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One woman's quest to escape the tyranny of Louisiana's insane insect population...

I'm a horse girl and I have a small hobby horse farm with six horses on-premise. After an overly soggy spring followed by sudden intense heat, the bugs seem to be on steroids right now. Well, I'm not going to take it! I want to wear shorts in public without being embarrassed about the constellation of bug bites on display. I want to come in from the barn each night and not have to treat a plethora of new wounds. I got bit on the arse so hard the other day by a horsefly, I swear I had a third butt cheek by the time I made it into the house to shower. Enough is enough!

We've tried fly predators to no avail, DIY hacks from YouTube, and all the other sprays you can think of to eliminate the problem. But we live in Louisiana, so biting insects kinda come with the territory. So today I ordered a package of the PIC Bugables Citronella Coil Wristbands along with my groceries. They come in a package of six. I've used them before and they definitely made a difference. I won't say my skin was completely smooth and bug blemish-free after wearing them, but they've helped in the past. However, the store was out of that particular product and they substituted with six packages of the Bugables ACT-BND Citronella Insect Repellant Wristband. Each band comes with three cartridges that you can insert as needed. The substitution was quite a bit more expensive, although they absorbed the cost. The package of six with the first product was $3.88. Walmart gave me six of the substituted item, the equivalent of three bands in each of the six packages, for the price of one, which is $3.84. So, I saved over $15 and I get to try a new product. How did it stack up? Not bad.

As far as smell, you can definitely detect the citronella scent, but it's not overbearing. While the upper part of my body stayed relatively bug-free, I did have a deer fly nail me on my ankle. To be fair, the horse and deer flies this year are relentless, so I'm going to call that a win. Especially because that particular tiny terrorist also flew through a mist Pyrhana fly spray for the horses to get me. I'm thinking you could possibly wear one around an ankle and another your opposing wrist? I was out at dusk, the biting insect witching hour, so it held up under pretty extreme circumstances. I know they didn't magically disappear. I heard plenty of them start to dive bomb me, then putting on the breaks and doing a fly-by at the last minute. I'm going to double-up tomorrow and I'll report back. I'm also going to try these out while kayaking this weekend. If your insect repellent product works in Louisiana, I guarantee it'll be effective elsewhere!

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