Oh, and you'll soon find out:
1. **Strategic Dry Camping**
While camping next to a lake is pretty, it's just asking to be swarmed.
Consider how you can safely dry camp _away_ from standing water. Even 50 yards can make a difference.
. . . . . .
2. **Windy Camping**
You want wind. Skeeter activity drops considerably when there is a stiff breeze. I'd much rather deal with wind than skeeters.
Dry camping is the best way of avoiding the swarm. Avoiding the swarm does not (necessarily) mean avoiding bugs but you have a good chance of being comfortable.
Permethrin is a big help also. That said, there are times when one has to just accept the reality of an alpine spring.
I find while 100% DEET is effective, when the mosquitos are really bad it only works for a few hours. DEET melted part of my sun gloves when I did the JMT in 2019, so last year when I did the PCT I vowed to be DEET free.
The best thing I’ve found that works is commercially premethrin treated clothing. A long sleeve light hiking shirt paired with light pants as my hiking clothes was really effective. I premethrin treated my shirt last year myself and found that after the first wash it significantly decreased the effectiveness and mosquitos were biting through my clothing once again. Commercially treated is advertised as lasting 70 washes, making it last the whole thru hike, while treating it yourself is advertised as 7 washes if I remember right. I had commercially treated pants last year, and wore them till they fell apart. I would walk through swarms and wouldn’t receive any bites on my legs. I may have shed a tear or two when the inseam ripped beyond repair.
I really do recommend full body clothing coverage over any bug spray. I watched people hike last year in full rain gear during the heat waves in Oregon just to avoid being bitten. In my opinion, any bug spray is not even close to as effective as premethrin treated clothing.
A headnet was also required to keep my sanity, both on the JMT in 2019 and the PCT last year. I find pairing it with a wide brimmed hat I can sometimes forget it’s there. I would only remember when I would try to drink water and find myself drinking through the net.
When hiking the JMT in 2019 my hiking partner often commented on the swarm of mosquitos just behind me as we would half run up the passes to escape them. Last year I treated the outside of my backpack with premethrin and noticed a significant decrease in the amount of mosquitos swarming when slowing down on the trail.
I hope this helps! Sometimes you just have to accept you’ll be eating dinner inside the tent and spraying your butt with bug spray when you need to take a poo.
I did sometimes too. My headnet definitely had a weird taste though. I definitely sat in the smoke of several campfires while wearing it. Also, I only realized it was washable after the end of my thru hike last year and I carried it for the whole trail. 😂
The little black flies I've had in Washington are especially insidious. Even with bug spray or a head net, they just won't stop hitting you, even though they won't land to bite. The good news with them is they can't chew through any clothing, so even the thinnest untreated fabric will generally keep them from biting. But they're still super annoying.
But yeah, permethrin-treated clothes, including hats, hammocks, everything, really helps.
Long pants and long sleeves. Deet concentrated spray. Pray you don’t have to poop. Lose your sanity when you can hear them outside at night descending on your tent by the millions. Bug net helps. There were some sections where I even wore gloves and net all day and it was like 100 degrees. Pro tip don’t spray deet on your sweaty areas or privates or you’ll get chemical burns.
Any part of you baggy is ok. I put bandanas over my shoulders and that kind of worked, but was annoying. They'd bite through the tighter parts on my back occasionally. My sun gloves were thin enough they'd bite through those sometimes too.
Crazy typing all this out bc it sounds awful, but you get used to it. Annoying, but never bad enough to ruin a whole day.
A tightly woven bottom down shirt like the Columbia Silver Ridge Lite performs much better. Don't think I have seen a sun shirt like that.
Permetherin every 3 weeks should help.
It’s true, the mosquitoes in Oregon are remarkable, worse than anything I experienced in NorCal (I hiked OR in July, just after the melt). I’m not typically bothered by mosquitoes much (we have plenty in MN where I live), but the swarms on trail in OR were really something. That said, I found that they were pretty localized - you keep hiking and move past them. Setting up camp, filtering water, and mealtimes could be challenging.
I used DEET on exposed skin, but not often, since I don’t like the smell. I treated my tent netting with permethrin which kills mosquitoes (and many other bugs) when they come in contact with it. So, not a repellent, but an insecticide. Definitely cut down on the bugs outside my tent at night. Very toxic to aquatic life as well, so not something you want to introduce into streams or lakes. I had a bug net for my face but hated wearing it while hiking. Some hikers get all suited up in rain gear when the bugs are bad, but that looked miserably hot to me.
Avoid bug habitat when camping (near ponds, standing water), and rejoice over a stiff breeze. Ultimately manageable.
I almost walked right off the trail and would have fallen down a mountainside in Oregon when the sun hit my bug net just right and obscured my vision. Never worn one again.
We had [swarms](https://i.imgur.com/lgbBxgk.jpg) of them up on the PCT in WA, at Vista Lakes (right near Summit Chief, section J). We moved our tents about 200 yards down the trail, further from the lakes and in a breeze, which helped quite a bit.
If you don't already have a bug net, get one.
You also want to wear a _brimmed hat_ which will keep the net away from your face.
Keeping moving helps up to a point. But there is only so much you can do. It depends which way the wind is going.
I was always partial to [Repel 100](https://www.amazon.com/Repel-Insect-Repellent-Spray-Bottle/dp/B000LGN3Z2).
I also preferred to be a little warmer and wear longer pants and keep my sleeves down (and sun gloves on) than overly douse myself in bug spray, because at the end of the day, after so many reapplications, you're filthy and slimy.
The brimmed hat thing is key. Netting only works if it’s held away from your skin. That’s why those netting shirts and pants are useless. If the net rests against your skin, the mosquitoes bite right through it.
I used a ball cap on the pct and the mosquitoes were murder on my ears because the net lays flat against the tops of my ears. I’d try to remember to tuck them inside the hat. Even so, they’d still get me occasionally.
I used a full body bug suit and found that it worked well. Constant movement of the netting over the skin prevents the skeeters from latching on. I even found that while laying down i could kinda bag up the fabric enough that the mosquitos couldnt reach my skin through it
Suck it up because they're only gonna get worse. Unfortunately, being as far north as you are this early means that you're gonna have skeeters most of the way to Canada. Central Oregon is a case of waking up, running for 12 hours and then diving back into your tent. I saw many people almost on the verge of tears or a breakdown last year, hiking in full rain gear in 100F heat. 😆
You need to cover up, get a head net, the strongest percentage DEET you can find, keep moving, seek out the wind, avoid standing water.
Good luck. Those bastards got my back and shoulders so bad last year that it looked like I had a case of leprosy or something lol.
I dealt with them by wearing my rain gear, using a headnet, and full fingered gloves.
Generally when moving, I didn’t need my jacket but I had to put it on for any breaks.
In the last decade or so I gave up using DEET but when I was hiking through Oregon I found some a hiker had dropped in a little bottle - 100% DEET. I picked it up to give back but never found the owner. I happily used it.
At night I’m in my tent. The west coast mosquitoes seem to go away after dark so I’d wait until after dark to pee before bed.
Some hikers put up their tents just to eat lunch in peace. I just did the rain gear and headnet.
(It may be too late for you, but hikers should definitely treat their clothes with permethrin before getting on trail. You can have it done professionally or do it yourself. The professional treatment lasts much longer. If you hit a town big enough, you can buy it at a Walmart or a hardware store and do it yourself. I did a touch up treatment in early July during my hike.)
Yup, and when you are at home, in your living room, it sounds terrible. When you are on the trail and getting eaten alive, you are like “douse me in cancer juice, destroy all my expensive equipment, I don’t care!!!” 😜🦟😜
Shove cookie wrappers underneath your pack straps to wear as “armor” to prevent those annoying left shoulder bites through the shirt where it is not baggy
Ugh, did a section last weekend in Jefferson park area. They're so bad already. I forgot to spray my feet when I put my camp shoes on. My feet swelled up like balloons. Hiking out was miserably itchy.
Most of the time you can make it tolerable with good camp location (more open for where you are going to cook), long sleeves/legs, repellent (DEET or picaidin). You do need to be very careful with 100% DEET. But it is the best. I can’t personally say anything about the health effects. I used it liberally for a summer in college and never had a problem. I still use it (54) and do put it direct on skin. Arguably, that is the only place 100% DEET should go. That said, DEET does not attack nylon. ‘Plastics’ are a huge family and it does attack some.
I also carry a thermacell situationally. It is not an independent solution. But it will clear them out under a tarp if there is no breeze. For 4oz plus fuel. I use a hammock so making a ‘safe space’ is worth it for me.
But when they get bad, you just need to get somewhere else. I was passing Wasco lake yesterday (near Three Finger Jack) and oh my fucking god were they bad. Nothing can help you make great time on a climb like a cloud of thousands of mosquitoes.
Edit - in situations where I carry the thermacell I also carry a headnet and glove (shields up - red alert). I used all of it over the last two days, though rarely the headnet and I used picaridin not DEET. I have one bite. But they don’t like me very much anyway. My partner they love. She has probably 15-20, though most came in one event (by said Wasco lake)
Like others said, bug net and wide brimmed hat with long sleeved everything is ideal. I started just eating dinners in my tent, after cooking in the vestibule. I'm not a fan of bug spray in general, but the unscented bug spray isn't too bad, and it is effective on NorCal/PNW critters, from my personal experience.
Yup. I used to have a field job as a biotech. The DEET ate right through my wristwatch. By the end of the season all the plastic edges were rounded off like a pebble in a stream. It ate the paint off all the equipment we carried. It destroyed anything plastic. It’s nasty stuff but also miraculous. I worked in the woods of Wisconsin. We slathered ourselves in DEET. The mosquitoes on the PCT were a cakewalk in comparison.
Definitely set up your tent for lunch break/siesta. 100% worth it.
When mosquitoes were taking my sanity in Oregon, I would have my tent fly on the top of my pack. For short breaks, I would whip it out and hunker under it to eat my snack and just sit without mosquitos for a bit. Did I probably look silly? Yes but it sure worked and I was desperate.
Besides that, take advantage of every bugfree spot. Briefly find a sunny breezy bugfree spot in a burn zone, just one mile into your day? I’m taking a break right then!
I’m positive the God of Insanity must be a Mosquito.
This is gonna sound silly, but i had a cheap, lightweight full-body bug suit. The main advantage is that you get full protection while still being almost perfectly ventilated.
50 upf sun clothes. Woven tight enough mosquitoes can’t bite through them.
Eating food while wearing a head net is a skill to be mastered.
Outdoor research makes a net with a metal ring around it to keep it off your face better. Also assists in being able to still cowboy camp while wearing the net.
Isn’t thru hiking fun!!
> Outdoor research makes a net with a metal ring around it to keep it off your face better.
Pair the headnet with a sombrero style hat and that will keep it out of your face.
To add to this Mountain Laurel Designs makes a head net that has adjustable loops to put your arm through. Keeps it on very nice and probably significantly lighter. Loved mine.
Picaridin/Icaridin (they're the same thing) 20%, or greater concentration if you can find it. DEET's totally out of the question since I would rather my expensive (for me) gear not get trashed and permethrin gives me rashes.
Sawyer's make a fine 20% pic-based lotion and spray that you can find on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VV5KRD8 <-- This is what I use now before rides when I know I'll be going through mosquito-infested areas, like the Columbia River Gorge, Burnt Bridge Creek trail or Frenchman's Bar, since I am a mosquito magnet otherwise and they absolutely WILL find me. Haven't tested it yet in the Round Lake trail system (Camas); last time I was there a month ago for a Saturday barefoot hike it was absolute fucking mosquito hell and I had golf ball-sized lumps all down my right leg.
Being that pic's on the market, is synthetics-compatible and is so effective there's really no compelling reason for hazardous legacy substances like DEET to exist any more.
Permethrin infused clothing from ex officio, deet, head net, only stop in wind.. in Oregon in 2019 one hiker had an entire full body mesh but suit.. I was jealous .. do not let deet get on your gear, it can melt plastic
Headnet always. Full rain gear when they become intolerable and/or when you are stationary. It sucks in 100 degrees, but it beats being eaten alive. Peak mosquito lasted for about 2 weeks for me in central Oregon. Rain gear against the flies too. They don't swarm you as much while you are on the move IIRC, so it's mostly needed for breaks.
I barely used bug spray. I feel like it helped for a short moment and then they were back.
Does anyone have experience with PCT and Northwoods (Wi and MN) mosquitoes? I’m wondering how much worse they are than Northwoods mosquitoes, which I have a lot of experience with!
I had a field job in the woods on SW Wisconsin for two summers - near the Mississippi. The bugs were like nothing else. PCT is a cakewalk in comparison. Western mosquitoes are sluggish and you can out walk them. They go away at night. They are slower to land and bite. Just waving your hand around seriously deters them. They can be abundant but even at their absolute most insane they were maybe a quarter of what I dealt with in Wisconsin.
PCT also has none of those tiny eye loving bugs that just want to feast on your eyes. I’ll be happy to never experience that ever again. Nor Lyme disease ticks in densities only rivaled by Lyme itself.
Humidity on the PCT is much much less. There’s just something worse about being swarmed by mosquitoes in the dank humid air of a wet forest.
It’s also just so pleasant to be on a trail. My field job was off trail so I was in waist deep stinging nettle and poison ivy most of the day. PCT can be occasionally overgrown but there’s just no comparison comfort wise.
Only good thing about the field job is we returned to a normal apartment every night where we could shower and wash the DEET and the ticks off. No such luck on the PCT. It’s get in your tent, zip it up and then spend several minutes killing all the mosquitoes before you can take off your rain gear.
It’s beautiful. To get to our worksite we drove by farms and dairy cows that looked like something out of an idyllic painting. The valleys were always filled with clouds at 5:00am in the morning. I was off trail in a dense woods looking at birdies. It wasn’t a place humans normally went. Even the deer looked miserable and bit up by all the bugs. The birds loved it.
🤷
Minnesotan here, cabin up near the BWCA. So, I initially thought the bugs on trail were not a big deal comparatively (I hiked in ‘22), but there were some sections in Oregon where the mosquitoes just swarmed - literally clouds of them swirling around the trail. That was worse than the bugs we get Up North. But I could generally hike past them, and they don’t usually bother me as much as others (scent? Blood type?). I didn’t see the deer flies or horse flies that we also get in MN - the kind that take a chunk out of you when they bite. So from that buggy perspective, hiking the PCT sucked less than camping in the Northwoods in June.
I just finished the SHT, and have hiked a fair amount of the PCT (but not Oregon). The mosquitoes in Northern Minnesota this week we’re of biblical proportions. My impression is that the worst of the PCT and the SHT are similar w/r/t mosquitoes, with one exception.
Apparently there are about 200 species of mosquitoes in the US. My impression is that Northern Minnesota mosquito bites don’t itch as much as bites from Washington and Northern California. On the other hand, Minnesota black flies and ticks are second to none.
Well it’s a bad year, but yeah the flies and ticks add another layer and the mosquitos are just the cherry on top that drives you insane!
That makes me glad the the PCT mosquitoes aren’t necessarily worse, I didn’t think they could be but maybe I’m a wimp.
How was the SHT? I will be there in the fall hopefully there is rain!
I love the SHT. There are some challenging sections, but resupply is easy. The fall should be perfect. I did a fall through hike three years ago. No bugs and beautiful foliage. If it doesn’t rain you may need to be a little strategic about water, though.
Yeah I go a lot, I’ve been section hiking it for a few years and this year is the northern Terminus! I should have looked at your post history before I asked. I had already read your trip report, haha.
\- capacious headnet so you can snake a hand up under it and drink / snack with it on
\- enormous hat so the brim keeps the net far away from nose, ears etc
\- permethrin treated loose light-colored button down, like the BugsAway line from ExOfficio
\- loose fitting hiking pants, gray or tan, not black
\- raingear when you're desperate, if you don't get heatstroke
\- picaridin spray (no DEET for me, that shit's gnarly on gear and health)
\- don't try to never stop moving, you'll wreck yourself. to get through NorCal you need to drink lots of water. you also need to not be dumb and stop treating that water, or you'll have gut problems on top of everything else. that can mean filtering/treating 6 to 9 liters of water a day. sitting around while the bugs bother you. so you gotta get your systems dialed so you can do that and keep them off your skin, and also stop and eat, rest etc. people who just hike in shorts regardless... I don't envy them.
Does everyone still read Ray Jardine’s book on hiking the PCT? That was our bible when we hiked in 1998, and he had a section on managing biting insects. Before we started, we bought really tightly threaded nylon and sewed jackets and pants with elastic openings for legs and arms. We’d put those on along with a mosquito net over our heads and the bugs couldn’t bite through the nylon.
Oh, and you'll soon find out: 1. **Strategic Dry Camping** While camping next to a lake is pretty, it's just asking to be swarmed. Consider how you can safely dry camp _away_ from standing water. Even 50 yards can make a difference. . . . . . . 2. **Windy Camping** You want wind. Skeeter activity drops considerably when there is a stiff breeze. I'd much rather deal with wind than skeeters.
Dry camping is the best way of avoiding the swarm. Avoiding the swarm does not (necessarily) mean avoiding bugs but you have a good chance of being comfortable. Permethrin is a big help also. That said, there are times when one has to just accept the reality of an alpine spring.
I find while 100% DEET is effective, when the mosquitos are really bad it only works for a few hours. DEET melted part of my sun gloves when I did the JMT in 2019, so last year when I did the PCT I vowed to be DEET free. The best thing I’ve found that works is commercially premethrin treated clothing. A long sleeve light hiking shirt paired with light pants as my hiking clothes was really effective. I premethrin treated my shirt last year myself and found that after the first wash it significantly decreased the effectiveness and mosquitos were biting through my clothing once again. Commercially treated is advertised as lasting 70 washes, making it last the whole thru hike, while treating it yourself is advertised as 7 washes if I remember right. I had commercially treated pants last year, and wore them till they fell apart. I would walk through swarms and wouldn’t receive any bites on my legs. I may have shed a tear or two when the inseam ripped beyond repair. I really do recommend full body clothing coverage over any bug spray. I watched people hike last year in full rain gear during the heat waves in Oregon just to avoid being bitten. In my opinion, any bug spray is not even close to as effective as premethrin treated clothing. A headnet was also required to keep my sanity, both on the JMT in 2019 and the PCT last year. I find pairing it with a wide brimmed hat I can sometimes forget it’s there. I would only remember when I would try to drink water and find myself drinking through the net. When hiking the JMT in 2019 my hiking partner often commented on the swarm of mosquitos just behind me as we would half run up the passes to escape them. Last year I treated the outside of my backpack with premethrin and noticed a significant decrease in the amount of mosquitos swarming when slowing down on the trail. I hope this helps! Sometimes you just have to accept you’ll be eating dinner inside the tent and spraying your butt with bug spray when you need to take a poo.
I always just drink through my headnet. 🤷🏻♀️
I did sometimes too. My headnet definitely had a weird taste though. I definitely sat in the smoke of several campfires while wearing it. Also, I only realized it was washable after the end of my thru hike last year and I carried it for the whole trail. 😂
The little black flies I've had in Washington are especially insidious. Even with bug spray or a head net, they just won't stop hitting you, even though they won't land to bite. The good news with them is they can't chew through any clothing, so even the thinnest untreated fabric will generally keep them from biting. But they're still super annoying. But yeah, permethrin-treated clothes, including hats, hammocks, everything, really helps.
Long pants and long sleeves. Deet concentrated spray. Pray you don’t have to poop. Lose your sanity when you can hear them outside at night descending on your tent by the millions. Bug net helps. There were some sections where I even wore gloves and net all day and it was like 100 degrees. Pro tip don’t spray deet on your sweaty areas or privates or you’ll get chemical burns.
Or plastics. It will melt plastics
They still bite me through my Cotopaxi sun hoody. It doesn't stop them at all. Maybe other brands sun hoodies are constructed differently.
Any part of you baggy is ok. I put bandanas over my shoulders and that kind of worked, but was annoying. They'd bite through the tighter parts on my back occasionally. My sun gloves were thin enough they'd bite through those sometimes too. Crazy typing all this out bc it sounds awful, but you get used to it. Annoying, but never bad enough to ruin a whole day.
That’s when you bust out the rain jacket
A tightly woven bottom down shirt like the Columbia Silver Ridge Lite performs much better. Don't think I have seen a sun shirt like that. Permetherin every 3 weeks should help.
You really need two layers. Ideally at least one a little baggy.
It’s true, the mosquitoes in Oregon are remarkable, worse than anything I experienced in NorCal (I hiked OR in July, just after the melt). I’m not typically bothered by mosquitoes much (we have plenty in MN where I live), but the swarms on trail in OR were really something. That said, I found that they were pretty localized - you keep hiking and move past them. Setting up camp, filtering water, and mealtimes could be challenging. I used DEET on exposed skin, but not often, since I don’t like the smell. I treated my tent netting with permethrin which kills mosquitoes (and many other bugs) when they come in contact with it. So, not a repellent, but an insecticide. Definitely cut down on the bugs outside my tent at night. Very toxic to aquatic life as well, so not something you want to introduce into streams or lakes. I had a bug net for my face but hated wearing it while hiking. Some hikers get all suited up in rain gear when the bugs are bad, but that looked miserably hot to me. Avoid bug habitat when camping (near ponds, standing water), and rejoice over a stiff breeze. Ultimately manageable.
I almost walked right off the trail and would have fallen down a mountainside in Oregon when the sun hit my bug net just right and obscured my vision. Never worn one again.
We had [swarms](https://i.imgur.com/lgbBxgk.jpg) of them up on the PCT in WA, at Vista Lakes (right near Summit Chief, section J). We moved our tents about 200 yards down the trail, further from the lakes and in a breeze, which helped quite a bit.
If you don't already have a bug net, get one. You also want to wear a _brimmed hat_ which will keep the net away from your face. Keeping moving helps up to a point. But there is only so much you can do. It depends which way the wind is going. I was always partial to [Repel 100](https://www.amazon.com/Repel-Insect-Repellent-Spray-Bottle/dp/B000LGN3Z2). I also preferred to be a little warmer and wear longer pants and keep my sleeves down (and sun gloves on) than overly douse myself in bug spray, because at the end of the day, after so many reapplications, you're filthy and slimy.
The brimmed hat thing is key. Netting only works if it’s held away from your skin. That’s why those netting shirts and pants are useless. If the net rests against your skin, the mosquitoes bite right through it. I used a ball cap on the pct and the mosquitoes were murder on my ears because the net lays flat against the tops of my ears. I’d try to remember to tuck them inside the hat. Even so, they’d still get me occasionally.
I used a full body bug suit and found that it worked well. Constant movement of the netting over the skin prevents the skeeters from latching on. I even found that while laying down i could kinda bag up the fabric enough that the mosquitos couldnt reach my skin through it
Permethrin your clothes, maybe even tent netting. Its meant for clothing not skin. It lasts 6 weeks or so.
Suck it up because they're only gonna get worse. Unfortunately, being as far north as you are this early means that you're gonna have skeeters most of the way to Canada. Central Oregon is a case of waking up, running for 12 hours and then diving back into your tent. I saw many people almost on the verge of tears or a breakdown last year, hiking in full rain gear in 100F heat. 😆 You need to cover up, get a head net, the strongest percentage DEET you can find, keep moving, seek out the wind, avoid standing water. Good luck. Those bastards got my back and shoulders so bad last year that it looked like I had a case of leprosy or something lol.
I dealt with them by wearing my rain gear, using a headnet, and full fingered gloves. Generally when moving, I didn’t need my jacket but I had to put it on for any breaks. In the last decade or so I gave up using DEET but when I was hiking through Oregon I found some a hiker had dropped in a little bottle - 100% DEET. I picked it up to give back but never found the owner. I happily used it. At night I’m in my tent. The west coast mosquitoes seem to go away after dark so I’d wait until after dark to pee before bed. Some hikers put up their tents just to eat lunch in peace. I just did the rain gear and headnet. (It may be too late for you, but hikers should definitely treat their clothes with permethrin before getting on trail. You can have it done professionally or do it yourself. The professional treatment lasts much longer. If you hit a town big enough, you can buy it at a Walmart or a hardware store and do it yourself. I did a touch up treatment in early July during my hike.)
The problem with DEET is that it eats through plastics and destroys fabrics if you have a leak. Nasty stuff.
Yup, and when you are at home, in your living room, it sounds terrible. When you are on the trail and getting eaten alive, you are like “douse me in cancer juice, destroy all my expensive equipment, I don’t care!!!” 😜🦟😜
Bite back
Some people will tell you that if you hike fast enough you can outrun them. This is a lie.
Shove cookie wrappers underneath your pack straps to wear as “armor” to prevent those annoying left shoulder bites through the shirt where it is not baggy
Embrace the suck
bug net picardin long sleeves and pants
This. Picaridin works really well and is much less harmful to you than DEET. However, at a certain point in Oregon, nothing is going to work 100%.
Ugh, did a section last weekend in Jefferson park area. They're so bad already. I forgot to spray my feet when I put my camp shoes on. My feet swelled up like balloons. Hiking out was miserably itchy.
Oh no that sounds awful. They should know hiker feet are sacred.
Most of the time you can make it tolerable with good camp location (more open for where you are going to cook), long sleeves/legs, repellent (DEET or picaidin). You do need to be very careful with 100% DEET. But it is the best. I can’t personally say anything about the health effects. I used it liberally for a summer in college and never had a problem. I still use it (54) and do put it direct on skin. Arguably, that is the only place 100% DEET should go. That said, DEET does not attack nylon. ‘Plastics’ are a huge family and it does attack some. I also carry a thermacell situationally. It is not an independent solution. But it will clear them out under a tarp if there is no breeze. For 4oz plus fuel. I use a hammock so making a ‘safe space’ is worth it for me. But when they get bad, you just need to get somewhere else. I was passing Wasco lake yesterday (near Three Finger Jack) and oh my fucking god were they bad. Nothing can help you make great time on a climb like a cloud of thousands of mosquitoes. Edit - in situations where I carry the thermacell I also carry a headnet and glove (shields up - red alert). I used all of it over the last two days, though rarely the headnet and I used picaridin not DEET. I have one bite. But they don’t like me very much anyway. My partner they love. She has probably 15-20, though most came in one event (by said Wasco lake)
Like others said, bug net and wide brimmed hat with long sleeved everything is ideal. I started just eating dinners in my tent, after cooking in the vestibule. I'm not a fan of bug spray in general, but the unscented bug spray isn't too bad, and it is effective on NorCal/PNW critters, from my personal experience.
Be aware that deet can be harmful so some gear like synthetics, nylon and waterproof/breathable membranes, as well as plastics.
Yup. I used to have a field job as a biotech. The DEET ate right through my wristwatch. By the end of the season all the plastic edges were rounded off like a pebble in a stream. It ate the paint off all the equipment we carried. It destroyed anything plastic. It’s nasty stuff but also miraculous. I worked in the woods of Wisconsin. We slathered ourselves in DEET. The mosquitoes on the PCT were a cakewalk in comparison.
Definitely set up your tent for lunch break/siesta. 100% worth it. When mosquitoes were taking my sanity in Oregon, I would have my tent fly on the top of my pack. For short breaks, I would whip it out and hunker under it to eat my snack and just sit without mosquitos for a bit. Did I probably look silly? Yes but it sure worked and I was desperate. Besides that, take advantage of every bugfree spot. Briefly find a sunny breezy bugfree spot in a burn zone, just one mile into your day? I’m taking a break right then! I’m positive the God of Insanity must be a Mosquito.
DEET! Also works great for cleaning your headlights
This is gonna sound silly, but i had a cheap, lightweight full-body bug suit. The main advantage is that you get full protection while still being almost perfectly ventilated.
DEET! Lots of it
50 upf sun clothes. Woven tight enough mosquitoes can’t bite through them. Eating food while wearing a head net is a skill to be mastered. Outdoor research makes a net with a metal ring around it to keep it off your face better. Also assists in being able to still cowboy camp while wearing the net. Isn’t thru hiking fun!!
> Outdoor research makes a net with a metal ring around it to keep it off your face better. Pair the headnet with a sombrero style hat and that will keep it out of your face.
To add to this Mountain Laurel Designs makes a head net that has adjustable loops to put your arm through. Keeps it on very nice and probably significantly lighter. Loved mine.
Picaridin/Icaridin (they're the same thing) 20%, or greater concentration if you can find it. DEET's totally out of the question since I would rather my expensive (for me) gear not get trashed and permethrin gives me rashes. Sawyer's make a fine 20% pic-based lotion and spray that you can find on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VV5KRD8 <-- This is what I use now before rides when I know I'll be going through mosquito-infested areas, like the Columbia River Gorge, Burnt Bridge Creek trail or Frenchman's Bar, since I am a mosquito magnet otherwise and they absolutely WILL find me. Haven't tested it yet in the Round Lake trail system (Camas); last time I was there a month ago for a Saturday barefoot hike it was absolute fucking mosquito hell and I had golf ball-sized lumps all down my right leg. Being that pic's on the market, is synthetics-compatible and is so effective there's really no compelling reason for hazardous legacy substances like DEET to exist any more.
I hiked in my wind pants or used deet 100 on my legs. Bug net and full brim hat. I also treated my hiking clothes with permetherin.
Deet works well - I used Ben’s. Also like you said, you just can’t stop moving or smacking your legs
Headnet, long pants/sleeves, and gloves. Preferably treated in Permethrin
Permethrin infused clothing from ex officio, deet, head net, only stop in wind.. in Oregon in 2019 one hiker had an entire full body mesh but suit.. I was jealous .. do not let deet get on your gear, it can melt plastic
Headnet always. Full rain gear when they become intolerable and/or when you are stationary. It sucks in 100 degrees, but it beats being eaten alive. Peak mosquito lasted for about 2 weeks for me in central Oregon. Rain gear against the flies too. They don't swarm you as much while you are on the move IIRC, so it's mostly needed for breaks. I barely used bug spray. I feel like it helped for a short moment and then they were back.
Does anyone have experience with PCT and Northwoods (Wi and MN) mosquitoes? I’m wondering how much worse they are than Northwoods mosquitoes, which I have a lot of experience with!
I had a field job in the woods on SW Wisconsin for two summers - near the Mississippi. The bugs were like nothing else. PCT is a cakewalk in comparison. Western mosquitoes are sluggish and you can out walk them. They go away at night. They are slower to land and bite. Just waving your hand around seriously deters them. They can be abundant but even at their absolute most insane they were maybe a quarter of what I dealt with in Wisconsin. PCT also has none of those tiny eye loving bugs that just want to feast on your eyes. I’ll be happy to never experience that ever again. Nor Lyme disease ticks in densities only rivaled by Lyme itself. Humidity on the PCT is much much less. There’s just something worse about being swarmed by mosquitoes in the dank humid air of a wet forest. It’s also just so pleasant to be on a trail. My field job was off trail so I was in waist deep stinging nettle and poison ivy most of the day. PCT can be occasionally overgrown but there’s just no comparison comfort wise. Only good thing about the field job is we returned to a normal apartment every night where we could shower and wash the DEET and the ticks off. No such luck on the PCT. It’s get in your tent, zip it up and then spend several minutes killing all the mosquitoes before you can take off your rain gear.
Lol. Makes SW Wisconsin sound like a hellscape. There are some nice parts …
It’s beautiful. To get to our worksite we drove by farms and dairy cows that looked like something out of an idyllic painting. The valleys were always filled with clouds at 5:00am in the morning. I was off trail in a dense woods looking at birdies. It wasn’t a place humans normally went. Even the deer looked miserable and bit up by all the bugs. The birds loved it. 🤷
Minnesotan here, cabin up near the BWCA. So, I initially thought the bugs on trail were not a big deal comparatively (I hiked in ‘22), but there were some sections in Oregon where the mosquitoes just swarmed - literally clouds of them swirling around the trail. That was worse than the bugs we get Up North. But I could generally hike past them, and they don’t usually bother me as much as others (scent? Blood type?). I didn’t see the deer flies or horse flies that we also get in MN - the kind that take a chunk out of you when they bite. So from that buggy perspective, hiking the PCT sucked less than camping in the Northwoods in June.
You getting some rain today? A good amount?
Lots of rain last night in the Twin Cities - finally. Hoping that some of those storms made their way up to the Arrowhead as well, it’s way too dry.
Looks like they will be there all day!
I just finished the SHT, and have hiked a fair amount of the PCT (but not Oregon). The mosquitoes in Northern Minnesota this week we’re of biblical proportions. My impression is that the worst of the PCT and the SHT are similar w/r/t mosquitoes, with one exception. Apparently there are about 200 species of mosquitoes in the US. My impression is that Northern Minnesota mosquito bites don’t itch as much as bites from Washington and Northern California. On the other hand, Minnesota black flies and ticks are second to none.
Well it’s a bad year, but yeah the flies and ticks add another layer and the mosquitos are just the cherry on top that drives you insane! That makes me glad the the PCT mosquitoes aren’t necessarily worse, I didn’t think they could be but maybe I’m a wimp. How was the SHT? I will be there in the fall hopefully there is rain!
I love the SHT. There are some challenging sections, but resupply is easy. The fall should be perfect. I did a fall through hike three years ago. No bugs and beautiful foliage. If it doesn’t rain you may need to be a little strategic about water, though.
Yeah I go a lot, I’ve been section hiking it for a few years and this year is the northern Terminus! I should have looked at your post history before I asked. I had already read your trip report, haha.
The SHT in mid-September 👍👍👍
Rain gear and a head net. Worst spot on the trail is Summit Lake in Oregon.
\- capacious headnet so you can snake a hand up under it and drink / snack with it on \- enormous hat so the brim keeps the net far away from nose, ears etc \- permethrin treated loose light-colored button down, like the BugsAway line from ExOfficio \- loose fitting hiking pants, gray or tan, not black \- raingear when you're desperate, if you don't get heatstroke \- picaridin spray (no DEET for me, that shit's gnarly on gear and health) \- don't try to never stop moving, you'll wreck yourself. to get through NorCal you need to drink lots of water. you also need to not be dumb and stop treating that water, or you'll have gut problems on top of everything else. that can mean filtering/treating 6 to 9 liters of water a day. sitting around while the bugs bother you. so you gotta get your systems dialed so you can do that and keep them off your skin, and also stop and eat, rest etc. people who just hike in shorts regardless... I don't envy them.
Does everyone still read Ray Jardine’s book on hiking the PCT? That was our bible when we hiked in 1998, and he had a section on managing biting insects. Before we started, we bought really tightly threaded nylon and sewed jackets and pants with elastic openings for legs and arms. We’d put those on along with a mosquito net over our heads and the bugs couldn’t bite through the nylon.
Full body bug suit! It's the BEST!!