There’s nothing more annoying than some mosquitoes buzzing loudly in your ear and biting your flesh.
If you’re heading out on a camping trip, you can expect to find more than enough of these annoying insects at the campsite. It would be really annoying if your sleep keeps getting interrupted by mosquitoes – you would probably be in a bad mood the next morning.
This is why you need to learn to keep mosquitoes when camping away. This article is well detailed and contains information that will help you fight off the terrible mosquitoes at campsites
How to Keep Mosquitoes and Flies Away While Camping
How to keep mosquitoes away from campsite? Just imagine you’ve taken a break from work so that you can have some time of peace and quiet – You have chosen to achieve that by camping within the serene atmosphere provided by nature itself.
It would be so frustrating if mosquitoes come by to ruin your peaceful camping experience – You would feel like you should have just stayed home.
Here are some methods you can use to keep mosquitoes away when camping:
1. Apply Oil
How to repel mosquitoes while camping? What is the best way to repel mosquitoes while camping? For those who prefer a more natural method of repelling the mosquitoes, you should consider using some Citronella or Cedar oil besides covering with a camping blanket overall.
These natural oils are capable of efficiently repelling mosquitoes. Citronella works by reducing the potency of smells that mosquitoes are naturally drawn to. You should purchase some bottles of these natural oils when you’re heading out on a camping trip.
Rub the oils on your skin and watch as mosquitoes flee from you. One great advantage of these oils is that they have pleasant scents that wouldn’t bother other campers.
2. Use Bug Spray
When you’re out camping in the wild, you won’t just be within the confines of your tent all through. You might want to go out and explore more of the wild and daring environment provided by nature.
You can go on walking exercises or hiking trips but you must know that you wouldn’t be alone. The mosquitoes at the campsite would want to disturb your peace and you must not allow this.
This is why you have your campfire mosquito repellent. Spray some on yourself and your gear before you head into the wild. This is the best way to keep mosquitoes away while camping.
3. Be Careful When Choosing What to Wear
When you’re out camping, your choice of clothing is very important. If you don’t have the right sets of clothing, you would have lots of regrets.
In the fight against mosquitoes and other bugs, you should consider packing light-weight, and long-sleeve shirts along with some long trousers.
The light-weight clothes will ensure that you don’t feel too hot when you’re at camp. There are also some clothes that are manufactured with bug-repellent materials integrated into them.
You can ask for such clothes when you’re shopping at the mall. This would go a great way in serving you efficiently as you repel bugs.
4. Get Some Herbs
Another natural resource that can be deployed in the battle against mosquitoes is herbs.
There are some great herbs that can be combined with other natural elements in a simple fashion to make mosquito-repellent substances. If you had some rosemary and water, you can combine them in a quick mix to make an effective repellent.
Just like Eucalyptus, which is sometimes deployed as a mosquito repellent, there are other natural herbs like Basil, Catnip, Lemon balm, and Lavender have also been used in making repellents. Feel free to make use of any of these nature’s provisions to battle mosquitoes at camp.
You can also take advantage of your beautiful campfire to repel mosquitoes. To do this, you need to get hold of some sage and gnats (if you can get some).
Throw these into the campfire and their scents will mix with the smoke from the fire. This mixture of smoke and scents will serve as an active repellent to keep mosquitoes away.
5. Get Rid of Scents
If you think about it, a lot of the beauty and cleansing products that we use have strong and appealing scents.
These scents play a key role in attracting mosquitoes. If you don’t want to be constantly swarmed by bugs at camp, you need to limit the extent to which you use these scented products.
There are some unscented soaps, lotions, and the likes that can be used as a replacement for the mosquito-attracting products. Make sure you try to purchase some as you set out for your camping trip.
6. Find Waste
Having a campfire is a great addition to the fight against mosquitoes. The last subtopic mentioned how you can add some sage or gnats to the campfire to make the smoke effective as a mosquito repellent.
Another way to enhance your campfire for the purpose of fighting off mosquitoes is by adding cow pies to the fire. Cow pies are easy to get since you would probably find them lying about at the campsite.
Locate one that isn’t moist and toss it in the campfire. This should serve as a fighting mechanism against those annoying pests.
7. Pick a Good Campsite
Another important thing to take into consideration when fighting bugs is the location of the campsite. Make sure that you do some proper research on the intended site for camping before you head out on the trip.
Check for areas that don’t have stagnant bodies of water like lakes and other nearby water bodies like rivers. Sites that don’t receive much sunlight will get very damp when it rains. Try to locate campsites that are mostly dry.
8. Don’t Use a Lantern
Your flashlights or camping lanterns can attract annoying bugs to you when you’re using them at night. If the light source was a campfire, you won’t have any mosquito problems.
On the other hand, any other light source would bring mosquitoes rushing into your 4 person camping tent. Make sure that you switch off your lights when you’re in the tent so that bugs don’t come flying in.
9. Get a Quality Tent
It’s also important that you choose the right tent when you’re camping. The best choice of tent is the two-layer tent.
This is because the tent is built in such a way that it keeps bugs away and also protects your personal space from the rain. If you’re going to be camping in a region that receives a lot of heat, a two-layered tent would serve you well because of their ability to provide you with ventilation.
If your tent has a rain fly, make sure that you always zip it up so that mosquitoes and other bugs won’t find their way into your tent.
10. Keep Your Calm
Even after all these steps, you still need to have a good attitude to survive.
Having a good, positive attitude in any situation always makes life easier. When you’re out camping, you need to accept the fact that you can never get rid of mosquitoes totally.
What you can do is make sure that these pests don’t kill your vibrant spirit and spoil your camping trip. Try to be less bothered about their presence and carry out your activities with all joy and in high-spirit.
Frequently Asked Questions
From my personal experience at camp, I would say that campfires aren’t very useful as mosquito repellents.
Most of the time when I was around a campfire, I was still getting ferociously attacked by these pests – Although there were a few times when the campfire seemed to repel the mosquitoes. Regardless of those times, I still don’t believe that campfires are naturally reliable in the fight against mosquitoes.
In fact, campfires are attractive to mosquitoes because they produce CO2 gas. This gas can be detected by mosquitoes and that means you can expect them to swarm your campfire. Regardless of this, campfires are still seemingly repellent to mosquitoes from time to time.
My personal belief is that mosquitoes can’t tell the scent of CO2 from your body apart from the CO2 produced by the campfire. This confuses them and reduces their ability to identify potential food sources.
Regardless of all that, you can fortify your campfire by adding some natural herbs and oils to the fire. These would produce scents that are mixed with the smoke to repel bugs.
Maybe you’ve used bug-zappers in your fight against a couple of insects and it has proven effective.
You need to know that these electronic devices have been proven not to work well in the fight against mosquitoes.
When looking for methods on how to keep mosquitoes away when camping, you might not want to purchase a bug-zapper.
I personally don’t believe in mosquito repelling apps. It just doesn’t sound practical.
Lots of people purchase or download these apps online with the hope that they would be saved from mosquitoes but there have been several bad reviews that show that these apps don’t work.
My personal advice to you is that you should neglect these apps. If you still have doubts, feel free to carry out a personal experiment.
Yes, there are mosquito traps that you can purchase. Remember that mosquitoes are attracted to CO2 gas. Because of this trait, the manufacturers of mosquito traps focus on a system that can produce gas and attract mosquitoes.
You should also consider the fact that humans produce this gas when we breathe out. This just means that mosquitoes would still get attracted to you regardless of the trap being put in place.
Generally, you cannot count on mosquito traps to completely annihilate mosquitoes in your surroundings. You can only try to repel as much of them as possible. Focus on the mosquito-repelling techniques because this is your best shot at minimizing mosquito bites and disturbances.
Final Thoughts
With all that has been said on how to keep mosquitoes away when camping, you should be able to minimize their presence and enjoy your time at camp.
Remember to always have a positive attitude whenever you’re out camping so that you won’t get bothered by any bugs in the vicinity. You should also try to focus on repelling mosquitos rather than killing them. This is the best method that will guarantee any tangible results.
Remember to check for the location of the campsites and its proximity to any stagnant bodies of water or any other significant water body. The best campsites are those that receive a great amount of sunlight.
Follow our given guidelines and you should have a great time camping.
Which of these ways to keep mosquitoes away while camping do you like and use most? Show us your pick in the comments section, please!