Hiking is the most rudimentary way someone can reconnect and reestablish themselves with nature. There are trees, brooks, creeks, stone formations, birds, and even the occasional wandering mammal. It’s easy for people to romanticize nature, because it can be beautiful and powerful. But, if we think about it hard enough, nature can also be pesky too. Specifically when it comes to insects. The drifting afternoon bumble-bee can be peaceful to watch as he drinks the pollen out of some swaying flowers, and as dusk settles, watching the lightning bugs flicker through the trees can be surreal and sublime, but what about other bugs? Spiders, beetles, caterpillars, and the worst of them all – mosquitoes.
A damp weekend can make for a bad month of hiking, with mosquitoes and their nests hiding even in dried, upturned leaves. While spiders, beetles, and other bottom-feeding or predatory insects can be intimidating, none of them are as pesky as the mosquito. Plus, mosquitoes, aside from leaving itchy bites, can also carry dangerous and possibly deadly viruses. Using insect repellant can help, though not all insect repellants are created equal.
If you want to lessen your chemical footprint and forego repellant, limit your time outdoors to late mornings and early afternoons. Mosquitoes seem to be outside more often from dusk to dawn. If you’re camping or having an outdoor barbeque, you can burn insect repellant candles, but bringing fire into the woods on a hike isn’t the best idea, in which case you need a good spray-or-rub-on repellant.
Products containing N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide, or DEET serve as the best chemical protection against mosquitoes, and are available on the market in doses up to 100%, though you don’t really need anything with more than a 50% concentration. Eucalyptus oil has also been proven to work well as a repellant, if you are worried about DEET’s interaction with your skin. Additionally, you can get clothing laced with Permethrin, which not only covers the skin, but acts as a pesticide as well.
Because of the diseases carried by some insects, sometimes a repellant is the hiker’s best form of protection.