Noseeums

[docwood]

Last year first time in Nassau got eaten alive in marina by noseums aour night of arrival on our bareboat, to the point where the night we got back from sailing we gladly paid $400 for two couples for a condo t miss repeating the misery. I get that the marina was well protected "Palm Cay" and therefore absolutely no breeze. When at the Exumas had no problem, but always had a decent night breeze. I have seen several remedies which I appreciate. This year we are going farther down the Exumas and may have the option of some moorings (WArwick Wells, etc) which appear to be closer to shore. My concern is again the noseums. My question is any guesstimate on how far off shore them little burgars are willing to fly to make life miserable. I will gladly skip a mooring site nd anchor off shore if thats what it takes Nassaus noseums made the ones we have in Iowa seem like childs play.lol. Thanks ahead for your input.

[Lemsteraak]

We had trouble with no-see-ums in Florida years ago. They are so small they can fly through mosquito netting. Turns out that they have to land on the screen and wiggle through so if the screen has a repellant, they don't come through. Locals used some nasty insect repellant but we found Avon's Skin So Soft did the trick. Since we were touching screens, we didn't want something toxic to transfer to our hands.

Our boat was very shallow drafted so we moored close to shore. It seemed to always be that perfect night that they would come out to play.

[rbk]

Couple of these hanging around the boat help. I usually hang one near the boat at anchor and it covers most of the boat in light winds, another in the cockpit:
https://www.amazon.ca/Coghlans-8688-...97006849&psc=1
And as backup, you can usually find a way to hang them in a berth:
https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5011-7...CABEgJDH_D_BwE
Alternates are to buy some noseeum mesh and cover every possible entrance but can be a pain.

[docwood]

rbk-thanks for the response-follow-up. So these help with no seeums , not just mosquitos

[Dennis.G]

In Mexico called Jejenes, and can be very irritating around sunset. We found that keeping incense burning below decks seems to keep them out of the boat along with netting. A lot of the locals on shore will burn coco husks which seems to work well, but likely a bit messy for onboard a boat.

[MicHughV]

here's the trick....get a bottle of "skin so soft" handcream.....mix a dollop of this cream with some water and place in a spritzer bottle.....then spritz exposed arms, legs, etc...it doesn't drive the no-see-ums away....but when they land on your skin the above concoction literally drowns them...in the process you will smell good too...it works.... !!

[rbk]

Originally Posted by docwood

rbk-thanks for the response-follow-up. So these help with no seeums , not just mosquitos

Yes to some degree, even if you can reduce them by half you’re doing better. The stronger the coil the better the repellant. I find the citronella don’t work near as well as the old green ones. Also buy quality ones, the no name brands again don’t work as well. In really bad anchorages we’ll run 3-4 to maximize coverage. If you purchase a net make sure it’s a noseeum variety, many out there.

[MicHughV]

...I read or heard somewhere that the smoke emanating from those green mosquito coils have some or other toxic ingredient in them, that beside being an irritant to skeeters, is also harmful to people..can't recall where I heard or read this...probably ok out in the open, but if inside or contained in some other enclosed area could pose a problem. I don't recall these being of any use in chasing of no-see-ums.....only skeeters

I had my cockpit bimini and dodger modified to have a complete encirclement of mesh netting attached to it, so one could still sit in the cockpit..for the most part it works extremely well on those nights when there is nary a breeze.

There is nothing quite so irritating as the sound of a skeeter buzzing around your head when you are trying to sleep...

as a last resort, I will fire up the generator and run the a/c's.....cool, yes, but one has to put up with the sound of the generator...

[a64pilot]

The green coils work, but be careful which ones you get, the ones sold in the Bahamas aren’t so bad if the boat is left opened up, but the ones on Amazon will gag you, read the label if it says do not use indoors, don’t.

The killer app for this though is a thermacell. One thermacell will keep the entire boat clear for 8 hours and usually by then they aren’t so bad.
We have the lantern thermacell, but they all use the same chemical pad and propane cell, so none work better than any other, so pick one you like the looks of, or go for the cheapest, one won’t work better than any other

[roberttigar]

I've used noseaum screening for 20+ years. Its a finer mesh than regular screening. All my port hole have them as well as hatch screems. Bob

[laika]

Originally Posted by roberttigar

I've used noseaum screening for 20+ years. Its a finer mesh than regular screening. All my port hole have them as well as hatch screems. Bob

Same here.. we just sewed the finer netting over the mosquito netting. It restricts airflow slightly, but not drastically, and it's an easy fix.

[JPA Cate]

We were invaded with noseeums just the other day, didn't expect sandflies this far south. We have an indoors mosquito zapper, which heats a tablet containing pyrethrins, that we then set up indoors. We also began using a mosquito coil outside in the cockpit. This eventually cleared the boat. [Note, we always carry these, and "bug juice".]

Normally, we'd have cockroach surface spray (the kind that lasts 3 months) on our port and hatch screens, and that also will help them stay out of the boat. But they will come in any way they can get, so the cockpit entry to belowdecks is a really important place to have something. The mozzie coil there, works, and also it will get whoever else from the insect world that comes to try and get in and bite you.

Sandflies don't carry horrid diseases at this time, nor can they bite through your clothes. Sandfly netting works against them, but cuts down the airflow that helps cool you, so you'll really need fans for sleeping: simply drying your perspiration a little helps a lot. I actually made myself gauze pajamas to keep the sandflies off.

That strategy fails utterly for mozzies. But they are easier to keep out. In the Solomon Is., the flies and mosquitoes were the problem, and we got a bed net, soaked in pyrethrins, and made a cockpit enclosure of it. It was wonderful. We could lounge there in great comfort, and watch the flies touch it and die. [This may seem bizarre if you've never been somewhere the bugs were driving you mad, but it really was satisfying!] Even at mosquito time, we were safe. It was one of the places where women are expected to wear skirts, and I had a long skirt that I also soaked, and wore if we went ashore...of course, I also used mozzie repellent on all exposed skin, not wanting to get malaria....and now there are other mosquito-borne diseases to be concerned to avoid, as well.

It is really wonderful, if you can make the boat a bug free zone, you get to wash the DEET off your skin. You will find that some insect repellents work better for you than others, and that your skin chemistry and your partner's will surely be different. You may find that if you use the repellent, then your partner will be bitten.

If you're where they are, carry insect repellent in your pocket, and apply at first bite. I failed to do this once, and was bitten many times over the course of 20 min--I quit counting at 600 bites. It was a pretty unpleasant two weeks. Even benadryl didn't help. Only ice. Don't let it happen to you. Incidentally, some people don't feel them bite, but I do, so you may, as well, they look like a tiny dark dot, a bit of grit. Go into self defense mode at the first prick.

Ann

[a64pilot]

The tiny little sand fleas will get through any screen. You can barely see them, cover yourself in skin so soft and after a while you’ll see that your covered in tiny black dots, that’s dead flying teeth, what they are called in the US Low Country.
DEET works and you can get it at 99% strength, but I can’t stand to cover myself in it.
The thermacell that you wear works though, until you have tried one you won’t believe it.

The thermacell uses allethrin, which is a synthetic pyrethrin, which is a natural insecticide, comes I believe from a pyrethrin flower.
I don’t know if allethrin works better or if it’s just scent free, but it seems to work and you can’t smell it.

[Miguelso]

I love the thermacell. It can be expensive, but there is a way to refill the butane cartridges with those lighter refills. You need to remove a check valve inside the original cartridge. Check online for instructions, but it is pretty simple. As for the pads you can get generic ones at Amazon. They are smaller so I use two at a time.
The chemical is Pyrethrin, it is a pesticide found naturally in some chrysanthemum flowers. I would not use it without ventilation.
We encounter lots of noseeums in Nassau too, but never in Exumas nor in Long Island, Acklins was pretty bad.

[Painted Skies]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

The thermacell that you wear works though, until you have tried one you won’t believe it.

The thermacell uses allethrin, which is a synthetic pyrethrin, which is a natural insecticide, comes I believe from a pyrethrin flower.
I don’t know if allethrin works better or if it’s just scent free, but it seems to work and you can’t smell it.

We can confirm that Thermacell is the way to go with all sorts of bugs if you want to avoid synthetic chemicals on your skin or in your lungs. Here in Australia you can buy all the Thermacell models at BCF (boating, camping, fishing) stores (in the US try Walmart or Amazon). In the cockpit (and when camping) we use the 'backpacker' model as it utilizes the small or large butane tanks that are mostly used for backpacking stoves. The chemical pads are dirt cheap. When hiking we use the portable model that attaches to our belts.

For tick control we saturate our clothes with permethrin which can be purchased at farm stores really inexpensively (be sure to dilute to 10% solution). Permethrin can also be sprayed on screens to prevent noseeums from penetrating them (actually, it kills them on contact). Since discovering Thermacell products we have stopped using it on the boat itself.

Ann stated that sand flies don't carry disease. In addition to leishmaniasis (which is bad enough), there is mounting scientific evidence that they also carry Lyme Disease (borrelia burgdorferi); I only know this because my sister contracted Lyme in Belize from sand fly bites.