Bugs???

For all you AK experts : What do the temperatures in AK have to drop to in order to kill off these monster mosquitoes I've been hearing so much about?

Too many variables(latitude, elevation, weather etc) to give a pat answer. It aint the skeeters you have to worry about anyways. Its those GODDAMN whitesocks flies. They keep coming out anytime it gets over about 50 degrees until the snow covers them up. You cant hardly feel the little bastards land on you either. The bites turn into a little puss pocket. The guy I went with says they take a bite out of you and crap in the hole and thats why it gets red and puss-like.

Well - they don't crap in you but they lay their eggs underneath the skin and they do fester up - I got bit pretty bad by them this summer up there - on my face and around my ankles. However if you use 100% DEET repellant then you shouldn't be too bothered by them.
ROY

Dan... Although I guess the skeeters are horrendous in some areas of Alaska in the summer, I may have been bitten by ONE mosquito in my five trips to Alaska during September...

However, as the previous posters have said, the whitesox and some other small black-fly like critters ( I call moose-pecker flies) can make your life miserable on calm or warm days...They ESPECIALLY like to chew on your hands as soon as you get some blood on them...On some trips my hands were so swollen after butchering and caping animals that you could not even see my knuckles.. From this I learned to take latex gloves to wear while butchering or caping..They keep your hands clean and keep the bugs from biting them also...

Take a headnet... After my first trip or two I said that I could get by with lots of 100% DEET, but on my last hunt I really wished I had a headnet...A couple of times when the wind died down and the sun came out the bloodsucking little bastards swarmed my face big time... You may not need it, but it's light, doesn't weigh much and can save you a lot of discomfort..

nmtaxi, I went fishing for Halibut last year and spent a week in Denali park. If you are worried about the huge mosquitoes, I would suggest that you look for a product called Jungle Juice. This repellent is the only stuff that works and was recommended by the REI employees in Anchorage.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I got back from AK 3 months ago . A little bug dope and Off worked fine.