Mosquito Reports Level 5 improvement

[SSSdave]

Per the "2023 Mosquito Reports" thread, I understand the humorous intent of level 5, however just because mosquitoes are that dense, does not necessarily mean a person will be bit even once if they are properly protected. Consider, some members like this person may never use that level on a post even though it may be appropriate simply because it makes it read as though mosquitoes were actually biting them that makes them appear unprepared. I've personally been in such clouds of mosquitoes many times but without being poked. Yes, even though I may may not be bit, it can make a few tasks difficult though not "unbearable".

For instance, I've taken a fast safe dip in lake/streams after hours on dusty, grimy, sweaty hikes by after setting up camp, by putting on inside my near empty of gear tent, my full leg, light, fast drying, synthetic pants and upper zip shell, headgear, then exiting tent, walking to stream and wading into water fully clothed so. After dousing, return into tent where I've placed a small plastic sheet to reduce leaving water in my zippered door tent. Within tent remove wet clothes and push that out the door. Inside tent will have a spare clean cotton t-shirt to use as a towel so my body will dry faster. If cold will have my sleeping bag in its stuff sack just outside the door I can then bring in to get inside once dry. I absolutely hate getting into my clean goose down sleeping bag each day unless I am clean, so jump into water 90% of summer days in backcountry, regardless of weather.

As for eating outside within dense mosquitoes, do such all the time with my head net. Bringing even fresh hot cooked food from my cooking pot to put in my mouth up under the bottom of the head netting is annoying but quite doable.

Currently shows:

Use the following scale to report severity of the mozzies you experience:
0 - No mosquitoes
1 - They were present, but not biting yet
2 - Very light during the day, moderate at dawn and dusk
3 - Moderate during the day, heavy at dawn and dusk
4 - Heavy during the day, heavy at dawn and dusk
5 - Unbearable all day, no breaks, cannot eat outside of tent. If you stop, hundreds will descend on you; when looking thru a camera viewfinder, you see more skeeters than lake. If you slapped your arm, you'd smear blood from all the dead gorged bodies.

Though trivial, could be improved with:

Unbearable for unprotected persons all day, no breaks, cannot eat outside of tent. If one stops, hundreds will descend on them; when looking thru a camera viewfinder, one sees more skeeters than lake. If you slapped your arm, you'd smear blood from all the dead gorged bodies.

[erutan]

One further issue is that a lot of times I'm not in the same spot for morning, day, and evening. Mornings can also often be a lot lighter than evenings. Tilden was heavy in the evening, light to none during the day, and moderate in the morning quickly fading to light to none (the latter was very odd). That doesn't fit into the 0-5 scale.

I tend to think of things on a subjective scale for a time period and am more interested in the distinction between moving and not. Obviously still not 100% accurate for all situations.

DEFCON 5: Few to no mosquitos land when stopped, pretty much none land when moving. Can essentially forget they're there.

DEFCON 4: A light amount of mosquitos when stopped, enough to slap occasionally but not to cause any real discomfort or pressure to move on. Passive mitigation (permethrin sun hoodie, long quick dry pants, etc) is perfectly adequate. Not an issue when moving. Generally don't target exposed areas but land evenly across protected surfaces.

DEFCON 3: A moderate amount of mosquitos when stopped, needing frequent brushing or slapping. Moving there are occasional ones to be dealt with, but enjoyment of the hike isn't impaired. With passive mitigation it's actively annoying stopped, you want to get moving again, but you can still do what you want to do with minimal interference.

DEFCON 2: A heavy amount of mosquitos when stopped that you want to rush through whatever you need to do (take off boots for a crossing, filter water etc) and being stopped is not comfortable. They are bad enough moving that enjoyment of terrain you're moving through is impacted by having to deal with mosquitos. This is when a rain shell and mosquito net are handy as more heavy duty passive measures, only a single (or no) hands are exposed, and more active measures like DEET / incense repellent / thermocell / campfire smoke / etc come into play. Camp high and dry in an exposed spot if possible, but you still get out of your tent to do what needs to be done.

DEFCON 1: Clouds of aggressive mosquitos - any exposed part of your body will be covered within seconds whether moving or still. Active measures are necessary for sanity. Boots will not be taken off at stream crossings, water fill ups will be put off until later. Despite exhaustion a 2mph constant pace is necessary when moving. Thoughts of calling in a tanker to spray the area with DEET come to mind. Hide in your tent and cook dinner 90 minutes after sunset.

[wildhiker]

@erutan, I love your scale! Matches my experiences exactly. Thankfully, I've only experienced your "DEFCON 1" state a couple of times in fifty+ years of Sierra backpacking. In fact, under those conditions, I find myself running, even uphill!

I do find it counterintuitive to give the worst conditions number 1 and the best conditions number 5.

-Phil

[erutan]

Yeah, DEFCON 1 for me was cloud canyon last year (forgot my headnet) - stream crossing was running high and I would have had to take my boots off so I looked at topo, saw the trail used to keep on the side I was on and just thrashed through aspen, across creeks, barely looked at bypasses for cliff bands with my rain jacket on. Went over midway mountain earlier that day and had dropped a lot, it was evening but literally didn't go under 2mph until we hit stone table meadow where we made a fire and I paced in circles until the smoke + cooling temps worked.

Fish Creek can often reach that state. 2011 had a few moments like that in Tuolumne.

Often times I hit bad mosquitos in a random spot - say a boggy lake at 3pm then move on, so I'll have no idea about morning or evening.

[michaelzim]

Yes, great "mosquitoes scale" Erutan, though do agree that DEFCON 1 as the highest level to be counterintuitive - but aware that it is the 'actual' conditions levels for alerts re. DEFCON.
M.

[erutan]

yup "defense readiness condition" pretty much sums it up I think.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEFCON

Years ago one the sandwich board outside of a high camp (either Vogelsang or Glen Aulin) had a mosquito DEFCON level and it's sort of stuck in my head since.

[SSSdave]

Thanks Erutan for your DEFCON scale post. I could add some more levels. I have experienced DEFCON5 numbers of times because I tend to backpack during the latter phases of mosquito season. DEFCON3,4,5 are periods when dressing properly and use of strong DEET is the effective strategy for receiving minimal bites. In my case as a photographer, that is my hands and wrists that need to be exposed to operate tripod mounted camera controls. Often don't put DEET on those areas when working subjects due to the oiliness getting on lens surfaces.