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View Full Version : Netting really necassary?



Incacamper
04-02-2008, 12:27
I am sure it is necassary in some areas of the country. One thing I noticed though is that the mosquitos here in Georgia really only come out at dusk and feed crazily during that time, while during the night there are a few strays that feed here and there.

Usually at dusk I have a good fire going or am still hiking. How many of you find that you use bug nets all the time?? I also know that some people have something in there blood that is like a T-Bone steak to mosquitos. If my family goes outside, then my mother will be the only one to get ravaged by mosquitos and they will just leave us alone, she is the mosquito magnet. Luckily I am not one of those people.

Doctari
04-02-2008, 12:58
Yea, I'm beginning to wonder that myself. Mostly cause I'm having 'issues" with my zipper. But as you say, they mostly feed at dusk, then are (mostly) quiet.
But, during that "feeding time" it is nice to be able to escape from them.
Then again, shelters as on the AT are netting free, & I have rarely been bothered by them that much.

What to do, what to do? :rolleyes:

Youngblood
04-02-2008, 13:00
It depends on where you are at and the time of year... Georgia has beaches, swamps, mountains, islands, and stuff in between. And it is not just mosquitoes, during the day you may want to get away from nats or other flying insects that are out during the day. If you have some other way to survive, like a headnet and getting under a quilt/sleeping bag or plenty of repellent, you have one situation. If you are going to get eaten alive if you guess wrong and don't have netting, that is another situation.

I rarely need or use netting in the north Georgia mountains but need it about 6 months out of the year in my backyard. In my backyard they are out even during the day.

Yosef
04-02-2008, 13:00
I use mine every time. I am one of those people that mosquitos love and one misquito at night can make me look like I have chicken pox by morning. That is the main reason I bought a hammock with an integrated bug net (claytor) b/c if there was one mosquito out at night, he would find me and have a feast.

headchange4u
04-02-2008, 13:16
I'm another one of those people that 'skeeters gravitate toward. Netting is a requirement in the the months that have active bugs.

Incacamper
04-02-2008, 14:01
Yup, I should have clarified a bit more youngblood, as Georgia does have virtually all climates except an arid desert. Anyhow I am in northern central georgia, dallas to be exact , and the bugs really aren't that bad until dusk. At night they are usually never out, I guess since the bats pick them off??. During the day you can get bit and they are out, but not like at dusk. In the mountains I have never been bothered by mosquitos. One time at Fort mountain though, there were so many knats that it was unbearable, as all were trying to commit suicide in your eyeballs. Whats up with that??

Youngblood
04-02-2008, 14:07
Someone told me once that they are attracted to the air you exhale. They can be aggravating, I sometimes carry a headnet to use when I am resting. They are too hot and hard to breath through when I am hiking. When I am backpacking I keep a bandanna on my pack straps and can easily pull it free and use as a whip to keep them at bay for awhile so I don't lose my sanity over them. I use that for those horse flies that want to make a meal out of my calf as well. You learn to do what you have to.

Nails
04-02-2008, 14:15
I've been to North Ontario/ Quebec during their blackfly season. It was more annoying and gross than any mosquito-filled place I've ever been. Ever since, I always keep my bugnet zipped up, just in case. Bugs of all kinds bother me far more than they used to because of that one horrible experience. And now, I'm going to Suriname this summer. What the hell was I thinking?

robertm
04-02-2008, 15:40
Yep, all depends on where you camp. Never been bit in the Smokies for example.

But my first time in a jungle hammock was one summer back in the early 90’s on a sea island camping trip in Charleston, SC. That experience sold me on bug-netted hammocks. A friend brought a couple Vietnam era GI jungle hammocks & loaned one to me. Another friend brought his Walmart double camping hammock, made of net. Everyone else stayed in one of those screened dining canopies. The mosquitoes were SO BAD, the only reason we didn’t abort the trip that night was our boat was stranded on the island due to low tide. I remember someone’s dog walking around & with every step he took, mosquitoes would puff out of the pine straw around his paws. When we finally went to bed, my friend & I got in our jungle hammocks & I remember being bothered at first by the whining of the mosquitoes right outside the netting. They sounded so close. After a few minutes though, I had to smile to myself, having realized they could only window shop. I slept great that night, only to be awoken twice: once to hear my friend with the net hammock scream on the verge of crying, “!@#$%^ these mosquitoes!!” right before he stomped off to the screened dining shelter, which incidentally didn’t have a floor. Remember the dog walking around & mosquitoes puffing out of the ground? Well, they came out of the ground in there too. Which brings me to the second time I was awoken: pots banging, since everybody else just got up again & fixed breakfast, at something like 3 or 4 AM. Nobody slept that night but the two of us in the jungle hammocks….

BurningCedar
04-02-2008, 16:14
I'm lucky and not overly bothered by the little suckers. However I'm not complete imune and their buzzing can get real annoying.

In my neck of the woods (Missouri) they tend to get active about 2 hours before sundown and continue for 2-3 hours afterward. A smaller swarm will start again in the morning just about sun-up for about 2 hours.

Often though I'll find a high bluff or hill with a little breeze and then have very little problem with mosquitos.

Bottom line: around here you need to have some protection available even though you won't need it all of the time.

FanaticFringer
04-02-2008, 16:21
I'd have to say that I cant remember ever really needing the bug-net after dark in the N.Georgia mtns. Even on nights that require no underinsulation. Which would be a rare night for me. I do like to use one anyway in the summer just in case I get dive bombed.

Incacamper
04-02-2008, 18:16
Ya, I think that the coastal areas probably have the worst mosquito problems. I have read so many horror stories about the mosquitos on Cumberland Island, Georgia that I didn't want to go. Just like the previous poster said, their was literally clouds of them that would surround you and then commence sucking. Yes, then I would definitely have a mosquito net with me!!

canoebie
04-02-2008, 19:00
I am a reformed ground dweller, about to take the plunge. Netting is not just for insects, I was bitten by a black widow spider in Northern Lower Michigan in the middle of September last year while guiding a canoe trip with 12 men. Had to fix breakfast, pack out and paddle 15 miles. It was awful. I have never felt so bad. I am fanatic about keeping clothes, shoes, sleeping bags, etc. under seal of some kind as a result of that experience.

I did not squish the spider though, I released her. She was just protecting herself. Lots of valium, and ibuprofen, and a week later, I recovered. Black Widows are in all 48 lower states.

David Ball

warbonnetguy
04-02-2008, 19:32
another option is to have a hammock that has a net that can be thrown over the side if you don't need it. even if you only need it every now and then it is worth the couple oz it weighs. no-net hammocks like an eno/trecklight are so simple, cheap to buy or easy to make, that there is no reason not to have one of these for non-bug season. you can either have a seperate bug net that fits this style of hammock or have a seperate hammock with integrated net for mosquito season. i think going out in summer without mosquito netting would be risky business. and i have been swarmed in the somkies, big creek actually which may not be technically be the smokies, but it's within a mile of the state line/border of the park. we were climbing the route on house rock, near midnight hole, and resorted to setting a pile of leaves on fire to try and smoke them out. i found that if i slapped every part of my body as hard as i could and as fast as i could i would have sweet relief for a minute or so before i could feel the bites again. pain never felt quite so good:eek:

froldt
04-02-2008, 19:35
I think that at home (Western Kentucky) the mosquitos never quit, at least during the summer. Well, they take a siesta when it's the hottest out, but they seem to be active all night long. Where I camp, there's always water nearby, though.
I'm not a mosq-magnet, but my fiance is, so bug nets are a necessity. However, during the winter (we might do more camping when it's cold than not) we don't need netting. I plan to make some net socks so that we only have to carry them when we're going to be using them.

photomankc
04-02-2008, 20:02
I've been eaten up in the Ozarks as late as October by the little vampires. That, and I don't care for spiders all around me. In my tent in the morning there was always a contingent of spiders hanging out between the fly and netting. I try to be a live and let live person but ants, spiders, or wasps are not welcome in my personal space and will be removed by force. I like having some space where I can escape them for a while.

robertm
04-02-2008, 20:17
Here in the Lowcountry, once the mosquitoes come out, they're 24 hours / 7 days a week including holidays. There are 2 times they don't come out, very mild days & cool evenings. That's because the sand gnats come out & I think they even bite mosquitoes.

warbonnetguy
04-02-2008, 20:53
just a no net hammock should be safe from spiders and other creepy crawlies, i doubt there is much chance something is going to climb up or down the tree, and then down your suspension to you.

slowhike
04-02-2008, 21:11
i've not yet owned a hammock w/ netting but i agree w/ what's been said... depends on when & where you're at as well as your body chemistry.
there have been several times i wouldn't have minded having one, for those pesky gnats if nothing else.
and w/ some of the stuff you can end up w/ if the right critter bites you, it's probably a good idea to have one or more forms of protection.
i have plans to make a hammock w/ a net that can be put away when it's not needed.

Shug
04-02-2008, 22:53
Gotta have netting here in Minnesota for the summer. Mosquitoes and black flies here are bigger and more aggressive than I ever experienced in the NC/TN mountains, where I grew up. Bzzzzzzzzzz
Shug

Youngblood
04-03-2008, 07:50
Gotta have netting here in Minnesota for the summer. Mosquitoes and black flies here are bigger and more aggressive than I ever experienced in the NC/TN mountains, where I grew up. Bzzzzzzzzzz
Shug

I've heard about the mosquitoes and black flies in Minnesota... which one is the state bird? :D :D

GrizzlyAdams
04-03-2008, 08:24
I've heard about the mosquitoes and black flies in Minnesota... which one is the state bird? :D :D

As a Minnesota boy, born and bred, that's an easy one for me to answer.

Officially the state bird is Anopheles horribilis, illustrated in this attached photograph from the journal "Nature".

Those critters are so large, that as a kid we'd swat 'em with baseball bats. That is, in the seasons when we weren't walking 10 miles to school each way, barefoot, in the snow, uphill both directions. :D

Grizz

photomankc
04-03-2008, 09:07
just a no net hammock should be safe from spiders and other creepy crawlies, i doubt there is much chance something is going to climb up or down the tree, and then down your suspension to you.


Having had spiders hanging between my socks on a clothesline in the morning.... I must disagree. Little rectangular looking white guys.... they get into everything somehow. I've even brought them home on occasion. ;)

Shug
04-03-2008, 09:56
As a Minnesota boy, born and bred, that's an easy one for me to answer.

Officially the state bird is Anopheles horribilis, illustrated in this attached photograph from the journal "Nature".

Those critters are so large, that as a kid we'd swat 'em with baseball bats. That is, in the seasons when we weren't walking 10 miles to school each way, barefoot, in the snow, uphill both directions. :D

Grizz
I was backpacking on the Pow Wow Trail in N. Minnesota in 2000, tarping with bugnet and the black flies were so horrible that I could not stop walking or I was suddenly wearing a "fly suit". In the evening the flies would go off duty and out would come the skeeters. As I was sleeping I would wake up and check my map to see if I was near a road as I thought it was road noise. No, it was a wall of mosquitoes outside of my tarp net. I was inside the Boundry Waters area so there were no roads. I had never, ever seen and heard so many. Impressive pests.
Shug

DGrav
04-03-2008, 10:02
I've been to North Ontario/ Quebec during their blackfly season. It was more annoying and gross than any mosquito-filled place I've ever been. Ever since, I always keep my bugnet zipped up, just in case. Bugs of all kinds bother me far more than they used to because of that one horrible experience. And now, I'm going to Suriname this summer. What the hell was I thinking?

Blackflies are evil! I avoid the White Mts. in NH until after June because of them.

GrizzlyAdams
04-03-2008, 10:12
I was backpacking on the Pow Wow Trail in N. Minnesota in 2000, tarping with bugnet and the black flies were so horrible that I could not stop walking or I was suddenly wearing a "fly suit". In the evening the flies would go off duty and out would come the skeeters. As I was sleeping I would wake up and check my map to see if I was near a road as I thought it was road noise. No, it was a wall of mosquitoes outside of my tarp net. I was inside the Boundry Waters area so there were no roads. I had never, ever seen and heard so many. Impressive pests.
Shug

In my college age years, at the end of summer and before classes started (for me in mid-September), a friend and I would journey up to the BWCA for a week. Our habit was to paddle in, 2 days travel, to a favored site where we'd set up base camp, and for the mid-portion of the week make day trips from there.

The first frost had always occurred by the time we went (late August / early September) so the usual insects weren't around. But one year when we set up at base camp, when the food came out, out also came the yellow jackets. Swarms of them, covering the food being cooked, covering the food on the spoon on the way to the mouth. After a couple of meals we realized it was time to find another site....

Grizz

Bugzee Malone
04-04-2008, 10:16
I am one of those cursed by the mozzie. They will fly past 100 people just to get at me.
On a TV program about the mosquito, it was reported that it comes down to lots of different factors as to who they bite. First, believe it or not, is blood type. Blood-type markers are chemicals released by people of a specific blood type.
If you have O-type blood you are first on the list. In the televised experiment the 2 men with O-type blood got the most bites by far.
Next is how much CO2 you put out. If you have a larger CO2 signature than your friends you are easier to smell and find. The same goes for heat. If you are a "sweater" they can home in on that too.
It also turns out that if you are drinking alcohol or if you are pregnant adds to the problem too and will ring the dinner bell on the little blighters.

One last note... avoid getting DEET on your hammock or any synthetic gear. DEET eats holes in them.:eek:

photomankc
04-04-2008, 10:35
Great. :(


Type O and I sweat. That explains a lot.

turk
04-04-2008, 22:42
absolute necessity up here. skeeters, black flies, and deer flies rule supreme from june to sept. I have hammocked without netting during this time, and with a bug shirt or face net, it was miserable. They plaster across the netting trying to get you. Only body odour, and a weeks bath the the smoke of 2 campfires / day combined with about a hundred layers of encrusted deet seem to neutralize them. First few days are always rough. Last few days always seem to have fewest bugs.;)

btw - my HH's are truly encrusted with deet, and have no holes in them. My ULBA has been going strong for maybe 4 years and has seen perhaps 12-15 direct applications of deet, and indirectly perhaps 40-50 times with rub off from my body.

If there are no bugs. ... hope you packed your winter gear.

rigidpsycho
04-05-2008, 10:20
I have type O blood, but don't seem to get bothered my skeeters much. Deer flies and horse flies we have here in Ky like me though.

steene
04-05-2008, 14:53
What type is preferred by our Northwoods hangers?

I have BWCAW experience with the Deer Flies, black flies and skeeters, but no hanging experience there. They are ruthless.

Coffee
04-08-2008, 00:20
I hate bugs, no I really hate bugs. I would carty 3 lbs of netting if need be. Netting is a must for me in the season.

BillyBob58
04-28-2008, 16:52
My nightmare experience ( bug wise) was in the high mountains of Wyoming. Mountains ( Wind Rivers) with lots of lakes as well as meadows continually soaked with snow melt. In June of 85, I was out there for 30 straight days with the National Outdoor Leadership School out of Lander. At least for the first week or so there was enough snow still on the ground and still cold enough that they didn't come out much. But once they did, oh boy. We were using tarps( no nets) and head nets. I had a beige Patagonia Pile Jacket, pretty thick. It was just sickening to think how it would be if I didn't have thick winter clothing, as I watched the sleeves seemingly turn black as they walked up and down, plunging their probiscus (sp?) in to the hilt, just barely failing to strike flesh. Then pulling out, walking a small distance and plunging again, ever hopeful of striking "oil". They reminded me of those small oil drilling rigs you see out west. I lived in thick clothing and the head net and stinking of deet. The biggest adventure was just trying to drop your drawers enough to take care of business without loosing a pint of blood from the skin of your *** or other nearby parts. But, still, this was probably about the only time I got bitten, between deet and thick or tight weaved nylon clothing and head nets. But, it was a 24/7 battle.

They would get in your food and fly in your mouth while you tried to eat.

I have mentioned before the June 27 snowstorm that soaked us all, pushed many to the verge of hypothermia, and broke a tree limb which punctured a friends tarp. But that storm was a blessing to me. As we tried to sleep that night. as it was just starting to rain, a friend commented on how it was like trying to sleep through the Indy 500,due to the mossy buzzing in your ears. But I woke up in the middle of the night with the tarp in my face, and was quickly aware of the quiet. Snow had collapsed the tarp on top of us, and the mosquitoes were out of business for several glorious days.

I have been back many times since, to the exact same place, but always during the 1st week of Sept. Though I still take a little deet and a head net just in case, I have never seen the first mossy.

Splat
04-29-2008, 12:18
I'd rather have it then not have it and need it.

photomankc
04-29-2008, 12:59
My nightmare experience ( bug wise) was in the high mountains of Wyoming. Mountains ( Wind Rivers) with lots of lakes as well as meadows continually soaked with snow melt

Wyoming, Mountains, June........... Noted.

I will say that I spent a few days in June in Idaho just west of Yellowstone. I had never seen mosquitoes like that in my life. We stayed in a cabin and in the evening hours you would have to run from the car to the door and you still got hit several times each trip. Every shaft of sunlight looked like one of those dream sequences where little puffs are floating in the air shimmering but it was really a nightmare of hordes of blood sucking demons set to pounce upon you the moment you emerged from any shelter.

Something about pine trees too. If you were near a pine tree they were just unbearable. But near a hardwood there always seemed to be less of them.

BillyBob58
04-29-2008, 17:27
June in Idaho just west of Yellowstone..........hordes of blood sucking demons

Yeah, that's not very far as the crow flies from where they tried to drain our blood. They are probably demon cousins.