Mosquito Sack Gear Hack

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…I found a lady with a sewing machine on a corner near the marketplace.  I don’t speak Thai, so I showed her, in pantomime, what I wanted her to do, and made a little drawing for her.  She nodded sagely, and told me to come back in an hour.
One hour and three dollars later, I had a mozzie sack… with a drawstring…

Mosquitoes
Mozzies, we call them in Australia, and it is not a term of endearment, I assure you.
 
Those of you who have been on the road with me for a while, know that I spend a lot of time sleeping outdoors, and in dodgy, mosquito infested hostels. 
Mosquitoes are my arch nemesis.  They are evil, and cannot be destroyed.  Mosquitoes want to creep up on me while I sleep, and feast on my living blood. 
Sometimes I have wild, fevered dreams, where a giant mozzie, the size of a cat, attacks me out of the darkness… then wake up in a lather of sweat, scratching at myself like a mental patient.

Seriously though, mozzies are a big health hazard.  In many parts of the world they carry very dangerous infectious diseases, including Malaria and Dengue fever.
There are certain preventative drugs you can take to avoid contracting Malaria, but there is no pharmaceutical prophylactic for Dengue.  And no amount of drugs is going to get rid of the ugly red sores and maddening itch.

So what’s the answer
I have never used Malaria med’s in the tropics.  My thinking is: if I have to avoid being bitten anyway because of Dengue, why shell out big bucks for a pill to prevent Malaria?  Especially since it’s a pill I have to take every single day for months at a time!

The best strategy is to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes in the first place. 
There are excellent DEET based repellant ointments available.  When selecting a repellant I always look on the label for the DEET percentage. 
There are repellants on the market that contain herbal potions / ‘natural’ oils. I haven’t got much faith in them. They are certainly not as effective as DEET.
My favourite mozzie repellant is called “Bushman“.   The heavy duty version is 80% DEET.  The concentrated formula means it is much more weight efficient for travel than most other ointments.  
The catch with good repellants is; they are expensive.  A bottle of Bushman goes a long way if you use it sparingly, but it will cost you up to US $14.00.
One word of advice: it’s a good idea to apply this stuff carefully with the backs of your hands.  You really won’t like the way it tastes.  It smells pretty strongly too.  (An undesirable side effect: the foul smell and taste may be a prophylactic against things other than insects… but I digress.)

When I sleep outdoors, the last thing I want is to be massacred by mozzies during the night, but lathering my entire body with toxic smelling repellant before I go to sleep can get pretty boring.  I’ve come up with a simple gear hack that solves the night time insect problem quite neatly.

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(Above: the diagram I gave the sewing machine lady and the result. Job well done, sewing machine lady!)

Introducing: the mozzie sack.
For a while I’ve had a nice light silk liner for my sleeping bag.  I got it in a camping shop.  It’s basically just a big rectangular sack made of thin silk. The Idea is that it protects the lining of your sleeping bag from dirt and body oil.  It’s nice to sleep in, even in humid weather, because the silk doesn’t hold moisture, and breathes really well.  

Staying in guesthouses in Asia I often slept inside the silk bag on it’s own, to keep mosquitoes off me, but I had to poke my head out to breath freely, so they still made a beeline for my face.

One night, I was walking around Krabi, in southern Thailand, and I saw this very light, gauzy dress fabric in a tailor’s shop. 
‘That is what I need’ I thought to myself.
It was only a couple of dollars a metre, so I bought a big piece. I got a dull greenish colour, of course, to camouflage, and not show dirt.

I got my needle and thread out of my little fix-it kit, and sewed the gauze to the top of my silk bag liner.  Basically, I extended the top of the bag to make it about 700mm deeper. 
I slept in the mozzie bag that night and it worked beautifully.  The fabric was light enough I could breath very comfortably, and transparent enough that I could easily see through it..  The mesh did not collect moisture from my breath, so I felt dry and comfortable inside.  A mozzie-free night… well, half a night.
In my sleep the bag came untucked and my head emerged, and I was attacked.
I sat with my morning coffee, scratching my face, and scratching my head.  I realised that the mozzie bag was not yet complete.  I needed a draw string.  It was time to bring in a professional.

I found a lady with a sewing machine on a corner near the marketplace.  I don’t speak Thai, so I showed her, in pantomime, what I wanted her to do, and made a little drawing for her.  She nodded sagely, and told me to come back in an hour.
One hour and three dollars later, I had a mozzie sack… with a drawstring.

‘MuahHaHahahaha..!  Let’s see you drink my blood now, arch nemesis!’

The mozzie sack has been a big success.  It’s very handy for protecting against all kinds of creepy crawlies too, like ants, spiders, bed bugs, cockroaches, snakes, etc.

My nights are more peaceful, my face less itchy, and my spending on mozzie repellant has got smaller too! Win.

The silk sleeping bag liner I bought is pretty pricey.  If you want to put together a mozzie sack, you might save some money by making the whole thing from scratch.  Or find a sewing machine lady. Tailors in Asia are very affordable.  Make sure you get real silk for the bag though, because a cheap acrylic or cotton fabric will not be as comfortable to sleep in, especially in the tropics.
Happy stitching amigos!

BTW: there are two other anti-mozzie strategies I find effective sometimes.
1. If you are camped in one place for a while, mosquito coils are very helpful.
2. If you are in a hostel, keep the electric fan aimed at your bed. In addition to strong odors, mosquitoes do not like windy conditions. Maybe try eating a lot of raw cabbage before bed? I think some former dorm-mates of mine were using that technique… X(
 

If you’d like to read more about what’s in my backpack, visit the gear page.

 
>> Questions?  Check out the Q and A page, or email me.
>> What do you really need? Learn how to pack your bag for adventure!
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