Does anyone have any suggestions for bug netting to use over a sleeping bag in the shelters during the summer. This past summer the bugs were tough to take on the Long Trail in spots at night. It was too hot to pull the bag up. I know I could tent but the shelters are easier. Thanks!
Roadrunner
Hi Roadrunner, This past summer I used a silk liner (the kind you would use in a hiking hostel or AMC hut) together with a no-seeum headnet. I got both through Campmor.
When it was really hot, I slept in the liner on top of my bag and tucked the headnet into the liner. When I needed the warmth of the bag, I slept in the liner inside the bag (the liner supposedly adds about 10 degrees to the warmth of the bag) and tucked the headnet into the top of this combo. Often, when it was that cool, the bugs were scarce. One benefit of using the liner inside the bag was that if I got too warm I could unzip the top or bottom of the bag to ventilate and my skin was still protected by the liner. This wasn’t a perfect solution - that would be a tent, I suppose. This is the best solution I’ve come up with so far. A lot of people in shelters just douse themselves with DEET, but I hesitate to do that to myself.
Good luck.
Two Hats
Two Hats
You must be able to buy sheets of bug netting somewhere. I have been using a tarp tent when bug population is low and was thinking that if I purchased a sheet of netting I could just drape it from the tent poles to keep the bugs off. I wonder if anyone uses this method and where can you find sheets of netting?
Big B
Try outdoor wilderness fabrics.
I’ve never ordered from them but ive heard good reviews.
Also, the A-16 bug bivy is nice and light for your chest and up.
4-cheese
4-cheese
I saw a hiker that used bug netting inside the shelters. Somehow he would string a rope across and have an A-frame of bug netting with the netting tucked under his sleeping bag. Has anyone else seen or done something similar?
Turtle Walking
Roadrunner, I’m glad you brought up this subject of bug netting. I’ve been reading the stats of tru-hikers that have completted the trail this year and most have stayed in the shelter 80%+ of the time. I was wondering what they did to ease the bug situation. I am doing the trail next year and will be carring a light tent, but it would be nice not to have to put it up in a down pour or just flat tired. I have a bug net we use to put over our army cots and had thought about using it. Deet is ok during the day but at night while tring to sleep. 
Like Turtle Walking, any suggestions would be appreciated.
Cookie
Try lookong at Canpmor.com, item #86660. Five oz. hikers misquito net that fits around a sleeping pad. It comes with a hook and string to hang from overhead but can be rigged with hiking poll. Everything else I found was too bulky or weighed too much. Good luck…
Cj
There’s a certain flow to a long distance trail that I love. Need something, and it will appear. I can’t begin to explain how that happens, and I miss that special “plugged-in” feeling of simple abundance and “it will all work out,” now that I am back home on the flatland. Yes, on trail, I actually ceased to worry. Horrors!
As I was entering NJ on a very rainy year ('03), the bugs were just starting to pick up. I stayed at the Delaware Water Gap church hostel and, out of habit, looked into the hiker box. There was a light head net. Zowee!
That and a silk liner got me through most sleeps in the mid-atlantic when I was in the shelter. I left the net in a hiker box in Maine for some future SOBO. Twice, I think, I resorted to DEET, but hated that because I wasn’t exactly showering every day.
As a DEET alternative, I used catnip oil (google it in) because studies at Iowas State had shown it to be as effective as DEET in similar concentrations. MY own field tests of the oil were wildly successful, although it does have a funny smell (check out my NJ entries for details) and every cat in the hostel will come and love on you.
I did the Long Trail in a drought year ('02) and had no trouble at all with bugs. Outside the swamplands, alot of it will depend on the local weather.
Jan Liteshoe
On the AT in 04 I hiked the summer months with a 6’ x 8’ nylon tarp and a Sleepscreen bug net. It’s very light and has its own thin fiberglass poles so it sets up over the head of the sleeping bag like a mousquito netting micro-tent. The netting extends down almost to the foot of the sleeping bag. I could use the Sleepscreen under my tarp or in a shelter and didn’t have to worry about finding an overhead attachment point. Check out Campmor, they had this item during the summer.
The Walking Stomach, AMC Ridgerunner
Thanks everyone for the suggestions! I think I might try the Sleepscreen bug net. The poles should help keep it off my face. I figure its worth a try.
Roadrunner
I just made a Jardine-style headnet, and it should be plenty to sleep in if I don’t roll around too much.
Instructions are in his book…I have some pics here:
http://www.geocities.com/jwj32542/HomemadeGearHeadnet.html
Just Jeff
I use a Bug Hut 1 by MSR, and it’s paid for itself many times. It’s just over a pound, but I can move freely underneath it. I modified it’s framework slightly so there is more room, and have spent more than one night on top of my sleeping bag listening to the mosquitoes trying to get at me while drifitng off to a blissful sleep. One of the nice side effects is it also keep the mice off you when they’re scurrying about, even when they fall from the rafters.
Lawn Sale
“One of the nice side effects is it also keep the mice off you when they’re scurrying about, even when they fall from the rafters.”
Ick. That’s why I hammock.
Just Jeff