jaydh42

Consumer Reports rates the following 4 as the best in deterring mossie bites.
Anyone have experience with these and which are your favorites for use in Africa.

#1 OFF Deep Woods Sportsman II.....30%deet
#2 Cutter Backwoods Unscentred....23% deet
#3 Off Family Care Smooth and Dry...15% deet
#4 3M Ultrathon Insect Repellant....25% deet

They all give 8 hour protection.

Cutter Back Woods leaves little scent or sensation.
Off Deep Woods has citrusy odor and filmy residue.
Off Family Care has fruity odor and dries quickly.
3 M Ultrathon has strong odor and leaves oily feeling on skin at first.

Consumer's says that no-one needs a repellant with more than 30% deet.
Also, avoid products that mix sunscreen with deet.

I would be partial to the Cutter Back Woods product due to no scent & not oily.

Looking forward to comments/thoughts regarding these repellants.

Katzgar

Ultrathon has a slow releases feature that gives 12 hour protection as I recall. Read the CDC website and learn about permethrin you spray on your clothes.

jules39

For spraying on me I prefer the cutter because of smell & I find it works well to keep bugs away. I have sprayed clothes with permethrin as well.

atravelynn

Have those of you responding had problems with mosquito bites?

I usually bring Deep Woods Off, not sure if it is the Sportsman II and I use it once in a while. Mosquitos are just not much of a a problem in East Africa.

sandi

In 18/yrs I've been bitten maybe 3x and these when in NBO, where generally mossies shouldn't be an issue.

I've brought the same bottle of Off (it's always in my travel bag and likely no longer effective) and can't recall the last time used. I just cover up from dusk/dawn. Nor do I even think to spray my clothing, let alone purchase clothing that has whatever the chemical already in it.

Have though on occasion used the little packets (like wet wipes) that contain repellent on exposed skin, especially the ankles which all critters seem to attack first regardless where or time of day.

Unless you are an absolute magnet for flying things, believe any of the above will be fine.

jaydh42

Thank you all for your thoughts. I now have a feeling that mossies won't be a large problem on this East African trip.

atravelynn

Sandi and I must both have attractive ankles--at least in the eyes of tiny winged creatures. That's where I get nipped, though it's not mosquitoes, something smaller.

There is a bug that is very prolific and its bite infects a large percentage of visitors to Africa resulting in a disease for which there is no cure. But repeat trips can alleviate the symptoms. This disease is Africa-itis and those who have contracted it are Africaphiles. No bug spray has ever been developed for that.

sandi

lynn -

You're right, it's the ankles. One visit it was grass ants that are so tiny, you can't even see them (if you even knew they existed); another it was sand flies when out on the Zanzibar beach (but we get those here at home too). And thankfully in all these years, only one (1) tse-tse bite. Probably better just to have a good 'anti-itch' creme.

Otherwise, it's simply Africa-itis and that one I love!!

amyb

I got eaten alive (mosquitos) from the knees down at Lake Manyara in Feb. That was the one day I skipped putting Ultrathon on my legs because I wore "treated" full-length pants that day so I relied on those instead. I'll let y'all draw your own conclusions. Otherwise I used Marathon daily, after I'd applied separate sunscreen, and didn't suffer any other bites.

tuen

I prefer the citronella oils although they do not last as long as DEET for the fact that I dont like heavy chemicals. But the citronella works just as well for the time its on.

Katzgar

citronella works as tested for 30 to 40 minutes. DEET works for up to 12 hours with a time release formula. best not to risk things like malaria and dengue fever.

wildlifepainter

But citronella stuff (I like mossiguard in stick) works for tse-tse flies if you reapply every 20-30 minutes. It's worth the effort if say... watching a cheetah hunt.

sandi

wildlifepainter -

Were you sitting in a thicket of brush (where tse-tses are known to hang out) when you were watching a cheetah hunt?

I ask as cheetahs hunt on the open plains where nothing but their prey is out there and so as not to be inhibited on those 60mph runs

wildlifepainter

Yes we were following a cheetah hunt in Tarangire in February. It was brush and trees with some open areas in between.

This was the same landscape that we watched cheetah hunt near the Ndutu airport (no flies here) also in Feb, 2011. Cats don't always know where they are supposed to hunt.

That's what I love about safari. Anything or everything can be around the next turn.

sandi

Oh, at Tarangire - home of most of the the tse-tse visitors encounter when on safari.

Live2Travel1000

I did not use any of the above products. I bought two different products: Avon Skin-So-Soft Bug Guard with Picardin and Repel Sportsman 25% Deet. Both are more than half full. One of them is even expired. We really didn't use any sprays when we were in Africa except on the tse-tse flies as we were coming out of our camp in the Serengeti. It was very strange, the tse-tse flies were only in one small area. Even then we used After-Bite. The other place we encountered mosquitoes and used the sprays was in Tanzania at night when we were at the lodge by Kilimanjaro and as we were climbing the first level of Kilimanjaro.

Has anyone tried the Avon's Skin-So-Soft Bug Guard with Picaridin? If so, do you think it is better to use than the sprays with Deet?

Katzgar

tests suggest that picardin is very good but not quite as good as DEET

basingstoke2

<tests suggest that picardin is very good but not quite as good as DEET>

It is important to keep in mind that the particular breed of mosquito is important in determining the efficacy of a particular product. For example, I recall that at one time, the WHO preferred picaridin over deet for the mosquito carrying malaria.

In any case, picaridin is far more pleasant to use than deet, thus the user is more likely to comply with guidelines calling for frequent application.