To back up what Dave said, I read a consumer reports article a couple of years ago that said deet was the key chemical that made for the most effective repellants among those they tested. I recently used "Ultra Muskol," which was 40% deet, (bought at Fred Meyer) while at Antelope Island when/where there were tons of mosquitos, and it worked very well. As a side note, a newspaper article I read a while back claimed mosquitos are probably led to us by the smell of our breath--and it claimed they can tell who has the most scrumptious/nutritious blood by the smell of our breath? Troy At 02:24 PM 6/20/2002 -0600, you wrote:
I used to swear by REI jungle juice (it's like 97% deet) but found the mosquitoes were just pissed off and swarmed around my face which I found even more annoying than the bites. I've come up with three solutions for bug season and observing. First, showering before observing so you wont smell like anything, hopefully. Second, a light long sleeve layer even if its just the thinnest of poly pro (I think Patagonia Outlet calls it featherweight silk or some such), and most importantly, third, ALTITUDE.
dlb