Portable Fans

Anyone have experience using these things in very buggy environments? Do they make enough wind to keep the mosquitos, black flies, and other flying pests at bay? 

John Goodlander wrote:

Anyone have experience using these things in very buggy environments? Do they make enough wind to keep the mosquitos, black flies, and other flying pests at bay? 

You want something like a thermacell bug thing to keep bugs away. Fans will not do it in my experience, but brought a thermacell along for bouldering at Pawtuckaway and was largely bug-free while in the zone around it. 

First of all I'd recommend you to get a heat powered insect bite healer such as the "heat it". It does wonders to improve quality of life at mosquito infested crags. 

Consider getting some inexpensive pants and tops that you can saturate with bug spray. I find this approach works well.

Soaking your clothes with Permethrin is also an option if you want to avoid a DEET based insect repellent. You can buy it cheap from tractor supply for use on farm animals and dilute it per the manufacturer instructions. Dip your clothes, backpacks, tents, etc. and let them dry outside. Permethrin is safer than DEET and kills insects on contact, and it stays in your clothes for a couple of washes before it needs reapplied. The smell will also help to keep bugs away and the more people in your group with permethrin on their clothes will act similar to a thermacell in creating a bug free zone.

This stuff is also great and also deters ticks - permethrin/picardin - rangerready.com/collections…