Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Tarp Shelters and Bugs

Here and there over the years I’ve had the opportunity to spend a night in a tarp shelter. Even in mosquito season, with enough bug spray and keeping covered up I managed to sleep.

But I’m older, and I’d like to avoid the bugs if I have a decent choice. Is there a light enough bug screen that would be worth carrying and provide enough protection from mosquitos?

It’s minus 6 out there tonight and nearly 40 mph winds. Bug season is right around the corner...

Cabela's has a 6'x4' bug screen material for $4.99. "Coghlans" brand.

Walmart sells a bug shelter for $49.97.

A few times I've had to "camp" in the vehicle at trailheads in the summer. Bring screen material, roll down windows part way, tape screen to window frame with blue masking tape and you get good ventilation. Have big bore revolver and ear pro close in case of bear or zombie "intrusion".

Tag

Just carry some no-see-um screen and either metal spring paper clips or clothes pins. The metal clips are stonger but the clothes pins won't slip as much on the fabric.
Experiment at home.

I like using a bug bivy ... open air or under a tarp. My favorite is from Bearpaw Wilderness Designs. REI's bug-hut I is a close second. The Bearpaw WD version merges tub and mesh so there's no need for a separate ground sheet and, zipped, has no gaps for bugs to get in through. The REI unit has a bit more room overhead but isn't integrated with a floor so you need a ground sheet and it is possible to squirm off the ground sheet during the night.

I try to avoid bug spray as much as possible. For me it's the third layer added only after the first two fail. First one is some sort of mesh .. the bug bivy at night or a mesh hat / jacket / gloves during the day, then fog (Thermacell), and finally something with DEET after all else has failed.

Tom

A lot of the tarptents tents are like a cross between a tarp and a tent. They are pretty light and offer bug protection.

An online site I looked at has a forum that was discussing bug shelters. One guy said nobody needs one. Just turn your sleeping bag face down and keep the hood over your face and head. Ooookay.

I've never experienced a problem with insects so severe that it couldn't be solved with Deet. However, I live and do most of my camping out west. Things are drier here and bugs are not as big a problem as they are east of the 100th meridian.

I've spent a lot of time from spring to summer and early fall, in Alaska, where insect swarms can be biblical. But even there Deet does the job for me. I suppose that everyone has different skin and therefore the the problems that come with insects vary from person to person.

So to answer your question, I don't use a bug shelter and know nothing about them.

Been doing some reading and it looks like do it yourself netting or the bear paw designs are about the only game in town.

No experience with them, but it seems bear paw has a mixed reputation. Bugs are a big enough deal that I’d spend some coin to avoid them. I’d like to hear more about bear paw?

What would you like to know? I've had mine 4-5 years I guess. I got the XL because the hoop is a bit higher giving more clearance between my face and the mesh. It's more than plenty long and plenty wide. I'm hard-pressed to find anything to complain about. I suppose this may sound odd, but one thing I don't like is the tub material is so slick that when I've folded the bivy, it's hard to keep ahold of it to chase it back in the stuff sack.

Large light weight tarp High and a small light weight 2 man full tub tent underneath. Zip it up and go to sleep...

Phil

Every hear the term 'mud wrestling with a fat girl'? It doesn't sound odd at all. Sil-nylon can be darn near impossible to stuff sometimes.

I generally use a really light bivy bag to protect and keep my down sleeping bag dry. It also has a bug net. I wear a baseball cap to keep the mesh off of my face. Mine is made by TiGoat. I also used one for years from Black diamond - the twilight Bivy. But if you are into creating a nest inside a shelter then Mountain Laurel Designs makes a really good one. My kids love it set up inside our teepees - they HATE spiders.

The nest link - https://mountainlaureldesigns.com/product/bug-bivy-2/

The TiGoat Bivy - http://www.titaniumgoat.com/Bivy.html

Patrick

Two comments:

1. DEET eats holes in nylon. I use it, a lot, but with care around nylon fabric.

2. From decades of doing this the best solution for me has been a rectangular box style mosquito net from REI. It can be rigged with or without a tarp. It keeps buzzing mosquitoes well away from my ears.

Over my head I hang one straight end of the net by a jury rig under the tarp roof. I don't use any other tie outs, though a person could. The tied up section makes a vertical net wall a few inches to a foot or so past the top of my head when I lie down. The excess netting can drape on the ground or be tucked under a sleeping pad. The roof and opposite end of the rectangular net is pulled down and tucked under the foot and sides of my sleeping bag. As long as my head and shoulders are in a bug free space, I don't care if the net sags down to my sleeping bag from my waist down. If tied up three feet high or more above my head, it makes a bug free space big enough to sit up in. If you want more space, push the side out a ways from inside and set a boot or other weight on it to hold it in place.

When a double bed size net is rigged sideways, three people can sleep side by side with their heads and shoulders inside the bug free space, which is as wide as a full size mattress is long.

The above describes one way to rig up such a net but there are many others including tying up the netting as intended and making a large full size bed space that is bug free.

If you search Amazon for 'mosquito net', you'll find pages of stuff. Some are impractical but you can find a lot of items that can be adapted for camping. For example, this one is an 8'x10' sheet of netting for $10 that can be used to rig about any kind of shelter you like. NETTING They have netting by the roll, too.

Tag

I read several reviews of this guys stuff where things didn’t arrive as ordered or the item delivered showed very shoddy workmanship. Other reviews place his gear in “most treasured” status. Anybody know this guy well enough to try and explain this?

I'm on the other side of the 100th meridian, and in the Southern Highlands I hardly ever have a bug problem. But if you end up beside some swampy area...

I backpack ultralight with a 1 pound 3 ounce tent, so I don't see a tent nest at several pounds as an option. DDT helps. But if I do get into a bad area I have a small pack of screening sewn into a cone, with a shoelace on the tip. I can tie it to my pole and use a couple of safety pins to attach it to my sleeping bag about waist height. Then spread out the cone for head and chest protection.

To me the sleeping bag is the primary protection. A sealed tent keeps out almost everything if you don't use your flashlight a lot.

John I live in AK and sometimes the mossies can be unreal.
I've used a Bearpaw for years. I don't like net in my face while I'm sleeping
The Pyra 1 works great for me, I have the long one because I'm 6 ft 3

Mine arrived as-ordered without any manufacturing flaws. There is one thing I'd change .. where the zipper goes from along the side to up and over the top there's a short bend. Working the zipper around that corner sometimes takes both hands. I think that could be remedied by having the radius of the corner a little larger. Doesn't truly matter to me, it does shut and the bugs don't get in.

I do understand that when you are dealing with a very small shop .. cottage industry .. there can be more variation than there might be with a mass produced item, so I'm not challenging the notion that others may have encountered issues. Like I've said, I'm very happy with mine.

Someone else mentioned Tarptent tents ... they are another good option. I generally prefer a side-entry especially as I get older and I'm less flexible than I used to be. I had a Notch ... worked but it seemed a bit confining to me. Currently using a ProTrail ... opens on the end but otherwise, I'm very happy with it.

Tom

I’d look at river country tents, about as light as a tarp and they zip closed with decent ventilation. I used one for a week this year on a backpack hunt in Idaho. No issues. Oh and inexpensive with excellent customer service.

Thanks, I had not heard of them so I went to check out their products on their web site. Decent looking stuff. A bit to quite a bit heavier than Tarptent, Mountain Laurel Designs, and other premium products, but at a lot lower cost. I appreciate your input regarding product quality. That would seem to reduce the tradeoffs to 2: weight vs cost. Usually we gain weight AND lose quality when we cut cost so this is a real plus.

Tom

I have the larger size Bear paw hooped bug net, and it works great, but mine came with only 3 tie out loops; he missed one of the foot corners.
It was a small enough problem that I fixed it myself, but still it was something that shouldn’t have made it through a QC check. I use this under a Warbonnet Ground tarp.(lots of space)
Lately my go to set up has become the Hillebergs tarp 5, combined when necessary with the Hillebergs mesh tent 1....
Very lightweight and bombproof... can’t say enough good things about this combo.... only downside is that it’s a little pricey, but in my opinion
the best gear out there

Picked up a Six Moon Designs Lunar Duo. Lightweight, built in screens, enter from either side. Nice compromise.

Six Moons Lunar Duo

A word of warning. I spend a lot of time on ultralight backpacking forums, facebook pages, etc. Bearpaw has a horrible reputation. If you do a google search you'll find story after story of crappy work and then not standing behind their product. There are other cottage makers that put out a top notch product and have put customer service first.

Disclaimer, I've never ordered anything from bearpaw.

Thanks to all

Some good stuff here...

The new Stone Glacier SkyAir looks pretty cool.
Can be used as a tarp only, with the mesh inner and there are also vestibule and footprint options.
I'm thinking with putting a stove jack in the vestibule and paired with a small titanium cylinder stove, you would have a super light solo hunting shelter as well.

https://www.stoneglacier.com/collections/tents/products/skyair-ult

Last season I ditched my Tyvek piece I previously used under my air pad. Used a tigoat bug bivy. Worked great, no condensation, and your bag and pad don’t slip off of it. And no bugs. I liked it.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned a Thermacell. I've never tried it while sleeping in a shelter, but the cartridges last for 8 hrs and in every other situation I've used them, they've been very effective at keeping bugs at bay.

I've never needed a Thermacell but I'm told they work. However, I don't want to have to depend on one on a backpack trip. Rigging netting is almost foolproof and you don't run out of fuel. Plus you don't have to sleep breathing the stuff.

I like my thermacell but it wouldn't work well enough for that application. From mid June through mid August, our bugs are epic, nightmarish, and it's often a bit windy so you wouldn't build up a volume of air they wouldn't go into. I would not expect it to do much good for sleeping. I use it for two things.

First, I hang it from the front of my shirt while i have my mesh mask raised when I'm eating.

Second, which falls under TMI, is I'll put it against one foot, give it a few moments to build up a "smoke cloud" and chase the bugs off, then I can "cop a squat" without having the skeeters bite my bare ass and "other nearby parts."

As Rock Chuck says, for sleeping, mesh is the answer. Bug bivys are cool, but so are some of the functionally similar but larger options like mesh nests.

Tom