what colors to wear?

[V Fabry]

After reading everything on this and other sites about mozzies and noseeums and the best way to protect youself from the sun I think this is what I should do to get home with as much of my own skin as possible

So I get up and when I want to go snorkeling, I put on a biodegradable sun protection creme (anybody knows what brand to buy in the Netherlands?) get into my dark cotton shirt or I will burn alive.

During the day I try to keep away from wet patches on the beach. The problem with the noseeums is just that, you never know when they bite you because you can't see them.

Late in the afternoon I should get away from the beach, shower and cover myself in citronella, deet repellant, and put on light colored clothes ( because mozzies like the dark colors) and long sleeves. (socks?)

So the only questions left are..
Anybody knows or did research to thier reaction on bright colors (red, bleu,yellow)
Can they bite you trough lightweight survival fabrics
Does eating Vitame B complex works on these nasties, apart from making your sweat smell funny and keeping awat other people?
Did anybody ever see a sandflea or noseeum, wich is a contradiction?
What do the local people do about it?
Do antihistamine creams help once you got bitten
Did anybody ever scratch himself to death

[Steve Wooler]

Hi V

That just about sums it up.

I won't bother to answer your individual questions, because the bottom line is that what works for one person probably won't work for somebody else. You could take every precaution going and still get bitten to death, while someone else travelling with you might not take a single precaution and not get a single bite. Life's a bitch at times!

[Paul Tallet]

Hi V

Answers as follows ...


Dark colours attract mosquitos but sandflies are not really fussy.

They cannot bite through fabrics, but they can get underneath .

Making yourself smell bad works very well ... also reduce consumption of alchohol as this tends to attract sandflies (they like Rum).

I have seen a sandfly (normally known as a Noseeum) ... once ... as it sank it's teeth into my belly whilst I thought I safe sitting in the middle of a river on the beach ... they look like miniature moths with big teeth.

The local people get bitten all the time ... it is your reaction to the bites that causes your problem.

Scratching ... yes, I recall waking up once with the majority of my buttocks missing one morning.


Sods aren't they?

Cheers

[Chris Cross]

Hi V!

I believe, in fact that every lil´flying bloodsucker likes a warm surrounding they will prefer the black and darker clothing. Speaking for me: One night my girlfriend hat just 2 Bites at the Ankle, I survived ´til the next morning having about 40!!!

So, my opinion: forget the stuff which you can buy in Europe...
It really matters, like paul said, what you sweat out! If you drink sweet softdrinks + rum, they gonna hit you. I found out that citrus juice with salt in it kept them away mostly, and the same with rum to heal the itchyscratchy...

One word: OFF SPRAY!!! helps well to protect...

I saw, when we were shopping for our holidays, cloth from Quicksilver which like the ads proclaime, protects from bites through the clothings...
but me tink da all crap... (like a neighbour told us)

PS: Beware of wearing Elho Shirts in neon-green and -yellow (I spotted Mossies with Shades) *lol*

[Paul Tallet]

As Steve says ... it won't work for everyone ... but, as I have said before, I found my relief here ...

http://www.idaromatics.co.uk/

I had about 70% less bites using the repellants offered by idaromatics.

They also offer healing creams ... crucial to prevent permanent scratch scarring !!

Regards

[V Fabry]

Ok Paul, you saw a miniature moth with very big theeth attacking your belly.
It is possible that you had a rum punch or a couple of beers by that time, or a nice evening the night before, but I would not dare to doubt that you did see something, probably a paulsawum.
Any other reports of miniature moths with big theeth and bad attitudes will be forewarded to National Neografic.

[Sue J]

Paul, curious to know which ones you used, as I can't see any obvious list on their index page.

All the biting bugs seem to know to make a beeline for me.....

[Paul Tallet]

Paulsawum alright V !! They got big black eyes too !!

Sue ... you may need to ring them because they do a special mixture with a variety of eucalyptus for the repellant that they do on demand ... boy, it doesn't 'arf stink ... but does the trick !!

The Healing Cream should be available readily made and, oh ... have I been pleased to dab that on the sensitive parts during the witching hours !!

Cheers

[Jane H]

My vote is for a large can of OFF! spray - we found it was much more effective than Jungle Formula or Autan, - and it doesn't smell too awful either.

Mind you - the little b*****s will almost always manage to find the one sq. cm that you managed to miss with the spray!

If you do get bitten, we reckon that Autan "Bite Stick" or "Bite Spray" are both good at taking away the sting and itch - and you can't beat good old calamine cream either.

Jane

[Paul Tallet]

If you can get this through the baggage limits ...

Take a blow-torch and nuke a 20 square feet area of rainforest beach.

Set up a ring of fire around the perimeter.

Get the sunbed out and park it right in the middle.

Lie down ... relax.

I guess that would do the trick, eh?

Trust me ... I got the answers !!

Regards

[Jane H]

Come on Paul - even that wouldn't stop the most determined sandflies. I reckon those little swine are indestructable!

Jane

[Jill M]

I have heard from a guide who works in the African Jungle, that eating Marmite keeps the biters at bay. But myself, I hate the stuff - I live about 2 miles away from the factory that makes it and when you drive passed it, it stinks !! I can understand why it works (if it does). I'm afraid you won't get me testing that one !!

[Sharon E]

Brewers yeast works as well and is in tablets from all chemists. Take them two weeks before arrival and keep on taking them it has the same effect as marmite if you cannot stand marmite. Myself I love it, but it is to expensive over here £4 a jar at Gourmet Foods for the little ones!

[T Heie]

we read extensively about the mossies before our trip, but to tell you the truth, we never got a bite. our sunscreen did have some insect repellant in it, but as far as we could tell, the critters must have been sleeping while we were there. true, we were in the crown point area mostly, but we also ventured to Mt. Irvine locales, Speyside, Charlotteville and other points Atlantic.
guess we got lucky, eh?

[V Fabry]

Or do they just smell so awefull? Taking vitamine B complex is supposed to work to, but I don't like the smell. An advantage is that it protects your brain against the effects of to many rum punch.
But serious , does anybody have an idea what kind of animals the noseeums are, do they fly or jump, how many legs they have? Do they indeed have big teeth and a agressive look in their little black eyes?(still have some doubts, Paul...)

[Steve Wooler]

Well, may I quote from the University of Georgia:

Sand gnats - how can something so tiny be so infuriating? Also known as "no-see-ums," sand gnats are members of a group of insects known as biting midges. With wings that beat over a thousand times per second, it is no wonder you can hardly see them! Its barbed proboscis can invlict a worrisome bite and a swarm of these pesky creatures can turn a nature walk into a nightmare. Sand gnats lay their eggs in the muddy edges of slat marshes, and as adults they live in wet sand. They are sensitive to temperature and humidity and typically they'll bite just about the time you are ready to comment on what a beautiful day it is! This miniscule insect is so ferocious tht one of the South Atlantic Legaue's baseball teams is named after it: the Savannah Sand Gnats.

By the way, the above description was talking about sand flies/gnats 'no-see-ums' in Georgia in the good-old U-S-of-A, illustrating that is far from a problem unique to Tobago.

Here is a drawing of a sand gnat [Culicoides furens] magnified hundreds of times. It certainly resembles Paul - sorry, it certainly resembles the one Paul was talking about.

[V Fabry]

Steve finds the piece of information you can't find yourself, nowhere.
When I see how they look, I'm glad they are very small. I'll start eating marmite with all meals now.

[Chris Cross]

Hey... found wonderful portraits at

http://www.keysmosquito.org/gallery/ind ... l=NoSeeUms

Prevention is the key although that won't help you now.
For others during the day mix a DEET based repellant in with your sunscreen or at night just use the DEET. But in fact that DEET is a neurotoxin,

I personally won´t use it....

[V Fabry]

What kind of effect can DEET have, apart from keeping nasties away? And do you need a product with as much DEET as possible(minmun 50%) as Steve recommends, (but he also is rather positive about the Off! with 15% DEET)
I'm also looking for brand names of not so agressive repellants and bio degradable sunproducts in the Netherlands. Does the Body Shop has something like that?

[Steve Wooler]

To be honest, I've had some difficulty getting the bottom line on DEET.

I recently said that DEET was added to repellents to prevent you from getting illness from the bites, rather than because it was an actual repellent. I based this statement on information from the manufacturer of DEET (Morflex) website. However I can no longer find that info, so may have misread it - or they they have changed the wording.

There's plenty of info on the subject on http://www.deet.com. However, according to the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (http://www.cdc.gov), the concentration of DEET in a repellent is an indicator of how long it will last, rather than the degree of repellent. This explains why we found the low-concentration Family Spray version of Off! effective, as long as you re-sprayed regularly.