Advice on new insect net

[Joseph]

My new hammock insect net arrived this morning,

One word great and seems much better made than my nomad net, thinking about taking this on a field trip to borneo instead. Any body tried it on a normal single bed? I'll be backpacking and I would like to take only one net. My other net is treated and can imagine the dead insects caught on it will attract other bugs. My friend who used a treated one in Uganda said this happened to him and he would wake up in the morning to some resident spiders. Now I'm not scared of spiders generally (in fact I find them pretty cool) but after seeing a bird eating spider in real life i'm not sure I like the idea of attracting them. Help in deciding would be much appreciated.

Cheers all and many thanks Magikelly again,

Joe.

 

[sandsnakes]

Just a thought
Try using citronella rather than DEt or some such. Citronellea drives them away rather than killing them. The big old nets we used in Egypt were not treated at all and the bugs did not linger. Could use a citronella candle or is it pure jungle?

As another thought use both DEt and citronella for the best of both effects... I wonder if fruit bats get attracted to the smell?....... Hm..... your gonna find out! As a thought the victorians used nicotine on the nets.


Sandsnakes

 

[BOD]

I see you are coming to Borneo. Herbal repellants, even freshly applied, will not work with some insects in Borneo.

I have seen them happily walk all over my arm before putting the needle in.

If it will not give you cancer in 20 years time, it's no good for repelling them now. Forget being green - get full or at least 75% strength DEET. In urban areas, 15% will work fine

That said you will often find that you do not need a net or only for part of the night. Even in the outdoors I often set it up and and flip it back till I need it.

Where are you going in Borneo?

 

[leon-1]

Not always popular, but use somethig which is Pyrethrin based. There can be issues with them so check them out, but I have found that any mossie net soaked in the stuff before hand is pretty effective.

BOD is probably best situated to give advice on it if he has used it (him living there and all).

 

[BOD]

Clothes and nets soaked/impregnated with permethrin, synthetic pyrethrin, work but as I said " no cancer = no good".

See http://www.safe2use.com/poisons-pesticides/pesticides/permethrin/cox-report/cox.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrethrum

But why not just stick to good old DEET. Just make sure you do not have a plastic watch!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEET

I'm not anti natural repellants and would prefer them. I've bought heaps, put them on and walked to the back of my garden to give them the test. They are borderline. As a friend put it - the mosquito makes a decision "warm blood or not?". If the need is great it will ignore a marginal repellant.

I was out last week in belukar. I had Army issue DEEt (75% I think ) on hands and face + a scrim. I had 15% DEET spray on my clothes. Came across some mossies deprived of mammalian blood. They went for my back where the shirt was stretched across the shoulders ignoring the low strength DEEt.

 

[leon-1]

Interesting one there mate, last time I wa sin your neck of the woods I used 95% DEET on my clothing and 35 or 50% on my exposed skin. My hammock and my mosi-net (not that I used the net much and not at all in the field) was soaked in permethrin (the hammock was enclosable). I didn't really suffer that bad, but that could be because I use a lot of garlic (I carry a pot of the stuff) in my food and they went for easier targets

 

[BOD]

Guess I should have reversed the DEETs. Trouble is the 15% was a spray and the 75% (?) a cream. The short green issue tubes. I sweat a lot and that must affect the DeeT.

There is always a mossie magnet around Often its me but this time it was a couple of youngsters who wore short sleeved shirts

Its best I suppose to have lots of repellants but I don't trust natural stuff any more. There are some plants and flowers in the bush that I am told are repellants but by the time I come across them I'm already covered in Deet. Must collect some for trials

 

[leon-1]

Guess I should have reversed the DEETs. Trouble is the 15% was a spray and the 75% (?) a cream. The short green issue tubes. I sweat a lot and that must affect the DeeT.

There is always a mossie magnet around Often its me but this time it was a couple of youngsters who wore short sleeved shirts

Its best I suppose to have lots of repellants but I don't trust natural stuff any more. There are some plants and flowers in the bush that I am told are repellants but by the time I come across them I'm already covered in Deet. Must collect some for trials

Been there mate, not a nice place to be.

The green issue tubes that we used to get were not 75%, they were 35% DEET, I went through the jungle using life systems stuff and had no problems.

Permethrin was what the hammock was soaked in, a particularly foul substance, but it worked.

Hell the plants must know something, they have been fighting wars with insects for millions of years, lets face it bracken in the UK has cyanide in its veins.

 

[Joseph]

Cheers for all the info,

I'm of to the Sabah region, staying at the Dannum Valley research centre before travelling around. I'm off to the Philippine's first to travel aswell. I was going to go for deet all the way. I work with carcinogen's and I'll just have to try and minimise exposure (i.e. use a long shirt and sweatbands instead of applying directly to skin when I don't need full protection). I'm going to take the nomad net I reckon.

Laters,

Joe.

 

[BOD]

Good luck mate. If you are passing thru Brunei to Sarawak give us a hoy