Insect repellents

[Clay]

I was going through Consumer Reports Online this morning and stumbled across this July 2010 report on insect repellents. The first thing that I watched was this video on the shortcomings of the OFF Clip ON product: http://video.consumerreports.org/ser...d=106592694001 I did comment about this on another thread but wanted to make a stand alone thread under Insect Repellent so that when some poor soul did a search under "insect repellent" like I did before I posted this they would find this discussion.

Then I found this video about the better regular insect repellents. Sorry, edited to say that this link doesn't work for non members of CR.

While you have to be a member of CR to see the actual report and ratings I don't mind sharing the fact that Deep Woods Off Sportsman II was rated a 98 for a score (which was the highest score on the ratings) but came in at a retail cost of $1.25 per ounce which was the lowest cost per ounce of the 4 repellants that all rated a 98. The other three that rated a 98 but had higher costs per ounce included: Cutter Backwoods Unscented, OFF Family Care Smooth and Dry, and 3M Ultrathon Insect Repellent 8.

Remember that these are not exhaustive tests. In other words they do not test every product out there, but of the one that they did test this is how they performed. If you haven't come to a final conclusion on which product to use during misquito season, pick one of the 4 top rated products.

For fly fisherman we have to be aware that all four of these top rated products contain between 15 and 30 % deet which will damaged fly lines so be careful when applying this stuff and wash the palms of your hands when you are done applying it or apply it with the back of your hands.

While I live in Wisconsin and you don't need to have a hunting license to shoot them with a shotgun, they are large enough to do so and offer a great challenge. I prefer to use insect repellent instead of ammo to keep them off of me. It is more cost effective with ammo prices these days.

Rick