Someone who uses a tarp...

Hotshot10

Hotshot10

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Dec 23, 2012
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346
Please tell me how you manage to keep the insects and other woodland creatures away from you at night. Here in Missouri, I can only imagine the amount of ticks that would be really, really happy to see a tarp instead of a tent. :D I've been wondering about this for some time.
 
We use tarps for sleeping in only when the weather is cold enough that the bugs are down or above timber line where bugs are fewer. I would not choose to use just a tarp in Lyme-disease-tick infested woods. We don't don't have ticks and chiggers up here in northern Alaska.
 
Mark Knapp said:
We use tarps for sleeping in only when the weather is cold enough that the bugs are down or above timber line where bugs are fewer. I would not choose to use just a tarp in Lyme-disease-tick infested woods. We don't don't have ticks and chiggers up here in northern Alaska.
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That makes a lot of sense. I do hear, though, that you have mosquitoes the size of crows in your neck of the woods. Ha.
 
Mosquito net. But I don't live somewhere with ticks so I've no idea if it would be enough.
 
Mostly it's just not a problem. I've slept under a tarp without netting in many places from New Brunswick, Canada to Papua New Guinea.
 
It really depends on the location and conditions. A method here is sub-tropical australia is a tarp and a bivy bag, with bug mesh. I mostly hammock or use a tent, but I have a tarp for emergencies. That said, I do know a few guys who pretty much just do the tarp. I think they are crazy, but it works for them.
 
Hotshot10 said:
That makes a lot of sense. I do hear, though, that you have mosquitoes the size of crows in your neck of the woods. Ha.
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Yes, our mosquitoes are notorious, but the black flies are worse. We also have white socks and no-see-ums, the only way you know they are there (cuz you can't see them) is because the bite really hurts and then you can see a chunk of your flesh leaving as they fly away with it.:eek::eek: That's all mostly in the black spruce, we don't camp under a tarp there in the summer. You could do it in the fall and winter.
 
Hotshot10 said:
Please tell me how you manage to keep the insects and other woodland creatures away from you at night. Here in Missouri, I can only imagine the amount of ticks that would be really, really happy to see a tarp instead of a tent. :D I've been wondering about this for some time.
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Ahh..., hammock?

At least thats what I use.

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I have spent many years in sleeping on the ground under a tarp in Florida. Bugs are not that bad. A good squirt of Deep Woods Off and you are good to go.
 
Guess it depends on the time of year and where you are as others have said. I like having a fire in front of a lean to tarp if I have a choice
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I made a complete envelopment bugnet bag. it has snaps to let me divide it in half, so that i can have one at each end of an A frame shelter, or put half of it over my head and torso as I hike. I put my clothes underneath me to sleep in the hammock, in hot weather or cold, so the only place that i have to worry about "bite-thrus" is the upper half of me. I need a sedative to get any sleep in a normal bed. So I just tie the bugnet up to the tarp so that it's not touching me any place, and pass out. I dont do any of the field stuff for fun. It's done to test gear or tactics/techniques, in case of need. That's it. I did too much of that stuff, for real, decades ago and I definitely do not find any part of it to be "fun".
 
I use to just use a tarp, ground mat and bug net if in summer and ditched the net in the cooler months about 15yrs ago I got a bivvy bag I roll out now. Mozzies could be annoying at time and i picked up a couple of bush ticks as a young guy, but nothing in over a decade. I love just sleeping under a sheet (tarp).... :D
 
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