TheCampingGuy.com Blog | Camping Tips

The gorgeous green mountainsides and rushing spring water are great reasons to enjoy camping in springtime. Bugs, however, can dampen your camping spirit depending on where you plan to camp. To overcome these pesky critters, I have some great tips and ideas for keeping your camping trip bug free and it won’t require much time or effort.

Netting
Traditional easy-to-open canopy tents, which are great for shade while living in the outdoors, can double up as a great dining room. For about $100, you can find a great garden tent with convenient screen walls. These are easy to put up, take down and keep the bugs out.

Another way to net your campers is to be sure that the camping tents you choose have netted windows in them. Most tents like Greatland, Eddie Bauer and Coleman come with both netted windows and a zip up solid window.

Products
Spray on bug repellents and lotions are inexpensive, easy to find at your local drug store and work great. They often, however, contain Deet. Deet is a pesticide that has been known to irritate sensitive skin, absorb into the blood stream and its long-term affects are unknown, so be aware.

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Spring is one of the most beautiful times of the year to camp and hike, but we also know that where there are flowers blooming and birds chirping, there is also pollen, spores and microscopic seeds floating all around us. So, I bring you these allergy fighting tips to use on your next springtime camping trip.

Homeopathic Remedies
Camping out in the wilderness means that you must be alert and on your toes at all times. There are a great many things to discover, enjoy and be aware of. You don’t want to be drowsy on allergy medication while you’re trying to enjoy the great outdoors! So, before you head to the medicine cabinet for something, try out some of these natural ways to fight off allergies.

1. Vitamin C with Bioflavonoids: Boosting your immune system is a great way to fight off allergies and the infections that can sometimes follow them.
2. Vitamin A: Fight the inflammation caused by allergies with vitamin A, even after the onset of symptoms. Subtle but effective, Vitamin A calms allergies and boosts immunity.
3. Vitamin B5: This vitamin will boost your adrenal function, which is a great defense against stress. You may not know it, but your body gets stressed out during an allergic reaction.
4. CoQ10: A natural antihistamine and stress blocker, this is a great vitamin to add to C and B5.
5. Omega 3 Fatty Acids: Found in fish and supplements, take this with A and CoQ10. Within an hour, you should expect relief from the symptoms of your allergies.
   Nelsons Homeopathic Medicine: These neat little pills come in a clikpak that you can carry around with you in a purse or pocket and are made by Nelsons, a homeopathic remedy company that’s been in business for over 100 years. Visit them at www.nelsonshomoeopathy.co.uk.
6. Airborne: Created by a teacher, this supplement is packed with amino acids, antioxidants and vitamins. You can find it in just about any grocery store.
7. Juices, fruit and vegetables: Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables along with drinking orange, grape and cranberry juice before, during and after a camping trip can make a huge difference in how energetic and healthy you feel.

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I’m sure you’ve heard about Lyme disease and how it’s carried by some ticks so here’s a few tips on how to prevent getting ticks while camping and what to do if you get one.

First of all, let’s focus on protection. Here’s a couple of tips.

• Wear light colored clothing so you can see the ticks on you.
• Pull your socks up over your pant legs to prevent ticks from crawling in.
• Wear a long sleeved shirt and a hat.
• Wear insect repellant. I tend to spray an extra dose around my ankles when I’m hiking on trails.
• Check yourself and others for ticks after a hike, especially around the head and ears.

If you happen to get one attached to you, here’s what to do.

• Stay calm
• Take some tweezers from your camp kit or first aid kit and grasp the tick close to the skin and gently pull until it comes out. You don’t want to rip it out, or you might leave the mouth parts in your skin.
• Wash the wound with soap and water, put on antibiotic ointment.
• After dealing with the tick make sure you wash your hands.

Watch for symptoms over the next 48 hours to week, which are:

• A red ring-like rash may appear around the bite area
• Flu-like symptoms like fatigue, muscle and join pain, headache, fever, swollen glands, sore throat and stiff neck.

If you experience these symptoms after tick remove, please see a physician.

Above all, check with the Park Ranger of the campground to see if ticks inhabit in your camping area. He/she will give you some advice on local conditions and possible areas to stay away from. Then you’re prepared to have a fun campout!

Camping and bugs kind of go hand-in-hand. You expect those pesky flying insects when you go camping and you always need to prepare for them. Mosquitoes, black flies, gnats, horse flies, deer flies…you name it they are all out there just waiting for all you tender-skinned campers to show up so they can feast! So, what do you do?

Lather on the bug lotion, spray on the DEET-based insect spray, light citronella candles around the campsite, eat cloves of garlic? These are all popular and effective remedies that are used, but now there’s another one!

How about a patch that will last for days without reapplying? A new product has come on the market for campers that you should know about to fight bugs. Just like the quit smoking patches, this patch attaches to your arm and wards off insects for up to 36 hours. “Don’t Bug Me Patch”is all natural! no DEET, so it’s safe to use on the kids, and it’s waterproof!

So you can put it on Friday, on the way to the campsite and not have to worry about insect bites all weekend. I haven’t tried it yet, but I will on my next campout. If you get a chance to check it out, let us know your experience by posting a comment, below.