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.