Mosquitos

[yowee]

I'm off to Tanzania and Kenya in september and wondered what recomendations people have for keeping these little sods away, the ultrathon insect repellent from 3M seems to be very good (I think Mr Mears is now selling it) if anyone has suggestions I'm all ears, also if anyone has experience of perithrimin treated clothing I would again be very interested, the real permithrimin seems to be hard to get now it all seems to be a synthetic variation, all suggestions greatly apprieciated thanks all! :shock:

 

[MartiniDave]

I seem to remember reading somewhere, maybe even on here, that one of the Avon handcreams is supposed to keep lots of bugs etc away. No personal experience though.

I hope you find the info you're after and enjoy you trip, it sounds good.

Dave

 

[leon-1]

Yowee, where abouts in Kenya are you going?

Mosquitos are more troublesome in some areas than others (down near Lake Naivasha I had no problems with them at all :-D , this is just up the road from Hells Gate National Park, whereas in areas like Kathendini and Gathiuru depending on time of year you can get eaten alive, I believe that it is the same near Mombasa :-( ).

I used a hammock and a Mosi net that had been soaked in permethrin and they appear to have worked very well.

I had also been told by others that had been there before to take cod liver oil capsules with garlic in them, I came back having not been bitten very often :-D , others weren't so lucky (a friend of mine came back with Malaria) :shock: .

I also had sprayed a lot of my kit with the lifesystems 100% insect repellent stuff, which I found at a later date on a different trip that leaches almost sprout legs to run away from :-D

 

[Adi007]

Anything with DEET in it is quite effective (Ultrathon amongst others contain DEET and I found that DEET is pretty much the same no matter who sell it or how much it costs). However, make sure that you are not allergic to DEET or sensitive to cholinesterase inhibitors before bathing yourself in 100% DEET.

Permethrin treated mozi nets are also effective.

 

[Doc]

Both Kenya and Malawi are malarial zones, and falciparum malaria (ie, the one most likely to kill you) is particularly common. So you need appropriate malari prophylaxis: either mefloquine, doxycycline or malarone. However, no prophylactic drug is guaranteed effective and you are quite right to avoid bites as far as possible.

All the evidence points to DEET being the best repellent in this situation, with the higher concentrations being most effective. There have been reports of toxicity in small children with the stronger preparations, however. Avon Skin So Soft did not do well when formally tested against DEET. See http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/128/11/931 This is a 1998 reference, but I found nothing to contradict it when I did a literature search on this subject two years ago.

There's much less research on Scottish midges!

 

[yowee]

Cheers for the feedback the trip is going from nairobi to naivasha and nakuru, then onto lake victoria, into the serengetti then up to the ngorrogorro crater then out to kilmanjaro, so all over really, i'm not taking mefloquine, I had a massive reaction to it a few years ago in Uganda it nearly killed me, it cost me my job and about a year of my life I would strongly urge anyone going abroad not to touch the stuff with a huge stick, I took doxycycline when I climbed Kilimanjaro 2 years ago and it was okay. thanks for the tips really appriecated. :-D :shock:

 

[Adi007]

Hi Doc,

Any tips as to what would be the warning signs for folks who shouldn't use DEET?

Thanks!

 

[leon-1]

Yowee, if you are staying at Naivasha itself, watch out for the flies that inhabit the lake itself, they don't bite, but they swarm heavily and it can be difficult to breath when you have a cloud of them in your face. This of course could be subject to time of year.

Take some form of head net, just in case, it will probably come in handy anyway and if you get a chance pop into the fish eagle it's quite a nice little bar/restaraunt on the edges of the lake itself (watch out for the hippo's). :-D

 

[Doc]

Hi Adi. The problem with DEET in kids is encephalopathy - inflammation of the brain - so usually presents as drowsiness, confusion or fits.

The usual advice is not to use more than 10% DEET on children. Under 8s are most vulnerable.

My kids are all under 8 - I personally would avoid DEET in a non-malarial location.

Yowee - you've obviously travelled in Africa a fair bit. I have contact details of reliable doctors in Kenya and Tanzania for use in an emergency - can PM you if you want them.

 

[Doc]

Also: Neuropsychiatric and other side effects with Mefloquine are well recognised. Patients should be warned about the possibility.

Still not as dangerous as malaria though. I am often amazed by otherwise intelligent people who enter malaria zones without taking any prophylactic drug at all. Every year people die of malaria in the UK, despite full blown intensive care facilities.

 

[Mikey P]

On a recent Gulf trip, I used the Lifesystems 100% stuff, like leon-1, and found it very effective. If I forgot to put it on at dusk - I got bitten; if I put it on, I didn't get bitten. Proof that it works, I'd say.

In terms of prophylactics, we used chloraquine and paludrine and suffered no ill effects from either.

It's always worth trying a bit of repellent on the skin before you go - better to find out that you get a reaction at home than in the bush when you may have no alternative repellent.

I took some Tea Tree Oil out too but never got the chance to try it out. Has anyone used it?

 

[leon-1]

For a while the armed forces used a branded form of Mefloquine that begins with an "L". I am reluctant to mention the name after recent events on BB.

It caused quite a few problems with the troops having difficulty in sleeping, becoming irritable and decidedly twitchy, it did not affect all of them, but more than half were affected by it.

 

[Adi007]

For a while the armed forces used a branded form of Mefloquine that begins with an "L". I am reluctant to mention the name after recent events on BB.

It caused quite a few problems with the troops having difficulty in sleeping, becoming irritable and decidedly twitchy, it did not affect all of them, but more than half were affected by it.

This one ... info sheet???

 

[leon-1]

You got it in one ADI, some of the guys felt like s**t on it.

 

[Lithril]

Just to play a bit of Devils Advocate here, although DEET is one of the best mozzy repelants, its also very harmful to the environment... long term damage as well!

 

[yowee]

Cheers for all the info thats whats really great about Bushcraft UK is everyone sharing info and experience, I don't understand the reference to the Mefloquine problem on BB, was there some kind of legal action? I was trying to sue the manufacturers as the "side effects" were horrendous, my hair started falling out, I had panic attacks, palpatations, inability to sleep, hearing things, severe headaches, sickness, nightmares, holucinations, I couldn't tell if I was awake or not and lost all sense of time, I was rushed to hospital and put on diazapam, I spent about 2 months on that then a few more on valium then about 16 months on prozac, during all this I lost my job because I couldn't concentrate, I was not warned of the side effects only later I found out that there were law suits pending, and yet it's still being pescribed, for anyone out there ask about alternatives.
Doc thanks for the offer of the medical contacts that would be great, you can never have to much info or support, and Leon-1 I will watch for the hippos as I've seen what one can do, a rouge male bit a swimmer in half whilst I was at lake malawi a few years back, I found the poor fellow washed up on the beach, he had gone for a midnight swim.
cheers guys :-?

 

[leon-1]

The problem was that BB was threatend with legal action for using a name which is also a registered trademark, it turns out that it is not just down to the individual, BB itself could be held responsible and possibly sued.

So rather than use a registered name and possibly drop the whole site in grief I just used an initial of the relevant product, this way it could not be classed as slanderous because I didn't actually mention the specific product.

 

[tenbears10]

careful with 100% DEET it is pretty harsh on skin even if you are not allergic. I have been told that 100% will take varnish off wood so either use less concentration on skin or use 100% on your clothes but not skin itself.

Headnets soaked in 100% are very effective as someone else mentioned. Also like ADI said as long as the only ingredient is DEET then get the cheapest brand as it is exactly the same thing in the bottle.

Might be good to try a pharmacy as well as outdoor shops. I was once shown that zinc oxide cream (total sun block) from a pharmacy is very cheap for a fair sized tub but coloured yellow and packaged in a small tube in a ski shop the price rockets! Not sure if insect repellant is the same but worth a look.

Good luck on the trip, lucky so and so.

Bill

 

[C_Claycomb]

I think I heard that above a certain percentage DEET doesn’t really do more for you. Something like 50% was mentioned as being optimal, after which it is a matter of diminishing returns. I can’t find a reference on the net, so I could have got it wrong. :roll:

DEET – who says that the US military industrial complex doesn’t have its uses?

Permethrin clothing treatment is great stuff. I swear by it. I use so much that I have quite buying the pre mixed clothing treatment (pump spray with 0.5% w/w) and have started mixing my own based on 11% w/w mosi net treating. If you can do the maths you can turn 11% into about 0.5% concentration and spay that on cloths. I won’t say how much I use in case I am wrong, this isn’t how you are meant to use the product and it is up to you if you want to risk it. No obvious side effects yet...:bu:

With the recent increase in chigger activity in this country I tend to treat all my outdoor cloths before I plan on getting into tall undergrowth. On a recent trip to the US I was out fishing with friends, when we got home we took part in a communal tick removal session. They both had four or five marching about and one or two attached. I had only one, and it had its legs all curled up, just about dead. Didn’t get chiggered or mosi-ed either.

The thing to remember about clothing treatment is that it only protects the bit of you that the treated clothing covers. It won’t really make other parts of you repellent by proximity. Same with DEET

In no particular order, these sites seem to have good info

http://www.mercola.com/2003/jun/7/mosquito_bites.htm
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_IN419
http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howthingswork/a/aa042703a.htm
http://www.sawyerproducts.com/Travel_Guide/Deet_Repellent.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/travel/bugs.htm

 

[TAHAWK]

One of our consumer testing 'zines (Consumer Reports IIRC) tested a product whose active ingredient is Lemon Eucalyptus. They found it effective for up to six hours.

I also recall a published test that said 100% Deet worked no better than a substantially lower concentration -- can't recall how low, but below 50%.