Insect Protection

DEET and Picaridin-based insect repellent sprays and lotions are available from a wide range of brands and in a variety of forms factors. How effective are they are repelling mosquitos and ticks? What are the best concentrations to get? Which one’s are the safest to use for children and pregnant …

Permethrin is a pesticide that you spray on clothing to kill black flies, ticks, and mosquitoes but has no harmful side effects on humans if used properly. It is the active ingredient used in Insect Shield and Buzz Off clothing and kills bugs when they land on your clothing. You …

The Original Bugshirt Company is a Canadian-based cottage industry company that makes insect proof clothing, including their unique stirrup style bug gaiters, for people who live where the bugs are as big as baseballs, like Northern Ontario and Alaska. Given the Lyme disease epidemic this year along the Atlantic coast, you …

Some people think I’m cracked when it comes to the preventive measures I take to avoid tick bites and getting Lyme Disease. But I still haven’t contracted Lyme Disease after 5000 miles of hiking, backpacking, and off-trail hiking through prime tick habit on the Appalachian Trail, in the northeastern United States, or …

Lyme Disease is reaching epidemic proportions on the Appalachian Trail yet hikers still insist on hiking in short sleeve shirts and short pants. The easiest way to protect yourself is to wear long pants, a long sleeve shirt, and hat when hiking, preferably ones treated with Insect Shield or Permethrin, both …

Permethrin is an insect repellant and insecticide that bonds to fabric and can be used on your clothes, tent, or hammock to prevent Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted fever, or the Zika Virus by killing ticks, mosquitos, and insects that land on your stuff. The liquid Permethrin application techniques discussed below …

I wear a Sea-to-Summit Head Net with Insect Shield when I hike and backpack during bug season. When coupled with a wide-brimmed hat like my OR Sentinel Brim, wearing a head net is far more comfortable and effective than coating my ears, head, chest and shoulders with DEET insect repellent. I’ve …

Wouldn’t it be great if you could buy Darn Tough Hiker Boot Socks with Insect Shield to protect yourself against Lyme-disease carrying ticks? Unfortunately you can’t, but you can take matters into your own hands and send your socks out to be treated with Insect Shield. That’s what I did before …

I’ve been hiking and backpacking in RailRider’s pants and shirts since 2008 because they’re comfortable, synthetic so they dry quickly, and they’re treated with Insect Shield which helps protects me from Lyme Disease. Insect Shield is a commercial treatment that uses Permethrin, an insecticide that kills ticks, mosquitoes, and other …

Hikers and backpackers are at increased risk for contracting Lyme Disease. This is something I’ve written about extensively on SectionHiker and is worth reiterating at the beginning of each hiking season. Revised numbers from the CDC (US Centers for Disease Control) reflect that they have been under-reporting Lyme disease. Instead …