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Planning for camping in blackfly season

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  • Planning for camping in blackfly season

    I'm looking for suggestions for a mid June camping trip. Certain lakes or areas that may be better? Perhaps a place known to be a little more windy? One year we went and I could wait to go home... I don't want it to end up being one of those trips! We do have head nets and thermocells. We will be camping in a trailer and can boondock or get a dec site. Thanks
    Lisa

  • #2
    One DEC area of fairly open sites prone to wind that comes to mind is the west side of the peninsula loop of the Fish Creek Ponds campground. Not "remote" by any means, but it may meet what your looking for. Lots of paddling options in the area and if the bugs are really bad, you could check out the Wild Center in Tupper Lake.
    Another option might be the sites near the beach/day use end of the Lewey Lake DEC campground. The wind tends to come down the lake into those sites.
    If I think of any other options, I'll let you know.
    ****************************
    "The wilderness opens us to God's presence because it reduces everything to what is exactly necessary, and no more." John Lionberger Renewal in the Wilderness
    ***********************
    My pictures:
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    • #3
      I'm at a loss why if you are in a trailer the blackflies are too. They don't like indoors and will plaster against a window.

      If you wear blue jeans you are a blackfly magnet. Neutral colors are not as attractive to them.. Blue is a blackfly magnet

      Do not use scents for washing your hair.. Better not to wash it at all.. Natural body oils and sweat repel them.

      If you have a canopy you can clothespin no seeum netting to it.

      Best to avoid the woods and anywhere near running water.. where the larvae hatch.

      Forego the shorts. Long pants with cuffs tucked into socks. Long sleeve shirt. Treat your camp clothing with permethrin before you come.

      Bring a fan.. If you have a trailer you probably have an outdoor outlet. BF avoid any wind including man made wind.

      Paddling they ought not to be such a nuisance.

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      • #4
        Lake Lila has been windy every time I've been there. Consider getting one of these. I have one an like it a lot.

        The Original: Bug Shirt® was first introduced in 1991. The fabric is lightweight and cool but very densely woven so that mosquitoes can’t bite through it.


        Wear pants and light fingerless gloves too. I forgot the gloves on one trip and they bit me relentlessly between the fingers. Everything else was covered up.

        I'm going to try some old time dope this year. I hear it stinks bad but works well.

        Ole Time Woodsman Fly Dope was created in 1910 using an 1882 formula to repel mosquitoes, black flies, noseeums, chiggers, deer flies, and now ticks! The original recipe has endured the test of time and is still considered the best protection from biting insects on the market today!


        Black Flies and the ADK's go hand-in-hand. Good luck!
        Oh I'd rather go and journey where the diamond crest is flowing...

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        • #5
          We camp every year in June at a DEC Campground, never the same. Golden Beach, Forked Lake, Rogers Rock, Taylor Pond, Cranberry Lake, Limekiln Lake, etc.. Worst was at Lake Eaton and Eighth Lake. Use ThermaCells and avoid Moose River Plains.
          Life's short, hunt hard!

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Swamp Booger View Post
            One DEC area of fairly open sites prone to wind that comes to mind is the west side of the peninsula loop of the Fish Creek Ponds campground. Not "remote" by any means, but it may meet what your looking for. Lots of paddling options in the area and if the bugs are really bad, you could check out the Wild Center in Tupper Lake.
            Another option might be the sites near the beach/day use end of the Lewey Lake DEC campground. The wind tends to come down the lake into those sites.
            If I think of any other options, I'll let you know.
            Here are some tips for selecting a windy site at Fish Creek Ponds.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Pauly D. View Post
              I'm going to try some old time dope this year. I hear it stinks bad but works well.

              http://oletimewoodsman.com
              It does have an interesting smell but it's a true waste of time as a repellent. If you follow Yellowcanoes advice (and don't bath) and if you embalm yourself with this stuff for a few days without washing, if you build strong smokey fires and cure yourself like a kipper you might get some benefit from it. Otherwise follow Yellowcanoes advice. I use any product that is high in DEET....don't want to use DEET? Hm... suffer and hopefully live to tell the story

              Some folks report success using permethrin.... I'm not convinced. I watched a swarm of black flies travel the entire length of Long Lake (on the Allagash) swarming around my sons head. I was using DEET and did not have a single one anywhere near me...
              Last edited by mgc; 04-04-2017, 11:22 AM.

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              • #8
                the original Olde Tyme Woodsman was a different formula from what is sold today. The old product went into non-production for several years before being resurrected as a slightly different formula. However, personal experience, a friend and I were each in separate Hornbeck boats on little Tupper on a calm late spring day when we were both over taken by black flies. I had some standard high DEET stuff slathered on me, but my friend had OTW. Amazingly he had nary a singly fly anywhere near his boat at all, but I was still swarmed. After he gave me some of his, it was amazing how I had a a similar force field like barrier around me as well.
                "Now I see the secret of making the best person, it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth." -Walt Whitman

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by mgc View Post
                  Some folks report success using permethrin.... I'm not convinced. I watched a swarm of black flies travel the entire length of Long Lake (on the Allagash) swarming around my sons head. I was using DEET and did not have a single one anywhere near me...
                  I believe Permethrin is more of an insecticide than a repellent. I can see where it would kill black flies that actually landed on Permethrin treated clothing, but I don't think it'll do much against swarming. It's miles better than DEET for ticks, however, since they're not flying.

                  "The Minnesota Insect-Borne Disease Education Council conducted a field test in Jay Cook State Park in northern Minnesota, and found that the permethrin products outperformed the DEET-containing tick repellents. A shoe was sprayed with Duranon (0.5% permethrin). Three weeks later, it was tested against a recently sprayed shoe using Deep Woods Off (35 % DEET). Ticks that made contact with the Duranon-sprayed shoe immediately rolled up and dropped off. Ticks on the soaking-wet DEET saturated shoe continued to crawl unimpaired.

                  One last tip for you fishermen out there: DEET is perhaps one of the most effective fish repellents known to man. Just a few parts per million can send game fish like salmon and trout to the other end of the fish tank. If you like to keep mosquito repellent in your tackle box, you may have unknowingly contaminated all of your fishing lures! Be sure to take care not to handle any fishing tackle once you have applied mosquito repellent. Just a few parts-per-million can repel more fish than mosquitoes!"

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                  • #10
                    The trouble is that success with a repellent is a partnership between victim and insect just as success in paddling is a partnership between paddler and canoe

                    What works for me does not necessarily work for you.

                    I am beseiged by no seeums in Florida every February and use Repel by the gallon. My husband needs nothing.

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                    • #11
                      [QUOTE=yellowcanoe;257388]The trouble is that success with a repellent is a partnership between victim and insect just as success in paddling is a partnership between paddler and canoe

                      Serious Zen...

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                      • #12
                        A truly 'old time' bug repellent

                        I'm a tad late to this thread but I thought I would share an interesting bit of info about some truly old school bug repellent. The following is the recipe for bug dope provided by George Washington Sears (Nessmuk) in his letter written for Forest and Stream while he traveled around the Adirondacks circa Sept., 16, 1880. He swore by it as the most effective remedy he had found after trying scores of different recipes.

                        Keep in mind, though, that this was obviously before modern chemical repellent and was also being used at a time when he would forgo bathing for days and sometimes probably even weeks, building up layer after layer of the concoction.

                        From Canoeing the Adirondacks with Nessmuk:

                        "...an infallible recipe for these pests, by using one may walk..fish..sleep..free from the poisonous stings of black fly or mosquito.
                        Three ounces castor oil and two ounces best tar. Bring to a slow boil..letting it simmer for half an hour. When partially cool, add one ounce of pennyroyal, and mix thoroughly. To use, pour a teaspoon into the palm of your hand, rub your hands together, and then rub every exposed inch of skin with your palms. A light coating will do..don't wash it off..repeat once or twice daily for the first two days, but after that one application each day will leave you in peace. It is in no way filthy..while the effect is all that can be desired."


                        If anyone actually takes the time to make this old recipe and put it to the test please share your experience. I would be extremely curious to hear about how it turned out.
                        Last edited by IndLk_Brett; 04-20-2017, 01:32 PM.

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                        • #13
                          Black flies are as much of the Adirondack experience as loons.
                          Enjoy the loons, tolerate the black flies.
                          Jim

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Hard Scrabble View Post
                            Black flies are as much of the Adirondack experience as loons.
                            Enjoy the loons, tolerate the black flies.
                            Jim
                            Bears are an Adirondack experience too, but that doesn't mean I'm going to leave my food laying around for them to eat just as I prefer not to leave my skin exposed for the bugs to munch on.

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                            • #15
                              Always travel with a partner who is taller than you. Black flies (deer flies too), are attracted to the highest part of a warm body. I've done the following many times: When you've had enough, just sidle on over to your tall friend, especially if you can find your way to a shallow depression while standing within a couple of feet from him/her. Engage in idle conversation and the flies that had been bugging you will make their departure to then surround your unfortunate good friend, temporarily anyway. Be discrete, this only works while you friend is unaware of what you are doing.

                              When solo, I cover a lot more miles per day during bug season. My strategy is to just keep moving, tolerate them when I must. It is all part of being in the woods, especially when other people are not.
                              "Now I see the secret of making the best person, it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth." -Walt Whitman

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