Johnnny

What's the best ways to protect yourself from mosquitos with West Nile Virus?

bandaidwoman

go here http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/

To be honest, I didn't think human cases of West Nile was found up in Toronto yet. By the way it is one of the more trivial mosquito borne disease. No child or young healthy adult has succombed to West Nile and died from it. All the deaths were the elderly. Down here in Georgia we have the much more deadly Eastern Equine Encephalitis but more people worry about West Nile due to the media inattention to Eastern Equine! In fact, we have only had one to two deaths (in the elderly) from it but I have seen young healthy folks die from Eastern Equine for years!

By the way, many people have a self limited mild illness with West Nile virus. Your chances of getting seriously ill from West Nile is about as good as being hit by lightning according to the CDC.

PS.... most of the "West Nile Activity" on the maps are related to finding them in birds rather than humans. Although Georgia looks like a hot bed of West Nile activity, we have had only 1 or 2 serious human illness due to it in the last three years.

Official Race Member of the Crank Crushing Rednecks

Eat more mud, mountain bike until you die!

XX Feminine power

Johnnny

Actually I live in Montreal right now but from Toronto. Sometimes I don't always trust the media about things, but here in Montreal even though there haven't been many or any cases here but tell us to take proper measures to protect ourselves.

Johnnny

Anyone else? PreMier how about you?

PreMier

They dont bite me. Like I said, so I dont need to use repellant. When I lived in the south, I had to use Deet to keep the ticks off of me, and that didnt work too well... seeing as I had to pick an average of 3 a day.

P-side Inc.

"the post-workout high is more profound than any drug-induced rush imaginable." -Dante B.

OceanDude

What we use to do down here in FL before they had effective mosquito control was rub sulphur water all over our bodies when we went outside. This is a natural water we get from deep water wells. It’s still a good trick in the field if you are out camping. The smell seems to keep them away. The other natural trick was to stay in bright sunny locations since the mosquitoes would hide in the shadows of the brush during the day to avoid being eaten by the friendly dragon flies or swarming purple martin birds that came out at day break. I guess the easy thing to do now days is to simply get some of the better smelling repellants (neat, off etc.) and spray on bare arms, legs and clothes etc. Also wear long sleeve shirts and pants if going into known infected areas. Avoid dark areas around shrubs etc. and stay in the sun light. I suspect there is no science to this but I seem to have built up an immunity of sorts since I do not get bitten as much anymore when I am outside or I just no longer notice it anymore. Maybe it’s all the garlic and minerals I take in my supplements?

-OD

"Doc, If I had known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself..."

Est unusquisque faber ipsae suae fortunae.

We Americans scoff at the likes of African witch doctors yet spend 100's of millions of dollars on fake reducing systems.

The only regular exercise he gets is stretching the truth.

His intellect is not replenished, he is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts...

Johnnny

Thanks for the info.

I think everything that we have to worry about now a days such as anything from STD's/Aids to the West Nile Virus, it makes it seem impossible to enjoy our lives with everything to worry about.

Rich46yo

"""""I think everything that we have to worry about now a days such as anything from STD's/Aids to the West Nile Virus, it makes it seem impossible to enjoy our lives with everything to worry about.""""""

Amen. I just slap the shit out of the little buggers when they land on me. Hopefully the crippled ones will tell their brethren to go suck another arm, other then mine. We got the terrorists, the criminals,HIV/AIDs, assorted STDs,WMDs, frigging asteroids,drunks in SUVs, and now we supposed to worry about the insects?

When I was overseas, in The War Corp, they knew how to deal with these little scoundrels. They sent a guy in a tractor, with huge tanks on it and a sprayer, all around the base every evening. I dont know exactly what he sprayed but I bet you cant find it at your local Home Depot. When that spray hit my face my hair would go up like Dale Maybres. And I tell you what I never saw one mosquito the whole time I was there.

I say spray the shit out of em. No mercy!!...........take care..........Rich

"Death to Tyrants"!

Johnnny

Rich46yo I sure wish you could come here & spray Montreal with that sh!t.

DrChiro

I htink the best thing to do is stop all your damn worrying...like bandaidwoman said...your chances of having a serious problem are almost zero.

It gets played up in the media and everyone gets scared.....if we worried about every possible thing that we could catch (and believe me there are infinite things out there)...we would spend out whole lives miserable.

I dont want to make light of your fear...but honestly it is unfounded...so if you see a mosquito on you ...kill it...otherwise.....dont worry about them.

My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I am right.

When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us.

Johnnny

So we should run around in shorts & sandles & not wear protective bug spray with DEET?

PreMier

You worry too much man. The odds of you catching WNV is 1000000000000000 to 1. Dont let something like tis control your life.

P-side Inc.

"the post-workout high is more profound than any drug-induced rush imaginable." -Dante B.

DrChiro

yeah wear DEET....that is great stuff...real healthy...it doesn't seep into your skin or anything.

BUG repellant has its place....there are natural alternatives that work fairly well...but if you are going into the deep woods to go camping or mountain biking on trails you may want to use some....but i would worry more about tics than mosquitos.

like premier stated...your chances of having a problem are slim to none...so yes...i wear shorts and sandals and no bug spray and somehow i am still healthy...go figure

My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I am right.

When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us.

JLB001

Avon sells that oil stuff that is good as a bug repellant. Skin so Soft Orginal Scent.

"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on."

DrChiro

thats the stuff i was thinking of...just couldnt remember who made it...thanks baby.

you can also take garlic pills...they help too...seriously.

My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I am right.

When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us.

JLB001

ewww....who wants to smell like garlic? almost as bad as stinky arm pits.

"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on."

DrChiro

hey now..its bettter than asparagus...but you wouldnt know anything about that would you?

well with garlic bugs wont come near you...but it is a good people repellant too.

My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I am right.

When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us.

Johnnny

JLB001 what's this stuff you're talking about? Do you know what it's called & the brand name?

PreMier, I'm not one who worries about things very easily. I worry if there's a reason to worry. & Montreal has had cases of WNV over the last couple of years. So I have every right to worry.

DrChiro

she already said it:

"skin so soft" by avon.....good stuff and DEET free...if you feel like you must use something, this is what i would reccomend.

My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I am right.

When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us.

CourtQueen

I live in Colorado. We had the worst cases and higest number of problems last summer from West Nile.

From my understanding they don't expect a problem this summer. That partly has to do with the breeding and hatching cycle of the mosquito I believe. I'm sure you can find more information out there on it. What they were saying last summer as precaution is to not be outside during the dawn and sunset hours because that is when mosquito activity is at its highest. Also, don't leave pools of water sitting around (like in potted plants etc. water is the breeding ground for mosquitos.) I will probably use a DEET product if I know I'm going to be outside during those hours or near any lakes. DEET is the only protection against mosquitos. That was very clear from all the specialists here last year.

But again. I wouldn't be overly concerned about it.

Johnnny

CourtQueen I guess if we take the standard precautions than we don't have to worry.