[email protected]
                          [email protected]
P.O. Box 013 Shinjhuang   http://megaview.com.tw/~caralin
Longjing District         http://www.BugDorm.com
Taichung 43499     
Taiwan                    Phone: 886-4-2632-5484
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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