Insect Repellent and treatment

[Rick]

B - We've grown. Matured. It's just the natural part of aging. Folks today didn't live through things like The Year Without a Summer, Civil War or the Dust Bowl. We haven't had to contend with Mayor Tweed or Snake Oil Salesmen or the lawlessness of the 1920's so we look back and think, "Gee, they had it made." Where did the Good Ole Days go? Having lived through the Cold War and the fall of both a President and a Vice President today looks the same as yesterday to me. I image we'll be asking the same thing 100 years from now.

[BENESSE]

B - We've grown. Matured. It's just the natural part of aging. Folks today didn't live through things like The Year Without a Summer, Civil War or the Dust Bowl. We haven't had to contend with Mayor Tweed or Snake Oil Salesmen or the lawlessness of the 1920's so we look back and think, "Gee, they had it made." Where did the Good Ole Days go? Having lived through the Cold War and the fall of both a President and a Vice President today looks the same as yesterday to me. I image we'll be asking the same thing 100 years from now.

R, I am not nostalgic for any of that--I simply miss the old American temperament and drive that got us through it all and made us formidable in science, technology & defense in a relatively short time. (I've no doubt that we can get through anything again but I fear it will leave us diminished as it already has in many ways.)
Now I am not prone to pessimism, but it's hard to ignore where we are now vs. say, 15 yrs. ago. The fact that we still have a whole in the ground on the WTC site after 9yrs and that we're still dealing with the same old stupid man-made disasters not having learned squat from previous mistakes.

[Rick]

I hear that. After 9/11 we were told to divest ourselves of some of our science engineers because we had too many green card holders. That sad thing is there just aren't that many Americans to choose from in the sciences. They are out there but the Middle East and Far East far outnumber them. It's a new world from that perspective.

[Zuloom]

Nepatia leaf rubbed on the skin.

[crashdive123]

Nepatia leaf rubbed on the skin.

Where would one find this leaf (other than the pet isle of WalMart)?


Speaking of find - in case you were looking for the Introduction section - here it is http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...splay.php?f=14

[Rick]

Nepatia leaf rubbed on the skin.

Wouldn't you be mauled by cats?

@Crash - You can also find it in Creepy Hollow near the Shaman's place.

[your_comforting_company]

Found this plant on one of our "out and about days".
Yellow bee-balm was a substitute for thyme when the fields were destroyed overseas during war. It is in the mint family and is a tall, erect plant. The interrupted flower spike and telltale spotted yellow flowers, with colored bracts beneath each whorl are distinguishing features.
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A lot of rain lately has made the gnats come out in full force, which they usually do during "dog days" anyway. They were fierce yesterday as we walked through the management area checking our flagged plants, and exploring new ones.

Long story short, the scent of the crushed leaves was quite strong, so I tried it as an insect repellent. I took a crushed leaf and rubbed it on my earlobes and behind my ears. To my amazement, the gnats wouldn't get close to my head after that. The effects lasted several hours, and once it wore off, I put a little more on my ears and just a touch under my eyes. Several more hours of bug-free adventuring followed.. at least till it rained us out.

The mosquitos didn't seem to be out yesterday for some odd reason, so I'm not sure how well it works for mosquito repellent, but it certainly works well for gnats.

Just wanted to share the discovery. If you find this plant, I think it would be beneficial to collect a few seeds or seedlings and start a stand at home for your own personal use. We are going to try to start some, and possibly transplant those from one yard to the next. I would love to try some in some spaghetti or lasagna, too!

[rwc1969]

That's real cool, and a cool looking flower too. I've only found a light putple colored bergamot here, closely related, and will have to try it for bug repellent. Ours appears to be past the flowering stage now though, for the most part.

[Rick]

I'm not all that familiar with that plant, YCC but I think they call it Dotted Mint around here. I've not seen enough examples of it to really know it. Like RWC most of the Bee Balm around here is Monarda and probably fistulosa. I think the Dotted Mint is Monarda lambada or punctata. I'm not really certain which.

I have some of the purple in the beds around my house. The aroma that is released just by touching the plant is amazing.

[your_comforting_company]

This one is Monarda punctata. As far as I can tell, the colors are the differences in the species names. I would reckon that all the Monarda species would share similar properties. This one was quite fragrant as well, smelled just like spaghetti spice. Mom could smell it on me 10 feet away (downwind of course). I don't know if you have gnats up there, but it'd be worth a try for skeeters.
I meant to include the latin name in the post, but I forgot! Oops!

[Rick]

Yes we have gnats. At times they can be a pain in the ... eyeball. Oddly, a hat with a decent brim keeps them at bay as well. The only thing I can figure is the hat brim must divert the CO2 in your breath so they have a harder time homing in on it. That's just a guess but they will swarm me if I take my hat off and don't seem nearly as bad with it on. I'll have to try the Bee Balm, too. Thanks!

[AirborneEagles]

Crushed citronella, catnip, lemon thyme and wild marigolds all have some mosquito-repelling properties. Also taking vitamin B1 or have a bottle of it in your pack will repel most bugs from eating you. Just take one B1 vitamin before going out and take one every day and it will help keep the bugs at bay.

I wouldn't go rubbing vitamin B1 all over your body, too much of it can give you side affects or harm you like any other vitamin if you take too much of them.
One tablet will do.

Cures, just some good clean mud. Dig down a few inches in some muddy area and grab a handful and put it on the bite. It helps extract the poison and helps heal the wound. After all its just vitamins.

I tried the burning wood trick, but still got eaten up at night and just smelled like smoke. As long as you stay in the smoke, you won't be bothered, but when you leave the fire, you get eaten up. Just my experience.

Also if you have no mud around, just spit on the bite area. I just try not to let my saliva run across my teeth since that plaque or bacteria can just add infection, so I try to make the spit as nice and clean as possible. Been doing it for years and it works. If there is mud, I will use mud instead. Just the mud has different properties and soothes as well as does the job, since really salty spit can sting a little.

[Rick]

A couple of thoughts here. First B1 is a water soluble vitamin. That means whatever your body doesn't use is excreted in urine. Odds are, you get more than enough in your diet so the added B1 in the vitamin is just excreted. Not many folks in the U.S. have Beri Beri these days. In order for any natural insect repellent, taken internally, to work there has to be an excess to be excreted through the skin. That's how flea and tick repellents work, for example. Since all excess B1 is excreted through urine there can't be any "left over" to work as an insect repellent. I'd like to see a source on that.

I don't understand why you'd put mud on any sort of wound. That's nothing more that packing dirt in a wound. All of the things you want to avoid are found in dirt; bacteria, viruses, cysts, amoeba, protozoa, yeast, etc.

[BENESSE]

I first read about putting mud on bites in the book "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" by Steven King.
Loved the book, learned a lot from it, and this particular remedy made an impression. Always wondered about it.

[AirborneEagles]

A couple of thoughts here. First B1 is a water soluble vitamin. That means whatever your body doesn't use is excreted in urine. Odds are, you get more than enough in your diet so the added B1 in the vitamin is just excreted. Not many folks in the U.S. have Beri Beri these days. In order for any natural insect repellent, taken internally, to work there has to be an excess to be excreted through the skin. That's how flea and tick repellents work, for example. Since all excess B1 is excreted through urine there can't be any "left over" to work as an insect repellent. I'd like to see a source on that.

I don't understand why you'd put mud on any sort of wound. That's nothing more that packing dirt in a wound. All of the things you want to avoid are found in dirt; bacteria, viruses, cysts, amoeba, protozoa, yeast, etc.

Well when I was a teen I had worked for a lady that had lived in Africa with her husband with some company there, upon the different things bugs carried around she mentioned one day while I was working in the field and getting eaten was to take some vitamin B1. A few days later I noticed I had really no bugs biting me. Then upon my service days I still used vitamin B complex tablets and whether it was just my imagination or that it really did work, either way I had been through my fair share of bugs and didn't come out looking like a pin cushion. So if it doesn't work for some, at least they had their daily vitamins. =)

Mud, well I grew up next to an Indian Reservation in Montana (Flathead Indian Reservation) and had a few Indian friends who always put clean mud on their scrapes or wounds, even bug bites. So I picked it up and still do it today. The minerals in mud along with the other vitamins work together to help the wound heal and sooth the bug bite, plus it helps keep any fly's off the wound as well. I rarely ever use a bandage. Again, it may be just me, but my wounds healed 5 times faster after I had put mud on them. If it is a gusher, sure I won't use mud until it starts to clot, then I will use mud if I am in the wilderness on a quick hike and I have no bandages with me. When the mud dries, I just let it flake off by itself and will clean it when I get home. Usually by that time, it does not need a bandage and looks great so I will just clean it and leave it alone. The bug bites just seem to be red spots and as long as I don't irritate them, they just go away pretty fast.
I never rub it into the wound, but rather pat the mud on and then give it a little pat to help it stay in place.

Upon this talk about mud, I had wort's when I was a teen all over my hands for a few months, then one day a friend and I went swimming in a mud hole that was up the road. It was the slippery light tan mud that is the worst to get off clothes, we had to wash outside before even going in the house. Well a few weeks later, no more wort's and never had them since. Ripley's believe it or not stuff I guess.

It's an option if you don't have any other creams with you I guess. If you have creams to sooth the bite, use them instead of mud.

sorry if I rambled on. haha

[your_comforting_company]

My bee-balm in the yard is blooming. I'll be saving seeds if anyone is interested in growing some, just let me know. We tried it again yesterday evening, the wife, two of the kids, and myself. Gnats ran away like we were wearing diesel. It doesn't smell like deisel though, it smells like spaghetti spice. Made me hungry for deer burgers. Next time I make deer-s'ghetti, I'm gonna add a few dried leaves to see if it really works as a thyme substitute (as the history books indicate).

[Rick]

Gosh, my Bee Balm bloomed several weeks ago. All I have left are brown heads. I swear that stuff is the most pungent plant I know of. I typically don't like perfumes. I find them overpowering but I don't seem to mind the Bee Balm. Even a strong breeze can kick up a flood of aroma that I can smell 20 or 30 feet away.

[Beans]

Here is southern Az we have these itty bitty black SOB's that can drive you nuts from May to September. Their bite leaves small bumps that you scratch until they bleed and then scratch some more.
I have tried Bounce, Deet, Deep Woods, Off Etc, Long sleeve shirts, head nets. The only thing I have found to really work is Avon Skin so Soft. and for those areas that I miss I put some Oral Jell on the bites to relieve the itching. Calamine lotion doesn't seem to help.

[Beans]

. , for example. Since all excess B1 is excreted through urine there can't be any "left over" to work as an insect repellent. .

O NO Rick you just wrote the plot of another BG show.

[el-amigo]

Hello,

I hope it is the right topic to ask it.

I read the FM 3-05.70 Survival manual and I don't really understand a part from it.
At the 4-73 it is about the Black Widow spider's bite and it writes "An antivenin is available".
After it at the tarantula bite (4-76) it writes "If symptoms of poisoning appear, treat as for the bite of the black widow spider".

Does it mean I have to treat it with the Black Widow antivenin?
Tom