One of the big things we need to avoid on this trip is mosquitos, which carry a variety of nasty ailments. We’ve been working on our skeeter-related vaccinations, and will also be on anti-malaria meds for more than half the trip. And we’ll have bug nets covering our beds at night in the most affected areas. Even with those precautions, however, you still need to pay close attention and use bug spray.

Before prior trips to buggy places, we’ve relied on pretreating our own clothes using spray-on permethrin, and supplementing that with picaridin insect repellent (which we prefer over DEET) during the trip.

That’s not a great option for us on this trip, as at-home treatment only lasts a handful of washes. And, well, our trip lasts quite a bit longer than that. So instead, we’re going to send our clothes in to Insect Shield for professional treatment, which is intended to last for a garment’s expected lifespan. That takes some processing and shipping time, however, so we need to make sure we have all of our trip clothes in hand well in advance—a task we’re actively engaged in right now.