Backpacking Around Dangerous Bugs (Ticks, Mosquitoes, Spiders, Wasps)

hey y'all Dixie here today I want to talk to you about bugs when I'm out backpacking I actually really enjoy seeing bugs I like to video them and take pictures of them well most of them because I honestly cannot stand mosquitoes and I wish all of them would disappear yes but even spiders and ticks and stinging insects those are just so cool to me but that doesn't mean that I necessarily want them on me so let's talk about how to protect ourselves from the bugs that are actually harmful to us while still getting out and enjoying the trail there are some general tips for avoiding bugs including wearing long sleeve shirts and pants this is actually one of the most effective ways to make sure not being eaten up by bugs and if you wear lighter colors they tend to be a little cooler than darker colors and also if you have a tick crawling up your pant leg and you've got on light-colored breeches instead of dark-colored breeches you're gonna be able to see it a little bit easier anyway wearing a bug net over your face potentially some bug netting for your shelters you can also tuck your pants legs into your socks or if you wear gaiters I assume it would kind of function the same way but this is just prevent bugs from hitting your shoes and then climbing up your socks and inside your pants you can also apply bug repellent which I'll talk about a little bit more later and then as soon as you get home from being out on trail if you go hop in the shower and go ahead and give yourself a good cleaning just to make sure you've got any bugs off of you that might be on you but not attached yet like ticks for example or maybe it could even help with chiggers noseeums etc but these are all rules to kind of help with bugs in general including the ones that annoy you and the ones that can harm you there are some additional steps that you can take to prevent yourself from being bitten by a more harmful type of bug like sixteen insects mosquitoes and spiders I think the worst thing about ticks is that you don't always feel them crawling on you and biting you and then you go to pull your britches down to go pee and whoop there it is on your leg one common way to prevent being bitten by a tick is to use permethrin you can buy clothes that are already pre treated with permethrin like ex-officios bugs away line apparently with the bugs away clothing you can get 70 washings out of it and they tell you to launder like normal like the regular detergent that you would use you can also bleach them and I thought that was pretty cool you can pay a service like insect shield to do it for you so you send in your clothing they'll do it for you and send it back or you can buy things like Sawyer's permethrin to treat at home yourself as long as you treat your clothing like suggested then it is said to be safe for humans it won't have any smell to it or any kind of texture and you can just wear your clothing like normal you can also treat your gear and footwear with permethrin as long as you're not putting it onto your skin then you should be ok you compare permethrin with a bug repellent that you apply to your skin like DEET or picaridin with DEET you have to be a little careful because it can harm your gear like your trekking pole grips or your tent but picaridin is not harmful to your gear and it supposedly does a better job repelling flies so that's an alternative choice to deep other ways to prevent contact with ticks is to kind of think about where they are ticks tend to be in more high grassy or brushy areas so if you see some tall grass it looks nice you might want to just view it from a distance and don't necessarily go lounge in it also they're more likely to be in shady areas instead of full Sun areas while backpacking you should do a daily tick check because if you find a tick on you it's better to do so in the first 24 hours because that way your likelihood of getting some kind of disease from them is reduced if you do everything you can to avoid ticks and you still happen to find one on you don't freak out just get a pair of tweezers and get as close to the skin as you can and grasp the tick and then you want to pull away from your skin with an even steady pressure so you don't want to like snatch or twist or wiggle anything like that then you want to clean the area as best you can on trail if you have hand sanitizer if you do happen to have soap and water you can save the tick and take it to a public health lab for inspection if needed and then finally you want to keep a check on the area and make sure that you're not getting a red ring around the site of the bat if you're experiencing any flu-like symptoms or facial paralysis or joint pain then you definitely want to get to a doctor as soon as possible next up are mosquitoes and I think that this is the only thing in existence that I have run into on the trail that I absolutely cannot stand anything about it and I can find no appreciation whatsoever but nevertheless mosquitoes are not only pesky but they can also transmit diseases to humans some of the ways that they can be deterred are also with permethrin and D or picaridin like I mentioned with ticks you can also avoid mosquitoes by choosing to hike in an area that is not a great habitat for mosquitoes so avoid stagnant water sources also if you go to open sunny kind of breezy areas mosquitoes seem to have issues with wind and also drier air as opposed to damp moist stagnant areas so who says that you always want to be hiking in open breezy sunny areas maybe sometimes you do want to be in the heart of the woods or maybe sometimes there are still clouds of mosquitoes in open dry areas like in Wyoming while you're trying to hitchhike on the side of the road so the best line of defense that I found against mosquitoes in addition to long-sleeve shirts and long pants is rain gear even when I had shorts on rain gear helped keep mosquitoes from biting me and I will also tell you that tight-fitting clothing is easier for them to bite through so be aware of that a lot of times misery is all about mindset so if you change your perspective a little bit it might help and one of the things that I really like to do when I'm in a cloud of mosquitoes is just allow them to get on me and then as soon as I can't take it anymore and they're just like a bunch of mosquitoes all around me I have what is called a mosquito massacre and I just slept myself all over and kill as many as I can and then rejoice in the death of all of the mosquitoes in the mosquito massacre but at some point in your backpacking days I'm sure you will experience a mosquito bite and they do itch and they're annoying but the best thing to do is to not scratch them because then you can just open your leg and increase your chance of infection in that spot you can get these little sticks for bug bites and I know a lot of times people use them with their children but adults can use them too and they actually contain an antiseptic in there that'll help reduce the itchiness and the painfulness of the bite and also kind of keep that area clean and reduce risk of infection and those little bite sticks will also help with chiggers wasps and ticks mixed up are seeing insects bees are normally pretty chill unless you step on i'ma put your hand on them but wasps are just jerks so at some point in your backpacking experiences you're probably gonna get stung the best thing that you can do is be aware of your surroundings so if you're going to lay down and take a nap in a field of flowers you might be putting yourself at risk of being stung also if you're sitting on a log and you notice some wasps flying around then keep in mind that they could have a nest nearby be aware that bright colors attract stinging insects because if it's the same kind of color as a flower then you might be inviting them to you if you are stung then check the area to see if a stinger is still in your skin and if so you want to get it out immediately you might not want to take the time to fumble around for tweezers or another tool because the stinger can continue to inject venom into you for up to three minutes so whatever you have to do use your fingernail and just go ahead and scrape that stinger out of your skin you can take an oral antihistamine like benadryl also apply a cool compress you may not have ass with you on the trail but you can take a bandana and dip it into a cool water source and then apply it to the sting area if you know that you are allergic to stinging insect stings then you probably should carry an EpiPen with you on trail you can keep an EpiPen cool and warmer temperatures in a little insulated pouch like the wallets they have on allergy apparel calm I'm sure there are all sorts of different brands and if anybody watching this has one that they recommend that you know works well for you please leave that in the comments because it could help somebody else make sure that if you're backpacking with other people they know how to use the EpiPen in case you're stung and you can't do it yourself make sure you take an oral antihistamine like benadryl and then if it becomes an emergency make sure you have a way to call for help so either a personal locator beacon a spot device or an in reach device if you don't have cell service where you're going to be backpacking and finally through all of that panic and fuss try to stay as calm as possible next up are spiders and I think that these are just such cool little critters but again that doesn't mean that I necessarily want them on me so the way that I suggest people avoid spiders on trail is kind of do the same thing you would to avoid snakes so you don't want to reach your hand into a dark hole like in the end of a log or under a pile of rocks or anywhere that you can't see what's on the other side when you go to take a break you want to be mindful of your surroundings what are you leaning your back against where are you putting your arm again basically the things that you would do to avoid a snake vine finally if you're going down the trail in the early morning hours or late evening hours you're probably gonna get several spider webs to the face and it probably won't take you long to figure this out but if you pick up a branch or you hold up your trekking pole kind of like your Indiana Jones going into a dark cave and just hold it out in front of you then you'll allow those spider webs to hit the stick or your trekking pole first instead of your face if you think you've been bitten by spider or you know you have you might see two little holes on the area of the bat and what you want to do is clean that area as good as possible again using hand sanitizer or if you have some kind of camp so you want to apply a cool compress again might want to take a bandana and put it in a cold water source and put it on the bat area elevating the wound can help and then if you are pretty sure it's a spider that might be harmful to you so like a black widow or a brown recluse then you definitely want to start taking note if you notice any symptoms if you do start noticing symptoms like that you want to get to a doctor as soon as possible and if you have the spider with you that can definitely help in identification and a treatment plan I just want to add a note here and say give spiders a little bit of a break though I know a lot of folks who they'll see a spider on trail and they immediately crushing but just remember that they take out a lot of the other pests type bugs that we don't like having on us and for the most part spiders just kind of want to do their own thing and they don't want you in their space either I know some of y'all watching just probably really hate bugs in general and are wondering how could you ever get out there and spend several days in bug infested land and I will tell you that you get acclimated to it I was not a fan of roaches at all I would run and get away from them as fast as possible but after six months on the Appalachian Trail I actually got so used to them that now if there was one that crawled on my leg I would probably just pick it up with my hands and throw it away so I never thought that that would be possible so I'm just saying if you get out there and start acclimating at some point there's a shift that I feel like happens in the mindset where you think this is my existence now and there's really nothing I can do about this so you just learn to deal with it and as a final note I know that there are a lot of you who do not like having pesticides on your body or on your gear and there are different essential oils or natural remedies for some of that whether it's to prevent being bitten or to use after being bitten so if you all have any experience with that feel free to leave that in the comments below if you think it could help somebody else there's always a risk associated with getting out in nature but I think that getting out there and taking that risk as long as you do it as safely as possible is much better than staying inside and not enjoying the outdoors thank y'all so much for watching today if you enjoyed this video or the content of this channel be sure to subscribe before you go and with that we will see y'all next time you

Channel: Homemade Wanderlust

Views: 97,904

Rating: 4.9701061 out of 5

Keywords: mosquitoes, ticks, lyme disease, wasps, bees, backpacking, hiking, thru-hike, dixie, cdt, pct, at, appalachian trail, pacific crest trail, continental divide trail, woods, forest, river, backcountry

Id: BmsbwFHqpS4

Length: 12min 54sec (774 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 08 2019