AboutJack DeAngelis Expertise I can answer questions in any area of entomology (study of insects, spiders, mites, ticks, and other terrestrial arthropods). Contact me about home and garden insects, insects that bite and sting, and insects that damage homes such as carpenter ants and termites.
Experience 20 years as university extension entomologist, now retired; currently publish a website about home and garden insects.
Publications see www.livingwithbugs.com/resume.html
Question My son along with 15 other kids are coming down to Lous. to work on some Katrina rebuilding from out church. I hear that the repelent that we have up here in Wash. State will not detour misq. bites and I heard that you guys down there have some high power products to help the kids deal with them. Can you give the some names of the products so that maybe we can have some shipped to us before the trip.
Thank you..
Answer Shane,
All of the regular mosquito repellents will work equally well in Louisiana and Washington state. The key difference will be how often you have to apply them - the more mosquitoes the more often they need to be applied.
There are now two different but equally effective ingredients - DEET (the old standard) and picaridin (the new repellent). Here's a link to information about repellents in general http://www.livingwithbugs.com/mos_repe.html that may be useful. You might also consider treating their work clothes with one of the permethrin-based fabric treatments (see the bottom of the page cited above).
With kids it is important to keep the concentration of DEET at around 10% (30% for adults) and don't apply it more often than needed. DEET can have health effects if used too much. Don't use the 100% "military strength" DEET on kids for example.
Jack DeAngelis, PhD
Extension Entomologist (ret.)
My website about home and garden pests: http://www.livingwithbugs.com
