MREInfo.com

Here's a new tip that I just across on a thread over ar15.com:

Special-K wrote: wrote: YMMV, but one use myself and others found for the matches in the US MRE's was as a bug repellant. My Drill Sergeant told us about this in basic, At a meal bite off the tips of 2-4 match heads and swallow with water - kind of like little pills. The chemicals in the match heads come out in your sweat and the bugs don't like it. I always found that the bugs pretty much left me alone when I was doing this - even when others were complaining about the bugs/mosquitos/etc. Whenever I didnt eat the match heads I would get various bug bites. Again, YMM, I haven't seen any scientific research into any of this or anything.

Anyone else ever heard of this?

You probably shouldn't smoke while doing this. You could get heartburn!

Will try this next time i go camping, The mre matches are the sterotipcal picture of US matches, in that little book ,

The brit ones are covered in a varnish and i really wouldnt want to try it with them, proabably end up in a coma,

Just everybody keep in mind that this tip is something I'm picking up third or fourth-hand. While it sounds pretty cool, it might also be filed under the Drill Sargeant's book as "stupid stuff I was able to talk the recruits into doing."

If that was truely something they are meant to do it seems as though it would be widely known. Does anyone know who makes the matches for the MRE's? Maybe a call to them is in order.

Just everybody keep in mind that this tip is something I'm picking up third or fourth-hand. While it sounds pretty cool, it might also be filed under the Drill Sargeant's book as "stupid stuff I was able to talk the recruits into doing."

You could have told us that before I did it for two straight days.

mw509 wrote:You could have told us that before I did it for two straight days.

Yeah...sorry about that. So I guess now's a good a time as any to tell you I'm not sure about that tip for using the vanilla dairy shake as an enema. That might be a rumor.

http://www.eustis.army.mil/WEBulb%20dat ... System.pdf

Under are there any products I should avoid.

It sounded good though, and who knows, maybe it works and they just don't want you to know. I would hardly be suprised with the way Government contracts are handed out.

There also seems to be a lot of supporting evidence, so who knows, seems like it can't really hurt to try if you needed it. Pulled this from some message board.

"While serving as a Marine Corps infantryman on a training operation in the jungles of Panama, a senior Marine told me that eating match heads (which were included in our rations) would keep mosquitos at bay. I thought he was joking, but tried it out of desparation. I discovered that by eating about two match heads per few hours mosquitoes and other biting insects didn't bother me. I also discovered that you have to begin eating them four or five hours in advance of going into mosquito country.

At the time I was told this, he said that the reason for the effect was from sweating ouit the sulfur in the matches. Mosquitoes don't like sulfur. They smell it on you and stay away.

After returning to Alabama, I have heard old people speak of taking sulfur tablets to keep mosquitoes away.

I have more faith in this than in OFF or any comercial product."

That's total bollocks I'm afraid

1. Mosquitos find you by the CO2 you exhale, not the smell of your skin.

Mosquito repellents like DEET and Citronella block the chemo-receptors in the Mosquitos oflactory tract, preventing them from finding you....they are not 'repelled', just so confused by the messages they are receiving they fly away to a more easily triangulated CO2 source. At closer range, Mosquitos use heat to find exposed skin.

The Chemo receptors in Mosquito species are not keyed to sulphur based chemicals- rather they are keyed to CO2 and are blocked by similar short chain organic molecules with lots of oxygen in the outer structure...

Swallowing match heads will not prevent you exhaling or being warm- so no dice on mosquito repellency.

2. Match heads contain little more than sulphur, Pottasium Chlorate and glass dust. Water resistant matches merely have the Chlorate in the striker strip and the heads are all sulphur and glass. None of these components are mosquito repellent. All of them (barring the glass powder) will be completely metabolised by the body with no odour given off.

There are many people out there who don't get bitten without repellent- research has shown these people have a considerably lower skin temperature than most people....

So sorry guys- Myth busted!

Scarry! I would think you could get the same effect by eating a CCC meal.