Dogs & Mosquitos

[matthew k]

How vulnerable are dogs to mosquitos? I’ve thought about bringing my Cattledog to the Sierras with me in July. There’s no way a mosquito could bite her through the thick coat that covers most of her body but I worry about her getting bitten on her face or even her belly.

[Stumphges]

Mosquitoes don’t seem to be a big issue with my border aussie unless they are very heavy. Biting flies, particularly deer flies, have become very problematic. If mosquitoes are trouble, lemon eucalytus oil applied to ears, where the dog can’t lick it off, should provide a zone of repallancy around the face.

[Dan]

Our dogs with very thin single-layer coats definitely suffer from mosquitos. There have been times when our Ridgeback had dozens of welts appear almost instantaneously. We will actually bring canine insect repellant during high bug season. However, a dog like yours with a multi-layer thick coat should be pretty safe.

[PaulW]

What about Permethrin, or an insect repelling dog collar? The Sawyer site has an interesting solution in one of the photos on this site –

https://www.sawyer.com/page/dogs-and-permethrin-insect-repellent

[matthew k]

Oh wow. I didn’t know permethrin couldn’t be applied to a dog’s body. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

She has such a robust coat, I’d mostly be concerned about her face. Maybe a permetherin-treated bandana would be enough.

[David Thomas]

Our very fluffy Aussie-lab mix is black and that attracts many more mosquitos (5-6 times more when I survey human clothing colors, perhaps even more marked between her very black coat and our pretty white husky mix).   But the bugs can’t get through the coat on her neck, back, sides or haunches.  Sometimes she’ll get a welt on an ear, forehead or nose and had some pretty nasty swelling on her nose this April that seemed more than a mosquito (ground bee?).

I’ve applied DEET at times to her shoulder blades and back of neck where she can’t lick and it does seem to help.  I like the idea of applying DEET or Lemon Eucalyptus oil to a bandana around her neck.

Just like with humans, it’s much worse when you stop versus if you can keep moving to the next spot with some wind.

[Dan]

I wouldn’t recommend applying permethrin or DEET, except to areas of the dog that you are absolutely sure can’t be licked. And even then, I’d be cautious about it. There are dog-specific sprays to kill and repel insects. For example, Adams makes a formulation that kills fleas and ticks and repels mosquitos. I can vouch for it first-hand. The active ingredients are:

Etofenprox 0.50%, (S)-Methoprene 0.27%, Piperonyl Butoxide 1.75%

[Author]

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