mozzie relief ??

Hi Johny,
Have you considered using those green mosiquito coils?

CU down the road

John,John,John, Deep heat, tiger balm, is your friend. do you know where they are getting in? First thing is rub this on where they have bitten you to stop the itching, good for march flies as well.

If you think they are coming in the screens, put so deep heat on a chucks or the likes and give a light smear on the screens. They hate the stuff. If its around the door, wipe around door frame.

Hope this helps. Shane.

Hi John,
I have a 12v bug zapper, and it only seems to attract moths. Mozzies aren't attracted to the light. Such was the power of this zapper, that rather than get electrocuted, the moths mainly died coz they got their wings tangled in the wire mesh. So its only purpose is to drain the battery.
Mozzie coils seem to work reasonably well. The citronella ones smell the best, esp if you're inside the van. Make sure you buy the protective containers to put the burning coil in if you're using them inside the van.
Also, good repellents with a high level of deet, such as Rid Tropical or Off usually work well when outside.
I remember, in Kakadu, encountering the biggest mozzies I've ever seen. These were monsters, and we had to wear full cover at night, with copious quantities of repellent on the face, neck and hands. They were dive-bombing and bouncing off, just relentless. Once inside the tent, the tent seemed to shake as the mozzies tried to get in! (don't let this put you off Kakadu, tho :-).
Gerry

Our standard brew is an equal parts solution of baby oil & dettol. I believe straight
babyoil works too, & is is a little less pungent. I used it at Yellow waters on all exposed skin & no bites while many others suffered. I was the only one sitting
outside in the whole camp. An amusing aside....I had it in a stubby bottle..& applied liberally while drinking beer from another. Two smart young blokes in the
adjoining camp soon were rubbing beer on themselves after watching me, it didnt
work........oldbaz.

bushmans or topical strenght aerogard with 20% deet apply lberaly before bed


people are always trying to avoid chemicals but mozzies are tthe worlds deadliest animal

at home we have one of those automatic insect sprays and it works really well. they used to be called robocan but were bought out by one of the bigger pest spray companies which means they are a bit cheaper and can be bought at the supermarket.

the one we have is pyrethrum (sp?) based so not harmful to the kids but you could leave it on while youre not in the van and then turn it off while youre in there and the residual mist should kieep the mozzies at bay.
we bought an outside one for our patio too and I will be taking it with us when we camp as it seems more efffective than the coils or citronella candles/oils we have previously tried.

I think that the deet based repellants are the best for sure but have been told they are not reccomended for kids.

I also was given a "bug patch"by a friend which was like a nicotine patch but to keep bugs away as I was getting smashed by midgies and mozzies. it was effective for the few hours more I was outside. my friend said she bought a pack at Kmart but didnt know the brand. apparently they are widely available.

good luck I hope you find a solution soon. there is nothing worse than bitten kids.

roll on deodorant with aluminium in works like you would not believe and instantly. We don't go out without a bottle of home brand deodorant. Stingoz contains from memory 35% aluminium, home brand about 18%. Roll it on and rub it in and itch dissapears.

We have a poptop and when the top windows are open its free for all flying insects. there was such a nice breeze last night and thought it would be good to open them up. It wasn't long before we had to close them again. The top windows have the same gauze as the wind out windows so don't realy know why they head for the top ones only.

Hi John,
When we were travelling my wife had heaps of trouble with mozzies and sandflies till someone told us to mix Listerine with water and spray it on. My wife never got bitten after that. It worked a treat and smelled quite nice.

Josh

Oils such as baby oil, dieseline etc will work to a certain extent but you have to apply them frequently to keep a good cover on the skin – but this also comes off on your clothing and bedding and doesn’t suit everybody.

DEET based repellent creams and lotions are used by the American and Australian armies at about 40% concentration. It’s a very safe chemical and has been around for over 50 years.

DEET in the cream form, rather than spray cans, is best and the stronger it is the longer it lasts (it doesn’t kill the sandflies or mozzies – just repels them).
80% DEET cream has a life of 12 to 15 hours so it needs to be applied twice a day.

Never put sunscreen over the repellent as it only masks it – put your sunscreen on first, let it dry and apply the repellent on top.
If you do get bitten the first thing to do is to deaden the bite with a local anaesthetic such as Lignocaine (so that you don’t scratch and cause infection) and then if you get an allergic reaction to the bite, take antihistamine tablets.

The strongest chemicals I’ve found are as follows:
DEET cream at 80% is available direct from BUSHMAN at about $100 a litre.
Lignocaine 5% cream in the form of Itcheze Plus Cream is available from some online Queensland Pharmacies at about $13 per 50 gram tube.

PS: I am a West Aussie who spends a lot of time at Port Smith – the mozzie capital of WA - but I have to admit I can’t get the 1 litre DEET or the Itcheze, anywhere but online from the Banana-benders.