As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.....
My first experience with the black fly or buffalo gnat of Canadians was a surprise. It involved an apparently strong wind and an apparently lovely wild spring melt off run, which had me being gnawed upon and bleeding profusely as sometimes one feels a gnat biting a chunk of skin out of you, and the next, you look down and see your blouse is pooled of blood.
I detest insecticides as they seem to me in being sprayed upon my person to that of a stun gun, so Deet and OFF and whatever is out there makes me react.
So I find old recipes which all probably are worthless, but this is one from George Washington Sears, the sort of Naturalist who did more than Henry David Thoreau on his pond in he enjoyed killing fish under the name Nessmuck. I do like studying early wilderness trekers to see what worked for them compared to the Plains, Mountainmen and Pioneers.
In that, GWS, provides this bug repellant recipe.
"It was published in Forest and Stream in the summer of 1880, and again in '83. It has been pretty widely quoted and adopted, and I have never known it to fail: Three ounces pine tar, two ounces castor oil, one ounce pennyroyal oil. Simmer all together over a slow fire, and bottle for use. You will hardly need more than a two-ounce vial full in a season. One ounce has lasted me six weeks in the woods. Rub it in thoroughly and liberally at first, and after you have established a good glaze, a little replenishing from day to day will be sufficient."
Pine tar is black, and is a resin, which compares to the scent of Lysol, and it is an anti bacterial. Castor oil is heavy oil from the plant and has like properties. Pennyroyal is a mint which humans like minty things, but insects do not like minty things, so you have things that repel bugs.
The secret to the success of this not bathing and making this tar your second skin.
"And don't fool with soap and towels where insects are plenty. A good safe coat of this varnish grows better the longer it is kept on— and it is cleanly and wholesome. If you get your face and hands crocky or smutty about the camp-fire, wet the corner of your handkerchief and rub it off, not forgetting to apply the varnish at once, wherever you have cleaned it off. Last summer I carried a cake of soap and a towel in my knapsack through the North Woods for a seven weeks' tour, and never used either a single time. When I had established a good glaze on the skin, it was too valuable to be sacrificed for any weak whim connected with soap and water."
This gives the ruddy tanned look of health and hard muscle to the skin........
So there you go.
agtG
