Borah Gear Bug Bivy Review

The Borah Gear Bug Bivy is a reasonably priced bivy for use under a variety of tarps when there is mild to medium bug pressure. It can add a few degrees of warmth to your sleep setup and is also great for cowboy camping. It weighs between 5.5 – 6.5 oz and can add a lot of versatility to your shelter system. There are other similar bivies out there, but none of them hit such a remarkable price point.

Specs at a Glance

• Opening: chest zipper or side zipper
• Seasons: 3
• Fabric: 0.7 oz no-see-um netting, and 1.3 oz silpoly floor
• Dimensions: 73″ in girth at the shoulders, 64″ at the feet for Standard/Standard
• Trail weight: 5.5 oz Standard/Standard

Construction

The Borah Gear Bug Bivy is an ultralight bivy constructed with .7 oz no-see-um netting and a 1.3 oz silpoly floor. It comes in a number of different configurations. You can choose a side zipper or chest zipper and between four sizes: Standard/Standard, Long/Standard, Standard/Wide, and Long/Wide. All options are also available with their Cuben (Dyneema ) Bug Bivy which is constructed with a 0.5 oz DCF floor and 0.5 oz no-see-um netting, weighs an ounce or so less, and is double the cost.

Their zippers are #3 coil and there are two sliders for ease of use. There are also loops on the foot end of the bivy for hanging it out to dry. The Standard/Standard Bug Bivy weighs 5.5 oz, and the Long/Wide (the one I have) is 6.5 oz.

Interior Room/Sizing

According to Borah Gear, the Standard fits users up to 6′ 1″, and the Long fits users up to 6′ 4″. The shoulder girth of the Standard is 73″, and the Wide is 78”. At the foot end, the Standard is 64″ while the Wide is 66”. They recommend that users who weigh 180 – 220 lbs use a wide. They also recommend that if you use a 25″ wide pad (like me), to go with a wide regardless of your weight. Users over 220 lbs or 6′ 4″, should contact Borah Gear for custom sizing.

I purchased the Long/Wide so that I can use a long/wide Therm-A-Rest Neo Air, a 20-degree quilt, and occasionally a 50-degree synthetic quilt inside it. I’m 5’ 11” and 160 lbs and the interior room is just fine for me, maybe even a little overkill. If you are over 220 lbs or 6’ 4”, or just want more room, don’t fret, custom sizing is free in most cases.

This bivy is most comfortable for me when I suspend the head end and get it off my face. I don’t really mind the constriction of a bivy sack but I can’t stand the mesh on my face!

I do sometimes wish the zipper went a bit further down the side. I’d like to be able to get in and out more easily. I wonder if a full-length zipper right down the middle would ultimately be a better zipper orientation for me. Borah Gear does custom work, so they will likely entertain ideas like this.

Modularity

I have used the Borah Gear Bug Bivy many nights under my Mountain Laurel Designs Duomid. I’ve also paired it with a Mountain Laurel Designs Grace Tarp, a Mountain Laurel Designs Trailstar, a MYOG flat tarp, and a ZPacks Pocket Tarp w/ Doors, and it works well with all of them.

I’ve also cowboy camped in this bivy many a cloudless night in the Utah desert. If you want to increase the versatility of a tarp you have, the Borah Gear Bug Bivy may be one way to do it. It gives you a floor to prevent pad punctures, netting to keep bugs out, and increases the overall warmth of your sleep system by a few degrees, all for only 5.5 – 6.5 oz of added gear weight.

Insect Protection

The Borah Gear Bug Bivy will protect you from ticks, scorpions, spiders, and other crawling things. It does quite well with gnats too. If you can get the mesh off your face, you’ll be safe from mosquitos. If you can’t, or if it’s too hot to sleep inside your sleeping bag, they will eat you alive right through the mesh. This happened to me one June night next to the Green River in Southern Utah. Bottom line: really heavy bug pressure may sometimes necessitate the use of a double-wall tent. But for mild to medium bug pressure—or if you’re hiding from ground crawlers—I really like the Borah Gear Bug Bivy.

Condensation and Warmth

It’s always surprising to me how much additional warmth no-see-um netting adds to a sleep system. When I wake up in the middle of the night and unzip my bivy I can almost always feel the temperature drop a few degrees.

Depending on the conditions, bivies can either help with condensation or make it worse. Sometimes, if I’m breathing all night inside the bivy, I get a pool of condensation across the chest of my quilt. This is worse if I can’t get the mesh off my face.

If I can suspend it from something (I now have mitten hooks inside my ZPacks Pocket Tarp w/ Doors for this purpose) then this is less of an issue. The added space seems to allow my breath to disperse more widely and make it all the way through the mesh. In this case, condensation will land on the tarp and the mesh, and not my sleeping bag, which is ideal.

I switched to the Borah Bug Bivy bivy from a bivy with a solid outer material like the MLD Superlight Bivy, because it trapped even more water vapor, sandwiching it between the layers. The Borah Gear Bug Bivy works better for me in this regard.

Comparable Bug Bivies and Shelters

Make / Model	Weight	Opening
Katabatic Gear Pinon Bivy	7.3 oz / 207g	Top
Borah Ultralight Bivy	5.0 oz / 142 g	Chest
Mountain Laurel Designs Superlight Bivy	5.5 oz / 156 g	Side
Paria Outdoor Breeze Bivy	13 oz / 369g	Top
Hyperlite Mountain Gear Ultamid 2 Insert	14.8 oz / 419g	Side
Mountain Laurel Designs Bug Bivy	6.5 oz / 184g	Top
Six Moon Designs Serenity Net Tent	11 oz / 312g	Side
Outdoor Research Bug Bivy	16 oz / 454g	Front
SlingFin SplitWing Mesh Body	11.2 oz / 318g	Front
Yama Mountain Gear 1P Bug Shelter	9.3 oz / 272g	Front
Six Moon Designs Deschutes Tarp (with skirt option)	16 oz / 454g	Front

Recommendation

The Borah Gear Bug Bivy is a light, reasonably priced, well-constructed bivy offering several sizes and zipper configurations. It can be custom made even larger often for no extra charge. It effectively keeps crawling insects and gnats out of your sleeping area and protects you from mosquitos as well, as long as you don’t have a shoulder or knee pressing up against the mesh. The price of this bivy is one of the things that makes it really compelling; $85 for a well-made piece of gear that can be paired with countless different tarps is a great deal.

Disclosure: The author purchased this product.

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