Flies biting through my pants!

[hwake]

Deer flies, horse flies and mosquitoes are horrendous this year in VA - I primarily do trail riding in the woods and I’m coming home every day with welts on my legs where they’ve bitten me through my pants! Riding tights, breeches, regular jeans - I’ve tried applying fly spray and OFF to myself without much success. They haven’t managed to get through my half chaps yet, but at this rate I wouldn’t put it past them!

Anyone have any ideas? Preferably ones that don’t involve putting on more layers - it’s supposed to be mid-90s this weekend and I’d love to not have to choose between being eaten alive by the bugs and being cooked in my own clothes.

[SonnysMom]

Eat lots of garlic? Probably too late for that. There must be something about you they particularly like.

One time a DH, a friend and I were helping with trail clearing. Friend and I used Coleman bug spray that was 100% DEET. DH used Deep Woods Off. DH had 6 ticks. Friend and I had none. I wonder if something with a higher percentage of DEET would help. I got the Coleman bug spray in a camping store. It is a small grey pump bottle.

[Fellbutbackup]

Get some DEET spray from a foreign country. I still have a bottle from China. Only thing that worked.

[Willesdon]

DEET is effective: it melts plastic and is carcinogenic so do use it with care. Eucalyptus oil and citronella oil are good. Spraying your saddle pad with them is helpful. Are there flies all the time or could you avoid them by riding early/late? Putting your horse in mask and fly sheet can reduce numbers but they still go after you as rider, just not as many!

[Chall]

They sell Safari pants at some travel stores. Friend used them in Africa said they worked.
um, yeah no on China sourced insect repellent, but then I’m old enough to have lived through the US lesson on insecticides and the bald eagle/rapture decline due to ddt.

[KateDC]

I’m in your neck of the woods, and have also had a hard time with flies biting me through my clothes. What works best for me is a 20% picaridin spray. The picaridin seems to do a better job thwarting flies than the mosquito-targeted DEET.

Mosquitoes also love me, but don’t seem to be as much a problem at the barn. The flies, on the other hand. . . they have been so bad the past week or two. When I get a fly bite, I swell up like crazy, itch, and then have a hard nodule that literally takes MONTHS to go away.

[Fellbutbackup]

Sounds like it is time to move.

[4horses]

Find someplace new to ride?

Unfortunately I have plenty of experience with this. Ocala national forest gets horrendous bugs and I no longer ride there during the summer for that reason. The last time I went we galloped back and the flies kept up with us.

I found a tiny county park that has no ticks, no standing water and few flies. The road doesn’t have much traffic so i can either ride on the trails or go down the street.

Nothing works on the bomber flies. Thick leather chaps will protect your legs, but there’s no effective repellent. I wish there was.

[M]

The Original Bug Shirt Company makes bug proof pants. They are light weight, durable and should be OK for trail riding. The fabric is said to be so tightly woven that biting insects and ticks cannot penetrate. (As per the site: prevent mosquito bites, and protect the wearer from black flies, no-see-ums, deer flies, horse flies, tsetse flies and ticks )

I’ve been wearing Elite Bug Shirt for a couple of weeks - works great - look pretty odd but the horses do not seem to notice. The flies and gnats were driving me mad and the itching and scaring was unrelenting. I’m seriously considering the pants as the flies are such capable opportunists, esp. when I’m standing still or kneeling on the ground. It seems that bites anywhere now make old bites itch too.