Problems with my proposed tarp-tent system?

I've used 2 or 3 mil polyethylene ground cloth, although it won't last forever.

Polycro is supposed to be good and lighter

Most silnylon will slowly leak water. The "Shield" nylon from thru-hiker.com is better.

9' wide tarp is fine. 9' long will allow wind blown rain. added beak would be better.

Solomid from MLD or other pyramid would be better. Trailstar from MLD is supposed to be nice.

I have a 4 foot round piece of netting I sometimes take with me for bug protection. Enough to protect head and arms, legs either in sleeping bag or wear long pants.

Mosquitoes and midges will likely be foiled by such a system, but I suspect it will fare less well against ticks. That has certainly been the case for me.

I used something very similar, using either a headnet or an upper body netting canopy and lying on a polycro groundsheet, in Scotland and found that it was adequate as long as everything was completely zipped up. Unfortunately, if I happened to get a bit too warm, which is a common problem for me, the full protection was suddenly sacrificed in order to get some ventilation. With quilts the system was even less effective against ticks. Generally the flat groundsheet was perfectly adequate to prevent a soaking, though, even on some pretty sodden Scottish turf. Just make sure you have a large enough sheet that you won't hang off the edge if you move slightly.

Having also used a lightweight bivy bag and found major problems with condensation I'm moving over to a net-tent underneath my tarp. On breezy nights where there are no signs of ticks in the area I can use it as a groundsheet without hooking it up. If cost is an obstacle (it is for me, too) then you can try sewing one yourself. At its simplest, a net-tent could be a large envelope of mesh with one or two hanging cords and a zipped entrance, under which you could lay a simple separate groundsheet.

I thought that ticks sit on branches and wait for you to walk by and brush against it and the tick hitches a ride on you.

Haven't noticed that they crawl around onto the ground and onto me.

But I don't camp out too much in tick territory/season.

Unfortunately no, ticks will happily wander through grass as well. They're especially prevalent wherever deer choose to sleep. Last year I checked an area of quite short grass and had three or four crawling up my arm within minutes.

carry the plague… not kidding.

fleas?

How about a bug bivy? MLD makes one. Not as multi-use or as cheap as a headnet, but it'll keep ticks at bay. Or just use a normal water-resistant bivy with a large netting area, like the large-mesh option available for the MLD Superlight bivy. Then you're protected from rain splash AND you don't need the groundcloth, in addition to being bugproof. (That's what I have.) If your bivy has a longer 1/2 or 3/4 zipper you can also leave it open when the bugs aren't bad and just use it as a groundcloth.

EDIT– it's fleas you're thinking of. Ticks carry Lyme disease and RMSF.

A minor point, but I like a rectangular tarp like an 8×10. That will give better coverage on the ends and plenty for the sides for a solo shelter.

I would consider a lighter tarp. For the size and weight, you can buy a cheap blue poly tarp for much less. I paid about $8 for an 8×10. Unlike much UL stuff, the cheaper ones are lighter. You might need to sew on a few webbing loops to get more pitching options. They are a little bulky, but you can't buy cheaper shelter. I was able to find one that was green on one side and brown on the other— much nicer than a blue one.

For stakes, get the generic aluminum "Y" stakes at REI and elsewhere for ~$2.

Check out used sheer curtains from a thrift store to make a bug net. It is the cheapest source I found when researching netting for hammocks. The Adventure 16 Bug Bivy is a half-bivy with hoops and runs about $50. From there you run up to $90 or so for a full net tent (check Bear Paw Wilderness Designs). I see that Sunny Sports has the Outdoor Research bug bivy on sale for $60. It has a good bathtub floor and weighs about a pound– not SUL, but good stuff and you can sleep in the bivy alone on nice nights.

By the time you buy the tarp you listed and get a bug bivy together, you could buy a Golite Shangrila 1 for $120 and have a nice weatherly package. You then have the option of leaving the inner nest home when you don't need it. Good resale too.

Polycryo is the stuff to use for a ground cloth. It stretches more than polyethylene and is more puncture resistant. It is used for window insulation kits and can be found in many hardware stores, at least in the northern US. Frost King is one brand. It runs about $7 and you can get several ground cloths from one large sheet.

Look for poles with flick locks vs. twist locks. Outdoor Products has some out there for cheap.

Current lyme info lyme info pdf

This is from California, make sure you don’t operate with false assumptions when it comes to ticks and lyme and tick borne diseases or you could be very unhappy for years to come.

Each stage of the ticks life they do different things, the nymph stage they like low, moist vegetation, logs, ie, where you’d probably pitch a tarp, like leaf litter and so on. The adults, tips of grasses and branches.

Only tarp I’d use would be one with a built in bug net, or a bug net inner that was always attached. Which means a tarptent unless you use a standalone bug net inner, which would be nice in summer.

keep in mind, testing for tick borne diseases is fairly dismal at this point (around 10% of people infected with lyme are also infected at the same time with other tick borne diseases, almost none of which are routinely checked or tested for as of today), as is treatment, and if you end up with something like this and it goes chronic you will always regret not having used a full bug screen on your sleeping system, and I mean regret in a way you cannot even begin to imagine today. Something like 50% of people who get bitten never feel it, those nymphs are tiny, this size: .
so don’t assume you will know. Even though they say 24 hours to get infected, one biologist in the early 70s or so got bitten and got lyme even though he pulled the tick off right away, in fact, that tick was the first proof they had that lyme was spread by ticks and was a bacteria of some sort.

It’s a bit worse in sweden now, the ticks are starting to carry a virus that has no known cure, and is often fatal, so you swedish/finnish ultralighters, keep that in mind too. Latest swedish numbers show about 40k new infections every year, that’s 0.5% of the population getting infected every single year. Research I’ve read shows US infection rates might be 10x higher than reported.

So I see a lot about ticks here. I live in the middle of tick central, USA. I've had lyme before and will probably have it again in my lifetime. Let me just say that the danger for coming in contact with ticks during the day while you are hiking is just as high, if not higher, than the danger of ticks at night. Chances are they are already in your clothes or on your skin before you get into your tent. You really shouldn't choose a shelter based on the need to protect you from ticks, because you are exposed to them if you are in the area no matter what. Its silly to be scared of them. Just constantly check yourself every morning and night, and try to take a bath in a river or stream if you can while hiking. Most of the time you feel the bite or irritation very soon after being bitten and you won't get the disease transmitted right away. There is research about this. Plus now you can take a preventative medicine if you get bit. There are many ways to deal with the very real and daily presence of these things, but don't go crazy and start altering or planning your gear around them, I'd never do that.

I totally disagree I think you should do everything you can (within UL reason) to avoid them. But then I dont think you should believe everything you read on a internet site. In alot of areas I would definatly use a enclosed shelter.