We tend to avoid travel in the summer season — we’re not good with lots of heat (which is widespread) or crowds (absolutely everyone seems to be headed to the same place).

Another, lesser but significant anti-motivator is mosquitoes. Between the end of May and beginning of September, these pernicious devils swarm around the countryside in record numbers, eagerly seeking red blood cells from any hapless donor.

We’ve had minor skirmishes with the blood-suckers (slap, swish, no biggie), and major events like the night from Hell up in the northern Northwest Territories tundra in Canada (clouds of bugs covering us from head to toe).

In Dawson, B.C. along the Alaska highway, we found this poster/sign in the ALCAN museum. We’ve also heard about caribou in northern Alaska and Canada losing as much as a quart of blood per day (sometimes dying from it) due to mosquito predation. Undefended, mosquitoes have always been a serious problem.

Through many states, provinces, and seasons, we’ve learned some lessons about avoiding encounters of the blood-letting kind.

ENVIRONMENTS

By far, the best defense against mosquitoes is to not be around them. We were up in Oregon one year, near Diamond Lake, and the clouds of mosquitoes hitting the motorhome windshield sounded like hail in a thunderstorm. We freaked out and abandoned our plan to stay there, high-tailing it down the highway to the Rogue River instead.

At the river (moving water), the mosquitoes were 1/100th of the plague at the still-water lake. Takeaway? During the season, look for places that are not close to egg-laying areas. It might be difficult, but at least it’s a guideline.

REPELLENTS

Like most folks, we started out with DEET, until we realized there could be some unwanted side effects. This is a contentious subject, and I won’t get into it here. Suffice it to say we’ve gone to alternative products. We’ve found some success with herbal oils; this one from Amazon works pretty well for us. There are MANY other products, and lots and lots of reviews. The availability changes constantly, so it’s good to do research each year.

KILLERS

There aren’t any sprays that you’d want to have around your food, clothing, kids or pets. The only “killer” we’ve found is a silly toy-like thing that has the appearance of a tiny tennis racket. The “netting” is actually an electrified grid (with the high voltage safely contained on the inner screen). When you swish a mosquito up into it, the bug gets zapped by the voltage. Here’s a close-up of the business portion:

It’s amazingly effective (and guiltily fun), but it’s really only useful indoors, where the little boogers are in limited supply. Otherwise, it’s just sport, because they keep on coming indefinitely. We find it super for clearing the coach after all the door and window screens are shut.

SCREENS and CLOTHING

A head-net is essential when the bugs are swarming, but you’ve got to have a brimmed hat — otherwise, they’ll just bite your scalp through the mesh. Mesh clothing is useful, but it must be kept away from the skin — again, the persistent pests will just bite through the mesh if it’s laying on your skin.

Rumors abound that mosquitoes are attracted more (or less) to different colors of clothing, or bright or dark clothing, etc. It’s easy to find precisely contradictory reports on this topic. Our experience has shown total nonchalance on the part of the bugs. They’ll bite whatever we are wearing. If it’s thin enough material, they’ll bite right through it.

Screens in the RV/trailer/tent must be completely sealed, no “bug leaks” allowed. We had a horrible time in NWT when they were coming through a 1/8″ x 1/2″ gap in a bathroom vent screen. Find everything in your RV and tape it or plug it. And I mean EVERYTHING.

What has NOT worked?

• The “burning pellet” products and wicks and candles are marginally effective, but useless in any kind of wind.
• Mosquito-repellent clothing has never worked for us.
• Electronic “sonic repellent” devices seem to be a bad joke; no effect whatsoever.
• Pills, herbs, foods, etc. that are supposed to make you “unpalatable” to mosquitoes. Another joke.

If you’ve got something that works for you, please help us all by leaving information in the Comments.