Beating the Bugs

The difference was like night & day. Mosquitoes still swarmed, but they could no longer access our tender hides.

Shortly before the 2000 archery season, I found out about a nice "new" hunting spot, and determined to hunt there. This land lies along a river, and here in Florida, that means mosquitoes - lots of mosquitoes. Since archery season this far south usually means blood, sweat, and ticks anyhow, I knew I was going to need some protection from the skeeters down in that swamp. That's where Bug Tamer comes in.

I had contacted the folks at Shannon Outdoors some months before, to let them know that I had added a link to their website. I had been told that they'd like me to do a review on one of their jackets. The jacket had never arrived (although a Bug Tamer brochure did), so I figured they had changed their minds about the review. I mentioned this to the helpful gal who answered the phone when I called to order one of their well-known jackets, and she suggested that she have Scott Hayes, their vice president of sales, call me back.

As it turned out, whomever I had previously corresponded with had since left the company, and they definitely wanted me to test and review a Bug Tamer. Just a few days later, I was the proud owner of a Bug Tamer jacket, with the responsibility of testing it under extreme conditions for the benefit of my readers.

Extreme conditions were not hard to come by - on my first trip down the river with a friend of mine, Mark Berley, I found conditions as extreme as I ever wish to see! We trolled and paddled upstream in my ten-foot aluminum john boat, and pulled in at the first inlet. We beached the boat and got out to have a look around. We made it about twenty feet from the boat before the clouds of bloodsuckers descended upon us - and then we hot-footed it back to the boat for our Bug Tamers (Mark had bought his the previous week).

The difference was like night & day. Mosquitoes still swarmed, but they could no longer access our tender hides. We knew right away that we had done the right thing in obtaining Bug Tamers. We scouted a few different spots along the river, all brimming with skeeters. Since it was so hot, we tried Shannon's suggestion and wet the coats, which did help keep us a little cooler.

We hunted the afternoon in our climbing stands, and I thought the mosquitoes were bad. They were gathered on the face cover, a dozen or so at a time, attracted by the carbon dioxide in my breath, and they buzzed around my head constantly. When we returned to our trees at dawn the next morning, however, I found out how bad the river skeeters can get.

I've seen many a swarm of skeeters in my life, and would have sworn that I had seen them at their worst. Wrong! That morning was the worst I had ever endured - and I would have literally run back to the boat and forsworn that river swamp, if I hadn't had a Bug Tamer. I counted five bites through the double-mesh jacket and my shirt beneath in the few hours I sat there, but that's five out of five thousand or so!

This pic shows the mesh-within-mesh design.
Photo by Russ Chastain

The jacket does an admirable job keeping the mosquitoes at bay, but the design isn't perfect. The mosquitoes were tearing my legs up through my pants (more on this later), so I hoisted my pack up into the tree with me and dug out my bug spray. I stuck the smallish can in the pocket of my Bug Tamer, and was lowering the pack again when I heard a loud clatter at the base of the tree. There went my repellent! The pockets could certainly use a redesign - as they are, they'll do if you're very careful, and if whatever you put in them fits below the low rearward wall of the pocket. I'd rather see cargo pockets with flaps, and at least one breast pocket.

This is the offending pocket... accessible only from the rear. Watch for falling objects!
Photo by Russ Chastain

The face cover on the hood is quite necessary if you're in thick mosquito country, but it's a pain. It's tough to see through, since it's very tightly-woven mesh, like the rest of the jacket's shell, and hot breath doesn't readily escape. I had a hard time seeing through it, and so did Mark. I followed another Shannon suggestion and blacked a large portion of the inside with a magic marker when I got home that night, which helped but it still wasn't wonderful. In low-light conditions, we had a choice - see clearly and fight the skeeters around our faces, or use the face cover. I tried both, and neither really satisfied me.

The bottom line is, Bug Tamer works. I'll admit it right here and now - I was a skeptic. I looked at the illustration showing the mosquito trying to reach through the double-mesh and not making it and I thought, "Yeah, right. Florida skeeters will laugh at the stuff." But I knew I needed something, and Bug Tamer came highly recommended, so that's who I called. I certainly don't regret it, and neither does Mark. We haven't taken a deer from that swamp yet, but now we know we can handle hunting down there.

This image property of Shannon Outdoors, Inc.

One last thing... remember those bloodthirsty devils that were chewing my legs off? I took care of that little problem. As I sat there that warm morning losing blood almost by the pint, I decided I should get some Bug Tamer pants if I was ever coming back there to hunt. Before the next weekend arrived, I had found my way to Jerry's Pawn Shop in Ocala, and I owned some Bug Tamer britches. Skeeters don't chew my legs anymore, which makes me a much happier hunter. I will be wearing my Bug Tamers on any and all warm-weather hunts in the future, including small game and turkey hunting. Hunters who have to deal with bugs should definitely give Bug Tamer a try.

Happy hunting,

Russ Chastain

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