Repellent clothes to insects: Buzz off
Once, while canoeing the Royal River in Maine, I came across a wooded section dense with voracious deer flies. Not only did they bite hard, they circled so furiously around my head that one flew right into my mouth--at least that one didn't survive.
keeps bugs away from dogs.
To keep flies and other biting insects away, Buzz Off, a Greensboro, N.C.-based apparel company, patented a way to bind a repellent to clothing. Permethrin, according to the Web site, is a man-made version of a substance found naturally in chrysanthemums. The repellent-treated apparel has been approved by the EPA and is supposed to survive 25 trips through the washer.
Buzz Off makes and sells gear through companies including Orvis, which carries baseball caps for $24 and convertible pants that go from long to short for $79.
Don't forget man's best friend. There's a rayon-polyester, 23-inch square bandana for dogs. It goes for $15 at Orvis.
If you're still not covered up enough, Stearns has a face mask in two patterns--Realtree Hardwoods and Mossy Oak--each for $21.99.
And L.L. Bean offers the Buzz Off Kennebago Fishing Shirt, a short-sleeve garment that's billed to repel all kinds of biting insects, including clouds of black flies, mosquitoes and ticks. Storage pockets with zippers tackle fishing gear.