Ubin

The first time I use ‘Off” insect repellent was in Taman Negara National Park. Then it wasn’t the mosquitoes that bother us but leeches. Legions of them would crawl their way towards us when they sense presence of humans. We would spray our ankles with them to stop the leeches from crawling up our legs.

The mosquitoes in Ubin can be torture. The solutions we tried include burning egg cartons, coconut husks, mosquito coils,benzoin incense which bomohs use, ingesting vitamin E tablets. Nparks even set a high tech mosquito killing machine once.

Nothing beats the convenience of using spray repellent containing DEET. My eight year old nephew is allergic to insect bites and he has to be sprayed all over. For face and neck, just spray them in your palm and rub to avoid stinging your eyes. Spray a little mist and repeat a few hours later. No point spraying until wet. They are expensive and soon empty fast.

They costs S$7.50 at major outlets. Some provision shops sells them for S$6.50 each. They are a lot cheaper in Indonesia. Autan is also a popular brand there.

Update: 21 Apr 2009. Prices of “OFF!” repellent seems to go up all the time. Its now $8.50 at Guardian pharmacy. I am going to switch to 3M “Ultrathon”, which is also used by armed forces worldwide. Although it costs nearly the same, it contains 25% DEET, which won’t get washed away quickly when you are sweating in the jungle heat.