repellents and sunscreen

[donnad]

hi all.........first trip to roatan coming up in 6 weeks. i have a few questions and will probably have more later. Have any of you used the lemon eucalyptus repellents (the ingredients are on the CDC effective list)...and was it successful against both the sand flies and the mosquitoes? and secondly........how what about sunscreen? does DEET make your sunscreen non-effective.........or the reverse? or how do you manage this? do you use the cactus juice on dive days, and then DEET or lemon eucalyptus when not diving? and if swimming/laying out at the beach....then what's the best plan? i have fair skin, not extremely fair, but i do need sunscreen on. thanks in advance everyone.

 

[RTBDiver]

The same CDC you reference in your post also has recommendations for the use of sunscreen along with insect repellant, HERE , at bottom of page

Generally you would not slather on any repellant or sunscreen just before diving so being a dive day or not really should not make a difference and I don't think the bugs always get the message not to bother people on diving days. I also don't want to have to carry two different products that do the same thing. Do you ever use repellant at home? Use what works for you. The lemon stuff may be fine but I am just an old crotchety cheap son of a gun and I get deet products dirt cheap and they work so thats what I use. If I can find the new lemony stuff for $1-$2 a bottle i will gladly give it a shot.

 

[Storm]

The gerneal rule of thumb is not to use the commercially combined products, but rather use them individually. Apply the suncscreen FIRST then apply the insect repellent. Sunscreen is designed to penetrate the upper skin layers. DEET based products (or most other insect reellents) are designed to sit on top of the skin and not to penmetrae too deeply into the skin, perhap a layer at most.

If you reverse the order (deet first, sunscreen second) the sunscreen can carry the DEET deeper into you skin then is tis supposed to penetrate and we all knowthat deet is not neccessarily all that good for you (albeit it is very effective) if used incorreclty.

As to suncreen while diving, if you canfint it, use a reef friendly sunscreen whenyou are gpoing to be dinving on coral.

 

[DennisS]

Have any of you used the lemon eucalyptus repellents (the ingredients are on the CDC effective list)...and was it successful against both the sand flies and the mosquitoes?

I've used the Repel lemon-eucalyptus, it works. I have to use a repellent when I'm on my patio at dusk. The no-see-ums are bad and there are mosquitos. I've used deet and the Repel lemon-eucalyptus seems to work just as good.

 

[CajunDiva]

If you use the lotion form of Cactus Juice, it contains SPF 20 sunscreen. I am also fair-skinned and I use Cactus Juice during the day when I'm around the sand and dive shop. Then at night when the mosquitos come out in force I spray on something with DEET.

 

[donnad]

Thank you so much all! This board is wonderful. I'll be asking more questions during these final weeks before our trip and I am confident you will be my wonderful support group. I can't wait to go!!

 

[aRea]

Vinegar works as a great treatment for sand flies and mosquito bites, should you get eaten up

 

[jc60625]

I've seen mixed reviews on Cactus Juice and talking to some of the ex-pats down there it seems it works very well for some and not so well for others. I was there in June and that's all i used... even at night and it worked like a charm.

 

[swimbody]

We have used the lemon eucalyptus Repel on our last two trips to Roatan and didn't have any bites that I can remember. I ordered it from drugstore.com.

 

[donnad]

Awesome,thanks. I'm going to try the repel, but i'm taking deet along in case I need to cave in. Lolololol