Mosquitoes

[rbi99]

Coming back up to Schroon Lake next week (will be my third visit in two years) from Cleveland. With all of the rain that has fallen in the Adirondacks, how bad are the mosquitoes right now? Is bug spray enough to keep them away on hikes and climbs?

[Zach]

Hiking Sunday and Monday near Little Tupper Lake I was bitten by some mosquitoes, but they weren't that bad. If I stopped in the woods they were bad, but as long as I kept moving I was fine. I didn't put on bug spray, but likely that would have stopped them. There were a very few deer flies, and some stable flies by the water.

[DSettahr]

It's been a weird bug year in the ADKs. Shockingly, they don't seem to be too bad in spite of all of the rain... for the most part. I think to some extent that the rain has been bad enough that it's knocked their population back a fair bit. There's also been noticeable ebbs and flows in the bug population, they've just about disappeared entirely one week, only to return the next.

Did LTL to Inlet on the Oswegatchie last week and the bug situation was weirdly variable across the full route. There were a few out and about on Little Tupper the first night, then Lake Lila on the second night the mosquitoes were downright awful as soon as the sun set (thank goodness for bug nets for us tarp campers), and then they were pretty much completely nonexistent on the Oswegatchie River the third night. I would've expected the Oswegatchie to be the worst given how marshy much of the surrounding terrain is, but we enjoyed a very pleasant evening with hardly a bug to be seen.

My experience has generally been that the Schroon Lake area tends to have a longer bug season most years, though (its lower in elevation than most of the rest of the ADKs), so I'd go prepared with the bug spray/net just in case.

[rbi99]

Was reading some horror stories on Alltrails from early/mid August of people fully prepared for the little bastards and still getting eaten alive. I can handle a lot of things but a horde of mosquitoes is not one of them. I do have a mosquitoes netted hat, so I will bring that along. My two dogs will be with me as well. Maggie, my older dog is hanging in there pretty well, and we just recently adopted a two year old Chocolate Lab who will be getting his first intro into the Adirondacks. We actually named him Dak. Been hiking with him a lot here in Cleveland, but can't wait to see his reaction when we get up there!!!

[Wldrns]

I have always found the best defense is to just keep moving. Not always possible when setting up camp, so that is where the head net comes in, along with frequent but light applications of a DEET product. Or I have found that "Ole' Tyme Woodsman Fly Dope" seems to work well in some cases when others with DEET don't. Beware to take care of the soft hairless underbelly area of yoiur dogs.

[rbi99]

Great point about my dogs. Just ordered Vet's Best Mosquito Repellent for Dogs from Amazon.

[rbi99]

Just got back to Cleveland after spending almost a week up at Schroon Lake again. Lot of hiking and mosquitoes weren't nearly as bad as I feared they might be. They were definitely out, but long sleeve shirt and pants and Off was all I needed.