What to do about "no see ums"???

[TritonGlenn]

I don't know what to call these things. I call them biting knats. My wife says they are "no see ums".... but I can "see um" :lol: ... so I don't know how accurate that title is. All I know is that I'm getting chewed alive at my house. The heck with mosquitoes! These things seem impervious to most anything. I tried Skintastic - no go. Off - no go. Deep woods off - no good. "Jungle DEET" - they drank it like cool-aid. I put on citronella bands, and that seemed to attract them. My wife, son and I are all chewed up from being in our back-yard this weekend. We have to do something about them. They seem to travel in huge swarms. When you have one on you - there are about 100 others doing landings on other parts of your body as well. The bites don't swell like mosquitoes, but they itch and leave a little red mark. My son looks like he has the start of chicken pox, but we know it's just these darn biting knats.



Any options I haven't tried yet???



All the best,

Glenn

 

[Dewey Storie]

a friend sent this to me











It sounds like a good idea to me if it really works. It's worth a try for those of us who spend a lot of time outdoors.







Mosquito Remedy







Pass this on to anyone who likes sitting out in the evening or when



they're having a cook out.



So you don't like those pesky mosquitoes, especially now that they have



the potential to carry the West Nile Virus?







Here's a tip that was given at a recent gardening forum.



Put some water in a white dinner plate and add a couple drops of Lemon



Fresh Joy dish detergent. Set the dish on your porch, patio, or other



outdoor area. Not sure what attracts them, the lemon smell, the white



plate color, or what, but mosquitoes flock to it, and drop dead shortly



after drinking the Lemon Fresh Joy/water mixture, and usually within



about 10 feet of the plate.



Check this out---it works just super! May seem trivial, but it may help



control mosquitoes around your home, especially in the South and



elsewhere where the West Nile virus is reaching epidemic proportions



in mosquitoes, birds, and humans.



Pass it on.

 

[Lamar Gilbert]

sounds like black flies.......if so, only thing I have found to work is a good cigar! It seems no insecticide will work on black flies.

 

[Jim B]

Glenn,

For those little black fly ba@#%^& is use this stuff called white mountian repellant. up here the blackflies get really bad and this is the ONLY stuff i have ever found that works. It doesnt last forever but applies a few times a day its pretty effective. Heres a link to it, I dont know if they sell direct or not, you can mail order it from Northern Bass.
http://www.whitemountaininsectrepellent.com/

 

[Troy Murphy]

I live on the gulf and they get bad here too, I use Skin-so-soft. It is made by Avon. It has a strong but pretty good smell. It does work.

Troy

 

[Bill Hamilton]

Glenn - Ditto on the Skin-So-Soft! It may sound crazy but the stuff really works. Plus you smell good! LOL

 

[Brad Harder]

We fight those in Canada every year only thing I've found that works is 3M's Ultrathon, tried all the other stuff including 100% deet and it did nothing.

 

[Brian Ingersoll]

spray your yard with malathion - seems to work on all sorts of insects

**DO NOT DO IF YOU HAVE A CAT**

 

[Jim in VA]

The only products proven to work (prove, that is, to EPA by manufacturers as part of product registration) contain one of the following types of active ingredients:



DEET (concentrations must be sufficiently high - 3M's Ultrathon contains 34.34% DEET, Skintastic by Off has about 7%).



Picardin (contained in products like Cutter Advanced with Picardin and considered as effective as DEET, but with a lower toxicity profile)



Oils of Eucalyptus (similar in efficacy to lower levels of DEET)



The White Mountain stuff looks to be a combination of oils of Citronella, Cedar, Mint and Citrus. Unlike the other active ingredients, the four in White Mountain are considered "minimum risk" pesticides by EPA and do not require registration with the Agency prior to sale or distribution.



Given your experiences, I'd say try several brands of products, including all of the ones mentioned by other posters. Its worth a shot. With the info above, you'll know what active ingredients to look for so you're not buying different brands of the same chemical repellent all the time. In my experience with biting nasties, anything with a concentration of 34% or higher DEET seems to work, but reapplication if often required after a few hours.



Good luck!

 

[TritonGlenn]

Thanks for the additional responses everyone.



On the issue of DEET - the "Jungle Formula" stuff that I have has a VERY high concentration of DEET. So much in fact, it gives me headaches / makes me dizzy sometimes. I don't like using it. However, in an effort to keep these darn things off of me - I put a liberal amount on my arms. They landed on it and still bit me. Like it was cool-aid or something.



Even so, I can't use this stuff on my 3 year old son - and he is the one I'm mainly concerned with protecting. He loves to be outside (which I'm VERY happy about), but he is chewed up right now. Poor little guy was swatting them the other day, and almost crying about them, but he refused to go inside the house, as he wanted to play in the back yard.



As for the "malathion" - is that harmful to children? I would suppose it is, as the warning for "cats" was made too.



All the best,

Glenn

 

[Jim in VA]

Glenn - I do not believe that malathion is approved for use as a topically applied insect repellent. Instead, its more common use is as a spray over agricultural crops and outdoor areas for mosquito control. Malathion is part of a group of insecticides called Organophosphates, which can be highly toxic. In fact, OP's and carbamates were the first pesticides re-reviewed by EPA as part of the Food Quality Protection Act looking into the toxicity of all EPA-registered pesticides on a "worst first" basis. Accordingly, I would highly recommend NOT using this on your 3-year old.



If the concern is your son, I would recommend sticking with the White Mountain stuff or any of the insect repellents with picardin, oil of lemon eucalyptus or similar products. My wife and I used a citronella-based lotion for our son (still do) or a eucalyptus based one. It works for mosquitos, but requires frequent reapplication. We're not as worried about those products because of the data demonstrating relatively low adverse effects. Fortunately, no-see-um's are not a big issue for us.

 

[TrepMan]

I have NO idea about how to get rid of those things, we don't get them here in GA, but if you need DEET then I suggest using what I bring to India (the 2 times i've gone, last was 2 weeks ago) in the summer - MAXI DEET! 98.11% pure DEET!!! Stuff will eat your plastic watch/LCD screens, so be careful what you put it on! But I get it at walmart and it is amazing when the bugs swarm over there!



Good Luck!!

 

[Jim B]

Im not sure about anywhere else but up here the black flies laugh at anything with Deet in it. Like Glenn noticed you put it on and it has zero effect. Even the Bens 100% deet does nothing for the black flies. The stuff i mentioned earlier works pretty well at keeping them at bay. I have had days in NH where the black flies are so bad that you can hardly see thru them and at the end of the day there a million little dead bugs all over the carpet of the boat.

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Ask Neeley about black flies and a trip to the hospital!!BWHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!:lol::lol::lol:



TOXIC

 

[Mike T]

Check this out Glenn, if you want one, I can get one sent to you for self-install, but I can't come that far to put it in!



Absolutely the key to being outside with zilcho annoyance.
http://www.yardguardmosquito.com/

 

[TritonGlenn]

MSG - Hehehehe.... $2500 to $3000 for a bug system - hey - the bugs are bad, but not THAT bad. Holy snikies! Way too rich for my blood.



Jim C came up with the best solution so far (I've ordered the other stuff). My son and I went to WalMart today to try to find an interim solution (the dryer sheets unfortunately didn't work). I was just about to walk out, as everything there was DEET, DEET, DEET, etc... when my 3 year old son grabs a bottle and tries to spray it (he loves anything that sprays). I take it from him and give him a "no son, that's poison" speech, and as I'm putting it back on the shelf I notice the active ingredient in it - Picardin. Ohhh... Cutter Advanced - safe for children when applied by an adult with hands - not to spray on children. We came home, sprayed the two of us, and spent the afternoon in the back yard working. The only time they became an annoyance was right before dark - they weren't biting, but they were swarming all around me - I inhaled a few of them from the cloud hovering around my head, as well as tasted a few when my mouth was open - yech! :wacko:



Anyway - we did fine this evening with the Picardin based stuff, and have other items on the way. I'm tempted to break out my Thermacell and leave it running for a while in the gazebo area to see if that keeps them away from there. In the yard - it didn't work that well... but we did have a slight wind, and that probably hurt too.



All the best,

Glenn