Ontario Bug Season Survival Guide

Ontario camping can be magical right up until the black flies find you. We get honest about what really happens from May to mid-July and beyond, then lay out a simple, workable bug plan you can actually use on your next canoe trip, backcountry route, or family car-camping weekend.

We start with a few shout outs from the broader camping community, including a lightweight carbon fibre paddle we’re excited to test on an upcoming Spanish River trip, and an epic Canada By Canoe challenge aiming to break the world record for the longest single-season canoe trip while raising money for True North Aid. We also recap a presentation-heavy backcountry canoe symposium at the Canadian Canoe Museum and a Camp Kitchen gathering where food, gear, and good people all collide in the best way.

Then we dig into Ontario bug season survival: when black flies, mosquitoes, deer flies, horseflies, ticks, and midges tend to peak, what attracts them, and what helps most. We talk DEET vs icaridin (picaridin), why physical barriers like bug shirts, head nets, and screened shelters often beat gimmicks, and why dense fabric, tight cuffs, and even pants tucked into socks can save your sanity. We also share campsite selection lessons, from avoiding calm water and deep shade to understanding why that “perfect” empty site might be empty for a reason. We even explore a curious idea about why some people seem to attract more bites than others.

If you’ve ever planned a trip around bugs or had them wreck a campsite, you’ll feel seen and you’ll leave with a clearer strategy. Subscribe, share this with your favourite camping partner, leave a review, and tell us what bug is your personal nemesis.

www.ripplefxpaddles.com

www.canadabycanoe.com

www.traversing.ca

www,canoemuseum.ca

www.campkitchenstore.ca

Transcript

Welcome And Why We Camp

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and good day. A welcome to the Super Good Camping Podcast. My name is Pamela.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

I'm Tim.

Shout Outs From The Community

SPEAKER_00 0:04

And we are from Supergoodcamping.com. We're here because we're on a mission to inspire other people to get outside and enjoy camping adventures such as we have as a family. Did you want to shout out some people?

SPEAKER_01 0:16

I would love to. Because we just we simply don't. So uh we've had a lot of really cool sort of interactions and and and come across some decent things uh recently. So we'll uh we'll start with Chris from uh RippleFX Paddles, which is ripple fxpaddles.com. Uh I reached out to him, uh the brief version is I I really we talked to him at the the Hamilton show and I really wanted to try out his like he's got carbon fiber paddles, wicked, crazy light, uh wicked strength, and uh and so many things, you know, a much smaller paddle size, um, blade size. Oh, yeah, we've got it hanging in the background over here. Um yeah, bent shaft, like so many things. And we've got a uh uh trip coming up uh on the Spanish River in in June. And and the super short version is he's like, what length and what's your address? So I'm really, really looking, I like shout out to Chris because that's that's just amazingly awesome. Um, and I'm really looking forward to trying it out. And I will uh I would definitely do uh uh bits about it in our trip reports, just just saying end of June, we should uh we should give you more information. Uh next one would be uh Canada by canoe. So at Canadabykanoe.com. Uh I don't know if you remember a few years back. Uh was it just the three lads? I feel like there was more. There was more on the that trip. Anyhow, uh canoe for COVID uh was a thing that um some young men went out for about 60 days, uh, did about 2,000 kilometers and raised$87,000 uh for a charity. Um they're they're embarking. They literally, man, I think they left yesterday. Don't hold me to it. Um uh three three of the the gentlemen that were on the uh the canoe for COVID, they're doing 8,000 kilometers this time, 8,000 plus uh for their journey. And they're uh it's an attempt to break the world record for the longest single season canoe trip uh and raise a million dollars for true north aid. Look that up. It's a very great, uh it's wonderful cause. Uh and they're they're gonna spend about 200 or so days doing that. So that's pushing seven months, man. That's I would be very stinky. I'm stinky after like two days. So, yes, check them out if you got a couple of bucks to throw, throw their way for uh uh for for the cause that they're they're running for. I think it's awesome. We we actually were trying to get them on the podcast before they were leaving. They had so much prep to do. They're they eventually just went, uh, we can't we can't squeeze it in. So we're gonna shoehorn them in at the back of uh when they're finished their trip, uh, after they've had a really good sleep. Next is oh, backcountry canoe symposium, which happened this past weekend at the uh Canadian Canoe Museum in um Peterborough, Ontario. I was put on by uh Evan from uh Traversing. Uh amazing. Uh very very different from most of the shows that we tend to go and see in the sense that it was all about presentations. There were some vendors there, um which we briefly visited, but it was they had four presentations that were just fantastic. It I quite enjoyed it. It was uh it was great and and always good to see you know all the folks from the from the camping community around here. Uh and then after that, Tyler and Cassie from uh Camp Kitchen uh put on a food festival uh out at their place. And uh we took uh a bunch of tortillas and slapped, man, there was like a ground, I don't even know what it was, but it was like a it was a ground meat of some type that can often be sausages, but uh Tyler did it as a as a loose uh wicked steak. Wicked, wicked, wicked. That's what the theme has been. Wicked steak. Uh very cool uh rainbow trout. And then all the fixins. Uh delicate boy here, you know, it's I'm I'm like cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes after that. But people were putting chimbi cherry on, all that sort of jazz. So it was uh I thought that was a very awesome thing. We got a tour to see their uh their freeze dryers uh and their whole sort of you know operation for doing uh freeze-dried meals and stuff. Uh and and again, it was fun to just hang with like-minded people. So there, there's my show notes. All right.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

I wanted to talk about something that really bugs me about.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Oh, come on.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

He didn't know that he didn't get it.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

I didn't know that was coming.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

We're gonna talk about bugs. When you're camping in Ontario, especially from May to mid-July, you get active black flies, mosquitoes, deer flies, horseflies. Um there so essential protection includes just using some sort of DEET, as much as I don't really like the chemical stuff, or Picardin uh repellents, wearing light-colored or long-sleeve clothing and using mesh or bug nets or jackets, uh, keeping your tent zipped, you like utilizing screen shelters, which we have this big dining tent, uh, which has been great.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

We also have uh Eureka no bug zone for backcountry, much later.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

And plan to camp outside peak spring bug season um if possible. So if you can work your trip around. We actually now we try to go mostly like August, September to try to avoid the bugs. Yep.

Black Flies And What Works

SPEAKER_01 5:40

I don't personally care. Well, yes, I don't get eaten nearly as much. I am bug fodder, yes, which so I take her with me. So that they if they if they are inclined to eat anybody, it's going to be her. I'm tastier. There you go. Uh so some of the common Ontario, and and I'm sure this plays out in a lot of areas, just the dates may shift slightly. Um and it all it's I mean, it's different in depending on where you are in Ontario, whether if like the farther north you are, that the bug season shifts by you know weeks, weeks to a month, even um, that's sort of deal. Black flies will start there, uh, late May to mid-June. They're prevalent near uh fast flowing water. They are attracted to dark colors and carbon dioxide. That's what the stuff that you stop breathing. Don't kiss. Or at least plug your nose in your mouth. Uh, wait. Um, use strong repellent deets. Uh uh not to uh not not sponsored, not to anything. Uh my the one that works the best for me when Thomas and I are tripping in those seasons and you have the canoe over your head and you can't squat at them. Uh uh backwoods off uh by by miles, better than anything else I've ever tried. So that's what we use. Um we do have uh original original bug shoot. Now I can't remember what the name of it is. Original bug shirt. Yeah, that's it. We've Thomas and I each have those. Uh Thomas also has a net that can go over his his hat and and whatnot. Um yeah, because when they get around your head, they just they'll make you insane and bite behind your ears and yeah, and I find their bites hurt.

Mosquito Reality Check And Clothing

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Like mosquitoes, they are itchy bites, but I find black fly bites, they take a chunk or something, and it it's painful. All right. For me. Uh mosquitoes mid-June to mid-July, which are my nemesis, they're active during dawn and dusk. So using uh I just honestly, I've not ever found anything that worked particularly well for me. Like I it didn't matter if it was DEET or not, didn't matter if it was like citronella candles or campfires or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Those coils though.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

I honestly never found anything that did a whole lot. Uh the thermosel, we have one of those, and I kind of puts a dent in them.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

I think it does. It's not it's not 100%. There's nothing 100% for you. I've been slavvy with all the bad things. Even that.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

I just put you in the net. Like the netting or you know, wearing a bug shirt, something like that seems to be better to turn. Um, and I I would just add to this that uh like thin clothing or like because I tend to prefer to wear tights and stuff all the time. That's not great because they just stick their nose right through that and bite me through it. Um thicker, like denser cloth, like canvas or something is better than something loose or filmy. Like, well, you want to be cool at the same time, it's too not cool like me.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Cool, cool, cool like temperature.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

For bugs to bite right through. So something like more dense as far as fabric is a better deterrent, I think.

Deer Flies Horseflies And Tick Checks

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Yeah, no, I agreed. And and uh one thing I noticed um I want to say was Alex and Jess uh from Tense and Timber that they are very pointedly making sure that like uh cuffs are are tight and and buttoned up like on your on your long sleeve shirt or or whatever. The um, you know, uh even doing things like tucking your um well while you won't look cool, uh tucking your your uh pants into your socks will stop them from going up your pants, which is a good thing to do. Or that turns out to be a bad thing if if they do go up there. Uh deer flies, deer flies and horseflies, your July into August. When we've done this before, where we have been mid-August camping, and that was the that was the big one was the was the deer flies, so especially when you got out, whatever it was, Bon Echo, I think, and out on the road, it was a crazy Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

So you're in the site at Bon Echo, it was mosquitoes, and then if you went out onto the road to try to escape them, then it was the deer flies and the horse flies.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Yeah. They're they're biting flies that are at not deterred by spray and uh as easily, thick clothing, brimmed hats with net. Um, you can put there's a sticky trap material, it's called uh like deer fly defense, to the back of a baseball cap. There's also, I don't know what they're called. What are what the dragonflies on a on a boingy, on a boiney, springy sort of metal rod that you clip onto your hat. Those actually seem to work. So for deerflies and for deerflies, not they don't keep mosquitoes and stuff away.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Uh ticks, spring, fall, especially in high grass, wear long pants tucked into socks. So yeah, look dorky, but you don't get ticks. Uh use bug spray containing deed or icaridin and check your body throat through thoroughly after hiking. So usually, like at least once a day, you want to do a full body check. Um, and for your pets.

Campsite Choices And Natural Options

SPEAKER_01 10:40

I was just gonna get out of my head. Yep. No CM uh midges. The they're tiny biting, they're not dissimilar to black flies, but they are uh that can pass through standard bug netting because they're itty, itty bitty. Um finer mesh screens, finer, finer mesh uh uh wraps on you. Uh it's smaller holes.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

And just like along the line of bugs, I have nothing against like I love dragonflies and damselflies, and it's the it's the the dickheads that have to come along and bite people that I have the problem with. Like I'm not I couldn't care less about spiders or centipedes.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

I don't think that they're specific to biting people, they bite anything that that has meat on them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

So uh anyway, how to deal with bugs. So yeah, clothing, light colored clothing, supposedly, but yeah, I've I've tried these things. Uh so white or beige, so because dark colors seem to attract them more.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Uh repellents, so picky-based lotions, um, or effective, non-greasy alternatives to deet. DEET, deep for me.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Shelter protection, so a screened dining town, which we have, uh for for car camping. Um, and as Tim said, the no-bug zone for more lighter backcountry. Lighter backcountry, yep. Uh, and site selection. This is one where we we made a mistake. We did once uh avoid setting up tents in deep shade, thick forests or near calm water breeding grounds, or it's like swampy kind of areas. That's what happened at Bonne Echo.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Bon Echo, yep. I didn't I didn't look at that part of the map. When all that looks like a great site. Wow, and it's available. Yeah, nobody took it. Okay, now I know why. Um natural repellents, uh, citronella candles. I don't know how how much they work. I can't can't speak to that. I've tried them before. I don't I don't think they did anything. Building a campfire. Smoke, absolutely, although it makes your eyes burn and well, but you come home smelling the campfire. So not bad on that. And you're breathing smoke, can't you? Yeah, too. It's probably not so good for you.

Why Some People Attract More Bugs

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Uh skin care, avoid perfumed soaps, lotions, and shampoos because they love when you smell pretty. This is just personal observation, I will say. I kind of wonder, I see a lot of people as patients that have blood sugar regulation issues. So diabetic, pre-diabetic, and along those lines. And I almost wonder if when blood sugar levels trend higher, if bugs can't somehow sense that, that that's dessert for them. But those often seem to be the people that comment to me. And it's part of like a form that I have them fill in about about whether they seem to attract bugs, um, that they those people seem to be more bug attractants. So I don't know whether they just do. They smell yummy and like dessert, and they can sense it.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Maybe, maybe I'm just old and sour, and that's that's why they don't.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

You're salty.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

That's I'm salty.

How To Reach Us And Goodbye

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Uh, that's it for my pest peef today. Um, if you want to talk to us, please do reach out to us anytime. We are at high at supergoodcamping.com. That's h I at supergoodcamping.com. And we will talk to you again soon. Bye.

unknown 13:57

Bye.