Noseeums in Roatan

[mwingnut13]

Greetings from the paradise of Kalamazoo! My wife & I are going to CoCoView May 1 and have heard that the Noseeums are a pain. Can anyone suggest a good strategy for beating the little suckers (literally!). Has anyone used the Noseeum bands that are available? How has SkinSoSoft worked? Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Mark Bielecki
Kalamazoo, MI

 

[RicanDiver]

We were there last August and the noseeums were certainly out in force. We used skin so soft, cactus juice, etc... only straight up DEET seemed to keep them off. The ONE day i did not use it I got completely eaten by the evil flying pesks. One thingis for sure, do something about them or you will live to remember it. Enjoy Roatan, the diving is awesome!!!

 

[Doc]

Greetings from the paradise of Kalamazoo! My wife & I are going to CoCoView May 1 and have heard that the Noseeums are a pain. Can anyone suggest a good strategy for beating the little suckers (literally!). Has anyone used the Noseeum bands that are available? How has SkinSoSoft worked? Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Mark Bielecki
Kalamazoo, MI

Skin so soft is a joke. Go chemical and go often. DEET.

Since you're going to CoCo View, go to http://www.cocoviewresort.com and click on the "discussion group". you can use the "search" function there and find any number of posts regarding sand flies (aka no-see-ums).

Roatan's CCV is blessed with about the least concentration of the little buggers due to it's exposure to breezes and the character or the private 10 acre sandy key that it's situated upon.

Try the search engine here, as well.

 

[diverrick]

Stay in either the bar or the water, completely submerged, and they'll leave ya alone.

 

[DandyDon]

I kept skeeter repellent in my room and in my gear locker, and resprayed every time I dried off or left the room. Helped with the skeeters, too.

When I have been bit, bitten, bighten, whatever - the red spots didn't bother me, but some are bothered. Keep antihistamines and hydrocortisone creams handy, just in case.

Have a blast. Wonderful wall diving...!!

 

[AggieDiver]

Ditto the DEET. One thing I found that helped was to get any sand that gets on your feet and legs off ASAP. We had alot of wind blowing sand around when we were at AKR, and I washed it off every time I got the chance. My wife didn't, and had many more bites than I did.

 

[DocVikingo]

You might find this helpful. It's an updated & edited version of my "Ask RSD" column in the Oct '99 issue of "Rodale's Scuba Diving."

"Sand fleas & mosquitoes can be a real bother, not to mention that they are sources of some serious tropical diseases.

The danger & bother of insects can be substantially reduced by these precautions: (1) Wear long sleeves and pants, avoiding dark or bright colors, especially at dawn and dusk. Protective clothing such as the "Buzz Off" http://www.orvis.com/store/search_r... OFF&offset=0&sort=1&feature_id=42&cktst=true brand can be useful. As an extra precaution, you may treat clothing with permethrin (As in the easy to use Sawyer Products http://www.permethrin-repellent.com ) ; (2) Try to stay indoors at dawn and dusk when many flying insects are most active, and avoid sandy areas as much as possible at any time of day, especially when there is no breeze. When making reservations, make sure the resort has screened windows; (3) Wear insect repellent. The best protection against these and other insects is full strength DEET. Some divers like things such as Avon's Skin-So-Soft & Cactus Juice, less toxic products than DEET, by the science is solidly behind DEET for lasting effectiveness. Most DEET containing repellents are the 15-30% range of concentration. The testing of various strengths of DEET has shown that after about 30% little additional effectiveness is to be had by upping the strength, and even less after about 50%. As such, there is simply no point in exposing oneself to more potent brews. UltraThon at 32% http://www.3m.com/us/home_leisure/ultrathon/ appears to be a good product. Used as directed over relatively brief periods of time, say a week, DEET has been shown to pose no significant risk when applied to exposed skin. If you wear lightweight, loose fitting clothes, it generally is safe to use DEET underneath. Doing so with heavy, snug fitting clothes can result in dermatological problems & worse. Be aware that DEET can dissolve synthetics like plastics, rayon & nylon, so it's best to wear natural fibers & keep it off of your gear; (4) Avoid scented toiletries and perfumes; (5) Upon arrival, treat your room with a bug bomb such as Fish (stay outside while this is being done). Touch up with a spray like Shelltox after that as needed."

Best regards.

DocVikingo

 

[caribechica]

Greetings from the paradise of Kalamazoo! My wife & I are going to CoCoView May 1 and have heard that the Noseeums are a pain. Can anyone suggest a good strategy for beating the little suckers (literally!). Has anyone used the Noseeum bands that are available? How has SkinSoSoft worked? Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Mark Bielecki
Kalamazoo, MI

I've just joined this forum and am adding my two centevos to a few threads.
I lived on the West Bay beach two years ago Aug. and saw bites that looked like chickenpocks. I wasn't bothered at all. Every time I left the salt water, I rinsed myself off with fresh water laced with citronella..lavender, it didn't matter what I put in, it was getting the salt and sweat off the skin and keeping it dry. I carried a large water bottle and towel everywhere. Was it worth it? I'll be there Friday further up the coast, I'll let you know!

 

[DocVikingo]

The evidence simply is not there for the effectiveness of botanical products and skin creams containing repellent.

For example:

1. The Apr '03 issue of "Consumer Reports" found that the DEET repellents 3M Ultrathon, Off! Deep Woods for Sportsmen & Muskol Ultra 6 Hours finished on top, followed by BugOut, Sawyer Controlled Release, Cutter Unscented, Off! Skintastic with Sunscreen SPF 30, Cutter Skinsations & Avon Skin So-Soft Bug Guard/ Sunblock, in that order. Those relying on plant oils such as citronella, soybean, coconut, and geranium "provided little if any protection."

2. Published research support that DEET is more effective than Avon's Skin So Soft & plant oils ----> http://www.lcmcd.org/relellents.pdf

3. "From 07/02 "New England Journal of Medicine:"

"Comparative Efficacy of Insect Repellents against Mosquito Bites

Mark S. Fradin, M.D., and John F. Day, Ph.D.

ABSTRACT

Background: The worldwide threat of arthropod-transmitted diseases, with their associated morbidity and mortality, underscores the need for effective insect repellents. Multiple chemical, botanical, and "alternative" repellent products are marketed to consumers. We sought to determine which products available in the United States provide reliable and prolonged complete protection from mosquito bites.

Methods: We conducted studies involving 15 volunteers to test the relative efficacy of seven botanical insect repellents; four products containing N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide, now called N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide (DEET); a repellent containing IR3535 (ethyl butylacetylaminopropionate); three repellent-impregnated wristbands; and a moisturizer that is commonly claimed to have repellent effects. These products were tested in a controlled laboratory environment in which the species of the mosquitoes, their age, their degree of hunger, the humidity, the temperature, and the light–dark cycle were all kept constant.

Results: DEET-based products provided complete protection for the longest duration. Higher concentrations of DEET provided longer-lasting protection. A formulation containing 23.8 percent DEET had a mean complete-protection time of 301.5 minutes. A soybean-oil–based repellent protected against mosquito bites for an average of 94.6 minutes. The IR3535-based repellent protected for an average of 22.9 minutes. All other botanical repellents we tested provided protection for a mean duration of less than 20 minutes. Repellent-impregnated wristbands offered no protection.

Conclusions: Currently available non-DEET repellents do not provide protection for durations similar to those of DEET-based repellents and cannot be relied on to provide prolonged protection in environments where mosquito-borne diseases are a substantial threat."

In short, products containing DEET were clearly the most effective, while formulated from plant oils don’t last as long and might require several applications.

SC Johnson’s OFF! Deep Woods, which contains 23.8 percent DEET, kept the bugs at bay for about five hours. A milder formula, Sawyer Controlled Release, with 20 percent DEET, worked for nearly four hours. Skintastic, where the DEET concentration is 6.65 percent, provided protection for almost two hours. Other products that use citronella, an oil made from dried cultivated grasses, and IR3535, a pesticide used in Europe for more than 20 years, were shown to be far less effective."

Best regards.

DocVikingo

 

[cliffdiver]

All the evidence that DocVikingo has cited about DEET is true. There is just far too much evidence that DEET is far more effective than absolutely any other spray or rub on repellant of the types often used. It is also true that these 60% or 95% DEET brands do nothing more but attract more money from your wallet.

I challenge anyone on this board to demonstrate that their blood could even mount a cursory challenge to mine as the most tasty, gourmet delicacy available to mosquitos and no-see-ums and every other biting bug in existence anywhere. In fact, friends often bring me along on trips as a bug-attractant/decoy. For me they make no exceptions: I get bit 10 times as often as anyone else, at all hours (I offer proof that these bugs do not sleep, ever) and under all conditions. Unless, of course, I apply DEET-containing solutions (yes, ideally in the 25% range) with a religious ferver and dedication perhaps rivaled only by adherents to certain extreme militant movements in certain middle eastern states. (So, if I'm so good about applying repellant, how is it that the bugs get to me? Well, in the 3 or 4 microseconds that lapse between doffing my wetsuit and my flurried rush to get repellant on, they swarm. Can't have the stuff on every second, can you?)

All that said, I can say that I didn't get bit but once or twice - a huge and extremely significant reduction - in the last day and-a-half of my very recent Roatan trip when using an emergency supply of this stuff called Cactus Juice. I was forced to buy it when I ran out of my normal repellant. I slathered it on all over as I have learned to do, and was pleasantly surprised.

I'll always use my DEET, but in the interests of any plastics and nylon-containing gear I may have along, I may start to use this Cactus Juice more often, from time to time...