• Happy International Mermaid Day! 🧜🏼‍♀️

Does Ole Woodsman Fly Dope Work

Joined
Jan 7, 2016
Messages
811
Reaction score
619
In August before the killing frosts get to them we get a gnat called White Socks at eat big bloody holes in me. Mosquitoes don't bother me much, I seldom have to use deet for them, however the little gnats are a different story. I am wondering if the made in Maine, Ole Woodsman Fly Dope works or is there some other product that has proven effective.
 
In August before the killing frosts get to them we get a gnat called White Socks at eat big bloody holes in me. Mosquitoes don't bother me much, I seldom have to use deet for them, however the little gnats are a different story. I am wondering if the made in Maine, Ole Woodsman Fly Dope works or is there some other product that has proven effective.

It works on blackflies ( which I believe you rare referring to) but in Maine they are early emergers and less so later in the season like August. Old Woodsman works on them and also midges which are the scourge after the blackflies recede. Of course in wet cold areas like Newfoundland black flies persist all summer. And if sex has not been successful the blackfly can keep trying all summer till it is successful.

So it should work repelling insect pests. It repels people too. Pine tar is a lovely perfume
 
My dad had a bottle of the original formula "Ole Woodsman Fly Dope" from at least as far back as the early 1960s or even earlier. It was quite potent stuff. I nursed it dab by dab for years after he passed away until it finally ran out. As I then understood it, for several years it was unavailable and no longer produced by the original company, due to a government regulation on some of the chemical content. I think they added "Tyme" to the name, OTW. Then later, another company started manufacturing almost the same stuff, but within regulation with a slightly different formula. Not knowing of the change, A friend of mine bought a case of it for use when training BSA trek guides.

It smelled almost the same but I found that it diid not always work as desired. However, on one famously memorable trip to Little Tupper Lake, the weekend that it first opened to the public, I believe, he was paddling his solo canoe and I was in mine nearby. I was using straight DEET, but he had the newer OTW. Black flies were being especially fierce that calm wind day. It was almost like he was in an invisible bubble of clear air with not a black fly in sight, while I struggled drowning myself in DEET with little relief. I got some relief at first by paddling close to his vapors before he loaned me a bottle of his. In later trips we found it did not always work so impressively, but it does usually have something of an impressive effect at times with the buggers. Maybe it depends on the particular species hatch at the time, as there are a couple of dozen different species that come out during their season.
 
Last edited:
They have an interesting website. They have a section titled "Finally Science is Catching Up to Ole Time Woodsman." https://www.oletimewoodsman.com/blo...g-up-to-ole-time-woodsman-fly-dope-since-1882 If you read it, it suggests, two scientific articles support the idea that Ole Time Woodsman works. What is linked is an article in "Chemistry World" and an article in Scientific American, both of which say certain chemicals block mosquitoes ability to detect CO2, https://www.chemistryworld.com/news...ounds-that-target-co2-sensors/3002592.article https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mosquito-scent-tracking-d/ If you read the articles, Ole Time Woodsman simply was not studied and the promising chemicals listed in the articles (hexanal, 2-butanone and 2,3-butanedione in one article and ethyl pyruvate in the other) don't appear to be among Ole Time Woodsman's ingredients (which took some sleuthing to find). That kind of misdirection sets off my warning bells.

This interview with the owner set off more warning bells for me. https://bangordailynews.com/2018/08...sman-a-maine-fly-dope-from-the-1880s-is-back/

Per the article, it isn't registered with EPA as an insect repellent at all. He gets around this by marketing it as a "human scent camo" which is unregulated so anyone can make any claim they want about it. The article also notes that to avoid getting sideways with the EPA (probably really the FDA) the directions say to apply it to your clothes, not skin (although surely that direction is observed in the breach).

I couldn't find a list of the ingredients in Ole Time Woodsman on the website. In the interview, the owner says it is a mixture of pine tar, mineral oil and essential oils. But there was a photo in the article of a bottle of the original stuff dating back to the 1950s. If you enlarge the photo, the active ingredients (roughly 40%) are listed as "rectified oil of tar" (aka pine tar), camphor, citronella and "oil of bay" (aka bay leaf oil). The inactive ingredient (roughly 60%) is mineral oil.

I would think that if pine tar actually affected black flies' ability to find their human victims, back flies would not be much of a problem in a place covered with pine trees like Maine (the Pine Tree State).

I think I'll keep using Picaradin (for skin) and Permethrin (for clothes). They have been proven to work on biting flies and are a lot less unpleasant than DEET. But when the black flies or other biting flies are really thick and determined, nothing beats a head net, long sleeves, long pants and socks.
 
I suspect the August fly that Boreal is referring to is the dreaded ankle biting Stable Fly. They are similar looking to a house fly, but are far worse. They chew the heck out of your ankles while sitting around the fire and draw serious blood. They do the same to livestock, hence the name. We typically have a fly swatter handy to deal with them. I do not know about the effectiveness of Ole Woodsman on them. I do think the concoction worked for blackflies.

Cheers,

Fitz
 
I suspect the August fly that Boreal is referring to is the dreaded ankle biting Stable Fly. They are similar looking to a house fly, but are far worse. They chew the heck out of your ankles while sitting around the fire and draw serious blood. They do the same to livestock, hence the name. We typically have a fly swatter handy to deal with them.

I hate stable flies. I can deal with mosquitoes and no-see-ums and most flies, but stable flies are another matter. Yes, they draw blood when they bite, and it freaking hurts.

On an Adirondack trip I watched one land on the heel of a nylon camp tennis shoe. I had a little spritz bottle of 90% DEET in the chair cup holder and thought “OK you little b*st*rd, take this”. I doused him with DEET. He proceeded to bite me through my sock and shoe.

We too bring a flyswatter, or when we don’t we make one with a Y forked stick and some duct tape.

The simple thing that has worked best for those ground hugging ankle biters is to keep my feet elevated when seated. I do not bring a camp ottoman, but even the elevation of a bucket helps. I glue a couple circles of exercise flooring on my barrels and use them as high, cushioned footrests.
 
Last edited:
I suspect the August fly that Boreal is referring to is the dreaded ankle biting Stable Fly. They are similar looking to a house fly, but are far worse. They chew the heck out of your ankles while sitting around the fire and draw serious blood. They do the same to livestock, hence the name. We typically have a fly swatter handy to deal with them. I do not know about the effectiveness of Ole Woodsman on them. I do think the concoction worked for blackflies.

Cheers,

Fitz

They are a type of black fly, very small. From the "Alaksa Mosquito and Biting Fly Pest Control Manual ": "Alaskan black flies are in the Simulid family. They are also called buffalo gnats or white sox, after the white stripes on their legs. These insects crawl under clothing or near the hairline to bite the skin with blade-like mouthparts. The anticoagulants pumped into the wound to aid the fly in sucking blood may cause an itchy, swollen bump that persists for over a week. Only the females are capable of taking a blood meal."

They're a real pain in parts of Alaska (especially the Interior, where Boreal Birch is), and bite more viciously than the black flies I've seen in northern Canada. I've found them least appealing when dressing caribou when you have blood all over your hands.
 
Last edited:
The ankle biter Stable Flies I have encountered are not particularly small. They are at least the size of a house fly, or bigger, 5 to 7mm (1/4”) in length.

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/...calcitrans.htm

I guess they could be worse, they could be horse flies. Those danged things are often fully an inch long, with scissored mouthpart to slice you open to lick your blood. Flyswatter time.

I would still choose any of the flies over getting into a mess of chiggers. At least I know when the flies are biting me, I don’t know I’ve gotten into chigger larvae for a day or two, when anything under elastic (socks, u-trou waistband) begins to itch maddeningly, and keeps itching for a week.

https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-...higger-bites#1
 
In the South where I grew up, we had deer flies Chrysops spp.(with a nasty bite, and would fly incessant circles around your head), horse flies (Tabanidae), and mosquitoes. And believe it or not, I was never infested with chiggers, not a one. Fleas from our dogs sure loved me, though.
 
In the South where I grew up, we had deer flies Chrysops spp.(with a nasty bite, and would fly incessant circles around your head).
Easily managed. Just be sure to always travel with a taller than you "friend". With any of those flies (not mosquitoes or stable flies) that like high places, just sidle up to your friend and engage in idle conversation for a couple of minutes. It will help if you can manage to stand in a shallow depression at the same time. Try not to be too obvious by bending your knees to sink lower. In no time, all of your buzzing companions will have migrated to your tall buddy and you can sneak away, keeping low, for a couple of minutes of peaceful freedom, until another thought comes your way that you must share up close.
 
Thank you to everyone that commented. Mason is correct with the type of black fly that is my nemesis, it is a little bit bigger than a no-see-um. I'm going to send off for a bottle of the Ole Woodsman stuff, I do love the smell of pine tar (I spent a bunch of my vacation Euros in Finland last fall on a pine tar licorice called Leijona). Also going to see if REI is open, buy some of the Sawyer Products Picaridin & Permethrin that they supposedly have or can be ordered.
One of my friends on a fishing trip to the upper Gulkana River had enough White Sox bites around his eyes that I had to guide him as you would a blind person.
We also have horse flies (called moose flies here) easy to swat, sound like a B-52 buzzing around.
 
There is a large family of blackflies in the family Simuladae.. In Maine the OW does work in pine groves( and pine tar doesn't smell like pine sap as anyone who has pine tarred a birchbark canoe will attest). I have lived under the pines for 21 years. And yes I do have blackflies a gardeners nemesis but indication of good clear water ( we have great fishing) Mostly in May-June the little buggers though occasionally in later months if it has been wet. ( Our species of BF can have five hatches)

OW is a nicer alternative to something sometimes used around here too.. Bear grease.

We are blessedly free of deer and horse flies. Why I don't know. But we got midges! ( no seeums)

With all the recent dry weather the insects seem to be in retreat. There are not many skeeters.
 
And believe it or not, I was never infested with chiggers, not a one.

You are either lucky or careful. Other than mid-winter trips I have never spent time in the swamps of eastern NC without having chigger bites. Some years ago a contributor to Canoe Tripping suggested the following prophylaxis for chiggers:

“A home remedy for chiggers is a typical spray bottle filled with water, one teaspoon of Dawn dish liquid and one teaspoon of canola oil. This concoction will kill the little buggers on anything they are climbing on. Spray your socks, shoes, etc. we have them real bad around the house this year and this solution is the only thing I have found that works. The poisons I have tried have not worked, but this stuff worked.”

That actually works very well, provided I remember to apply it before beating the bush.

The worst I have ever been chigger bit involved nothing more than standing still in a DelMarva swamp, taking a leg stretcher with friends on a patch of high ground. Tom’s demented dog Moby caught scent of some mole or vole just underground and began furiously digging down. He was aimed perfectly to throw the loose soil on my feet. I just laughed and called him by his other name “You moron”.

A day later I had hundreds of chigger bites on each foot. Moron Mike won’t let that happen again. Tom took great joy in my itchy suffering.

Easily managed. Just be sure to always travel with a taller than you "friend". With any of those flies (not mosquitoes or stable flies) that like high places, just sidle up to your friend and engage in idle conversation for a couple of minutes.

The trick with deer flies, at least the colloquial “Greenheads” on the eastern shore and the “Yeller flies” in eastern NC is to know that they are attracted to movement. On long dirt roads they will swarm, and follow, a slow moving vehicle. Go fast enough and they will cluster in the wind eddies behind the side view mirrors. Park and wait a few minutes to get out.

They will also swarm a moving canoe. But in a group the lead canoe attracts 99% of them. We always allow unknowing paddlers to “lead the way”. Watching friend Pam in the bow of a tandem on a narrow swamp creek, not paddling but spray a cloud of aerosol bug spray, two cans, one in each hand, spraying them both wildly around her head, is a treasured memory.

She kept asking “What are you all laughing about back there?” and we would answer “Never mind, just keep going”. When we finally fessed up she failed to see the humor.
 


You are either lucky or careful. Other than mid-winter trips I have never spent time in the swamps of eastern NC without having chigger bites.

Neither, probably just too foul tasting. I spent the whole of my youth running around the woods of our farm in S.C., swamps and all. Never a chigger.
 
Neither, probably just too foul tasting. I spent the whole of my youth running around the woods of our farm in S.C., swamps and all. Never a chigger.

Insect pests seem largely disinterested in me, or at least I have minimal reaction, but chiggers seem to have my number. Well, deerflies are interested, flying in maddening buzzy circles about my head, but if they alight the usually take a sniff and goes elsewhere.

I do believe that personal chemistry comes into play. I am not immune to mosquitoes, but they usually don’t feed heavily on me, and when they do my reaction is mild. My wife and #2 son likewise.

The reason for our near mosquito free existence may be that they feast on #1 son. Literally, visually, a cloud of mosquitoes surrounding him like he was the Pig Pen character from Charlie Brown, while we keep our distance and remain relatively bug free. Various bug dopes seem to make little difference, and he, like me, despises wearing a head net or being trapped in a screen house. He suffers in something less than silence.

Allergic reactions differ a lot as well. I did a canoe trip in the early 70’s with my childhood best friend. There were blackflies. He had never been among blackflies before.

He looked like Elephant man after a single day, his face was so swollen his eyelids were slits. He was still grotesque a week nearly after the trip. He was 17, and had a girlfriend. There was much teenage angst.
 
The hippy smelly good bug sprays they sell have worked well for me with gnats and black flies. I've found it works better than deet.

It doesn't have the staying power so requires more applications but it seems to do the trick. "No Natz" is the one I have personal experience with. The other popular one around here is "Bug Soother" but I've never tried that one because I already have one I'm happy with.

I used No Natz on my Canadian canoe trips and it worked well. I used it more for Sadie than I did myself and she would tolerate me wiping it on her nose and face, not something I would have wanted to do with deet.

Alan
 
I just looked up pictures of chiggers. Kind of cute and red.. What do they do to you? I don't believe I have ever met one.
 
I used Ole Woodsman through the 60's and 70's until, IMHO, better alternatives were available.
Some were repulsed by the smell, but I always liked it, maybe because I equated the aroma with camping and less bugs.
In fact, a group of us used to meet up in the off season and pass around photographs from our trips together, and also pass around a bottle of Ole Woodsman, with each person taking a "hit" as they commented on the pics...

Sadly, it did nothing to keep deerflies away, but it was effective enough against blackflies and mosquitos.
 
Back
Top