How to keep the biting flies off in the Bighorns? (home, buy)

[danweasel]

Those flies are brutal up there. How do you deal with them? They make camping up there murder. Both for me and for the doggy.

Thanks,

Dan

[ElkHunter]

We use Off, 40% deet and it works like a champ. We've got the horses here and they are really bad, but the Off works great.

[Wm Jas]

Elkhunter nailed it. N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide. Abbreviated DEET. You can buy it in concentrations up to 100%. NOTHING else is as effective.

Careful though. It will melt plastic, including eyeglass lenses & some tent screens.

But it works. The higher the concentration the better it works. I've lathered up with the 100% stuff in Alaska where the only alternative is a head net and they didn't touch me.

But they are not that bad here. The 40% stuff recommended by Elkhunter is a good place to start.

PS It will make your lips tingle so you know it's BAD.

[sunsprit]

I know that this works for me and my horses, but it doesn't work for everybody:

GARLIC.

We add powdered garlic to the horse feed (buy it in bulk from chef supply), and take garlic capsules for ourselves.

When you sweat, it exudes the garlic pheromes and the bugs don't like it so much.

[NDak15]

Other than Deet, garlic, and lots of swatting there isn't much you can really do about biting flies.

[jody_wy]

fly wipe workes good on horses, makes them easy to catch when flys are out

[danweasel]

Hey thanks, I apprecitate the help, folks.

For some reason I was trying all kinds of home remedies because "someone" told me that Off didn't work and is for mosquitos only. Vinegar based spray works...as long as you want to apply it every 5 minutes. I was actually going to try garlic next but I think I will just go with Off. I guess the main reason I never tried it before was because there are about zero mosquitos up there.

Oh and I know all about Off's destructive power. I Pulled out my soft sided tackle box this spring and found out that my bug dope had leaked and turned all the rubber seams into sticky goo that got all over my tackle. What a disaster that was.

[ElkHunter]

I keep a can of Off on the porch and every time I head out to the horses, I give myself a couple sprays and have no problem whatsoever. Camping up on top is the same thing, it will last for hours.

[kotz]

Coppertone sport 50.

For some odd reason the black flies hate it, it's all we use while out fishing.

[Ghengis]

Cuervo Gold worked for us quite well when we were in the Michigan UP, the Black Fly Capital of the Universe.