Severity of mosquitos during the first week of July

[Ozarks]

We will be camping at Many Glacier and Two Medicine during the first week of July.
Will the mosquitos to be bad enough to prevent sitting around and eating out in the open?
Are they worse in the evening. I'm conssidering getting a screen tent to put over the picnic table but would rather not.

[Hockey Ref]

I would be prepared if I were you. Better to have the screen and not need it than the other way around. While I've never experienced swarms of mosquitoes in the Many Glacier area, they definitely are not unknown there. And the first week of July is still very much mosquito season, particularly in the evenings.

[Ear Mountain]

Hockey Ref's points are very good. It's very hard to predict just how pesky the mosquitos and flies might be. It all depends on how the season goes. Usually some bug dope with DEET does the trick. If you're really concerned about them then go ahead and get the screen thingy.

[Heff936]

Last year the mosquitoes ranged from very tolerable to awful the first week of July. Some backcountry camps we expected to be bad (Mokawanis Lake and Cosley Lake) were pretty tolerable and others, like Helen Lake, were simply swarming. As Ref suggests, be prepared for either possibility. Pick a camping spot that is exposed to the wind if you can as that helps.

Heff

[Hockey Ref]

I forgot about the biting flies...

[Ozarks]

Thanks. I have found that advice from this forum is the best there is.
We camped at Many Glacier in 2007 in early Sept. and mosquitos were not an issue
but that time frame would not work for this year's trip.

Do you leave the mosquitos behind as you go up in elevation on hikes? Are they bad around the lakes? I'm looking for avoidance tactics.

[llholmes1948]

Do you leave the mosquitos behind as you go up in elevation on hikes? Are they bad around the lakes? I'm looking for avoidance tactics.

In my experience mosquitos usually tend to be bad around lakes and creeks and they can be worse in the evening. The wind often takes care of them so they may be bad in the evening as the wind drops. I can't recall being bothered by mosquitos at higher elevations.

Biting flies can be a higher elevations. Last year they bothered us quite a bit on an evening hike to Lincoln Pass and during a day hike at the lower part of the Sperry Glacier trail. They did not seem to be a problem on the trail between Lake McDonald and the Chalet nor during a day hike to Gunsight Pass. It is hard to generalize as they can be a problem one day and not the next.

Many of the bothersome flies seem to be localized in certain areas and once you hike out of those areas, you are all set.

I don't know if the small biting flies are the same species as the blackflies that we have in the northeast. Perhaps I was just lucky but when I was in Glacier for three summers in the 1970s I didn't encounter them at all (saw mosquitos early in the summer each year) and thought that Montana was free of blackflies but in recent years that hasn't been the case.

Always carry repellant with DEET. It is good insurance, however, I never apply it until I encounter a problem.

Lyman

[Hockey Ref]

Do you leave the mosquitos behind as you go up in elevation on hikes? Are they bad around the lakes? I'm looking for avoidance tactics.

They did not seem to be a problem on the trail between Lake McDonald and the Chalet nor during a day hike to Gunsight Pass. It is hard to generalize as they can be a problem one day and not the next.

Lyman

A few years ago, along Reynolds Creek on the Gunsight Lake trail the mosquitoes were as thick as any I've ever seen. This was around the first week of July. They thrive in that wet, boggy environment down there. They were also pretty bad at the Fifty Mountain and Stoney Indian Lake campsites last year. Not quite as bad at Mokowanis Lake and Elizabeth Lake.

[Kathy]

Do you leave the mosquitos behind as you go up in elevation on hikes? Are they bad around the lakes? I'm looking for avoidance tactics.

They did not seem to be a problem on the trail between Lake McDonald and the Chalet nor during a day hike to Gunsight Pass. It is hard to generalize as they can be a problem one day and not the next.

Lyman

A few years ago, along Reynolds Creek on the Gunsight Lake trail the mosquitoes were as thick as any I've ever seen.

OH MY WORD!!! We've gotten nailed there a couple times!! Vicious little buggers ...and I'm from MINNESOTA!

And we've experienced terrible biting flies up at Huckleberry Lookout back in late June 2002.

[Ozarks]

Ok, while we're on the subject, how about recommendations for a particular insect repellant?

Has anyone tested the new Picaridin based repellants against Glacier's mosquitos and flies?

[Jen]

Ok, while we're on the subject, how about recommendations for a particular insect repellant?

Jungle Juice from REI is 98% DEET and very effective. I only use spray when absolutely necessary.

[ND]

In my experience I've always had more problems with those biting flies than mosquitoes. For the most part I visit Glacier somewhere from mid July to the first part of August. I don't have the same problem with the flies every time. There are years I have never been bothered and a couple of years where you virtually could not stop during a hike without being swarmed. One time I remember a hike to Cobalt Lake that the flies were the worst I have ever experienced. Is it a seasonal thing or what? Does repellent work against the them like mosquitoes? The one thing about the flies is that most of the time you don't know about them until they have bitten. (ouch) They are slow so the one thing is that many times you can get them back, but there's only a tiny bit of gratification in that.

[llholmes1948]

Ok, while we're on the subject, how about recommendations for a particular insect repellant?

We have use Ben's which is 95% DEET and it has worked very well. Because the of health concerns about this product we never stop to apply it until we are actually under attack. We carry it on every hike. I think last year the only time we actually used it was on the lower section of the Sperry Glacier hike and it took care of the problem right away. We had also been under attack on an evening hike to Lincoln Pass but we just hiked out of the area then and did not stop to apply repellant.

Don't apply DEET and handle anything plastic right way. I did this one June deep in the Maine woods and it felt like the rubber focusing ring on my camera had started to melt.

It would be interesting to have some insight on these Glacier insects from an entomologist who has studied them in the Park. It seems to me that some of these insect problems are quite localized. They can be quite bad in one spot but hike a few hundred yards or so and they are not present. They may also vary quite a bit from week to week. I wonder if there are spots in Glacier which are consistently bad all summer.

It is also nice to be wearing long pants if you come under attack.

I agree with ND. We also had a problem with biting flies at Cobalt Lake. We were not bothered by them on the hike, just during the lunch stop at the Lake. I can't recall if we tried repellant or not. I later discovered that there was a nice breeze right at the outlet with few fly problems and next time I will have lunch there. I was using a bright red daypack on that hike and a short time after I set the pack down, about a dozen bees landed on the pack. They must have thought they had discovered a giant red flower.

Lyman

[Ozarks]

We have returned from our July 5, 6, 7, 8 trip. Mosquitos were a pleasantantly rare in the Many Glacier Campground while we were there. They were present on the trails in some spots but were tolerable.

We came by way of the Tetons and Yellowstone where it was the opposite, bad in camp and rare on the trails.