Posts Tagged mosquito repellent
InsectShield Bandanas and Hats
I typed up this review in advance while looking out at the waves lapping on the beach of Tulum, palm trees swaying in the breeze and tropical birds singing in a morning chorus. But last night I slept under a mosquito net and I have a mosquito coil burning next to the lounge chair I’m in to keep the vampires at bay. At times it’s like getting dive-bombed.
Fortunately, I’m armed with a whole other arsenal of weapons, including some clothing with insect protection built right into the fabric. ExOfficio has for years had a line of Buzz Off products that were treated with built-in Permethrin, but this InsectShield line is even more durable, lasting 70 washings before the 0.52% of repellent wears off. It’s invisible, odorless, and—in my experience quite effective. You still have to spray something on exposed skin though, as this will only protect what it is covering.
Mosquitoes flying around your legs and ankles are annoying enough (a good reason to wear some InsectShield pants), but it’s even more maddening when 
they are flying around your head. That buzzing in the ears is enough to make some people flail around like a dancing lunatic and walking around with bug bites on your face is never fun.
Fortunately, you can protect your head or neck for only $12 with the ExOfficio InsectShield bandannas pictured here. They come in a variety of colors and each has little mozzies on it so you don’t get it mixed up with a plain bandanna. Any long-term traveler learns that the bandanna can be a great double-duty item too, working as a head cover, sweat rag, impromptu napkin, valuables holder, and more.
Then there’s this InsectShield Adventure hat, which I’ve been using for six weeks now. There’s nothing even slightly fashionable about this hat and I’ll admit it’s probably not the kind of thing you want to wear while posing for photos. It’s a floppy hat that will protect you from the sun and from bugs and only weighs two ounces 
though, so function wins out over form. It knows its job and does it well, not really caring if you look cool or not. (Hey, at least the chin strap is detachable.)
If you’re going to be in hot sunny places for a while, you need a wide-brimmed hat anyway, so get this, the bucket hat, or the Cotton Sun Bucket model and keep the mosquitoes at bay at the same time. If you don’t mind being a redneck, you can get a baseball cap one instead—or that with a flap coming off the back to cover that neck.
The Adventure Hat lists for $36 but sometimes you’ll find it on sale for less at the ExOfficio site or at Backcountry.com.
See the full line of InsectShield products.
See the other ExOfficio reviews at Practical Travel Gear.
Posted by Tim in Adventure Gear, Kids and Family, Travel Light on July 22nd, 2009
Clip-On Mosquito Repellent by OFF
The other evening my husband and I headed out our back door for a hike. Immediately we were swarmed by mosquitoes (the rainy weather we had in Colorado last month has done a number on our bug population). I turned around to grab the Clip-On Mosquito Repellent I’d received as part of a marketing campaign I’d opted into via BzzAgent.com. I figured it would be a great opportunity to see if the funny looking, battery-operated contraption works.
It doesn’t.
And it’s totally dorky, too.
Seriously, I wouldn’t be caught dead with the bright-blue, whirring fan attached to my body anywhere out in public. I wore it while walking trail around my house because it’s deserted. But if I wore it on a trafficked hiking trail, I might get in trouble for disturbing the peace. The “quiet fan that circulates the repellent” is not quiet.
The device’s premise is a good one — instead of spraying OFF on your body, you wear the Clip-On, and a fan distributes the repellent from a disc inside. However (and I found this out after I went on my hike), while wearing the Clip-On, you can’t move! The marketing materials say that you might be able to use the odorless Clip-On while gardening, camping or lounging at the beach — but if you walk around, you have to wait a couple minutes for the area around your body to “rebuild its protection.” So, there was no way I would have been protected on my hour-long walk. And I wasn’t — I came home with at least three new bug bites.
So, I tested the Clip-On as it was meant to be used the following night, by placing the fan on my patio table while we ate dinner at dusk. Again, it didn’t work, even though I was sitting down-wind from the device. I got at least two new bug bites.
I know all parents would love to find a non-toxic, all-natural mosquito repellent that isn’t harmful to our kids. No one likes rubbing Cutter or Deep-Woods OFF on little bodies during a camping trip (but those products do work). However, the Clip-On is not the answer, that’s for sure. Even though the Clip-On repellent never comes in contact with skin, the box is still loaded with precautions: “Harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Avoid breathing vapor. Wash thoroughly after handling….” In fact, the little spinning fan resembles a toy, so this product could be even more dangerous around children than a can of OFF or a container of mosquito-repelling wipes.
Thumbs down on the Clip-On, since it didn’t repel the mosquitoes around me and because it’s just goofy.
But if you want to sample it for yourself, buy the Clip-On at your local superstore for about $13; two refills (each of which last for 12 hours) retail for about $6. And don’t forget the AA batteries.
Posted by Kara in Travel Light on July 6th, 2009
