[Cdt-l] Desert Shelter

[Matthew Robison]

Hi everyone.  To fill a gap in my experience, I'm reading "The Ultimate
Desert Handbook" by Mark Johnson to prepare for hiking the Chihuahuan desert
of southern New Mexico and the Great Basin desert of southern Wyoming.

When hiking in the desert, which type of shelter do you use?

- If you use a tarp, have you ever had problems with insects, scorpions,
snakes and spiders?

- Has anyone used the snake repellent "Snake-a-Way"?  Apparently the
military uses it, but I'm interested in personal assessments of its
effectiveness.  It was registered with the EPA (number 58630-1) in 1990;
its' active ingredients are napthalene and sulfur; but unfortunately, I
couldn't locate the studies confirming Snake-A-Way's effectiveness in
deterring  all the snakes a hiker may encounter in the Chihuanhuan desert.
For example, I found it deterred the coral snake (100%) and the western
diamondback (91%), but I couldn't find evidence that it deters the mojave
rattlesnake, the ridgenose rattlesnake, the sidewinder, the speckled
rattlesnake, the tiger rattlesnake, the mausasuaga, or the prarie
rattlesakes--all reptiles a hiker may encounter in southern New  Mexico.
hmmm...


- Has anyone had problems with bees, especially the Africanized honeybee
(the 'killer' bee)?

That's all for now...thanks for your input...

wolverine
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