Best insect repellent for Africa

wvfred

wvfred

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West Virginia
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Zimbabwe x 2 and Zambia
What is the best insect repellent on the market now for Africa?
 
Skins so soft sunscreen with big repellant, keeps tsetse flies off you to.
 
I’m not sure there’s a single answer. There are no tsetse flies in South Africa or Namibia and aren’t dense in a lot of areas. Most hunts I haven’t worn any bug spray. Bugs haven’t been an issue. If mosquitoes are the primary concern then deet. I’ve only seen serious ticks in South Africa. Permethrin would be my go to there. For tsetse flies, long sleeves are better than bug spray but Avon skin so soft bug guard gives some relief. They are worst while riding in the truck.
 
45-70guy said:
I used the Avon bug/suncscreen and it worked great.
Also treated my closes with permethrin which I do for all trips and that seems to be great.
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Avon Simply Soft even helps with Teste Flies when nothing else will. Notice I said helps not perfect but you can forget about deet or even perminin (spelling). Any other. bugs just about everything you use at home works
 
Treating all clothes with Sawyers has kept me tick free for two trips. Of course, I haven't hunted around the tittzy flies. I think I would just be miserable and not fully enjoy my hunt.
 
Hedge774 said:
Treating all clothes with Sawyers has kept me tick free for two trips. Of course, I haven't hunted around the tittzy flies. I think I would just be miserable and not fully enjoy my hunt.
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Just because Tsetse flies occur in an area doesn’t mean they are thick or bad in the entire concession. There are a few spots I think they could impact a hunt, but generally once you step off the vehicle they aren’t so bad. They like chasing the truck. I’ve never had them impact a hunt at all.
 
20260628_203538.jpg Thanks to @Philip Glass for the recommendation. No issues and it also has SPF 30 sunscreen. Avon Skin So Soft
 
Avon Skin So Soft is about the only thing that works. After many many trips to bad places, this stuff works.
 
I don’t use any, even in wetter areas with lots of mosquitoes and areas with Tsetse Flies but bought Avon Skin So Soft for the girlfriend when we went to Coutada 11.

Sawyers also works to treat your clothing for ticks. This year they were REALLY bad in Zim during March/April and I got tick bite fever. Should’ve treated my clothes before going but have never had an issue with ticks before.
 
375Fox said:
I’m not sure there’s a single answer. There are no tsetse flies in South Africa or Namibia and aren’t dense in a lot of areas. Most hunts I haven’t worn any bug spray. Bugs haven’t been an issue. If mosquitoes are the primary concern then deet. I’ve only seen serious ticks in South Africa. Permethrin would be my go to there. For tsetse flies, long sleeves are better than bug spray but Avon skin so soft bug guard gives some relief. They are worst while riding in the truck.
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I agree. I have only found teetse flies when I was in thick bush…when I got more into the open they disappeared, I was just wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts the day I got into them and they ate me up lol!!!
 
A short story about "Bug Juice."

We were in Zambia, August 2003 and occasionally we were in an area of tsetse Flies. Nothing we had with us seemed to deter them. My wife noticed one of the trackers had a pail of liquid and a rather unsightly rag in it. The tracker mentioned it was good "Muti" to stave off the flies. I have no idea what the ingredients were, but there seemed to be a very faint aroma of diesel fuel.

We dipped a kerchief into the liquid in the pail and applied same. Lo and behold...no more problems with the tsetse flies!
 
Interesting... "Muti" (traditional African medicine) offers some highly effective natural remedies for warding off biting bugs. Traditional practices rely heavily on indigenous African plants and natural oils like Lippia javanica (lemon bush), Neem, and Lemongrass.
 
Avon insect/sun cream works great. Sawyers on your clothes and also like the Avon aerosol as well for a quick top off during the day. Been my go to the last 8-10 trips or so. Have yet to have a tick on me while others in the hunting party have.
 
Hedge774 said:
Treating all clothes with Sawyers has kept me tick free for two trips. Of course, I haven't hunted around the tittzy flies. I think I would just be miserable and not fully enjoy my hunt.
Click to expand...
Sawyers just came out with a spray for your skin
 
Make sure you don’t spray Sawyers Permethrin on your skin though.

Regardless of the brand, Permethrin is awesome stuff especially for ticks. But it’s an insecticide, not a repellant. Ticks will still hop on your pants or socks or whatever, but the idea is by the time they make it up to your waistband they are dead. In Zim I’m always in shorts but when I took my daughter to SA last May, the pepper ticks were horrible as lots of the bigger buggers too. We never found a live tick and never got bit, but would use a brush to knock the dead ones off at the end of the day before dropping our pants into the laundry basket.

This last trip to Zim and Botswana in April and May, there were a lot more mosquitos, and while I had Ben’s 100% deet (the only stuff to use in Alaska to fend off swarms of our state bird) I never used it. I tried some of Sawyer’s picardin lotion and that kept them at bay. It was only really an issue at night around the table, and that kept them at bay.
 
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