Clothing Colour and Style

Back in the 70's used to be when travelling wearing any greens or anything possible mistakable for military was a real bad idea, all advice is "don't".

But these days as wildlife trips are more popular (where eg greens are a good idea to make you less visible), where there is nothing worse that trying to photograph that amazing temple with somebody in a fluorescent orange t-short standing there, and maybe cultures and risks have moved a bit, etc., do people still think it crucial to avoid anything possible interpretable as "military"/greens?

What made me start wondering is reading how, with increasing impacts of mosquito borne disease research now showing that clothing colour can have a big impact on attracting mosquitos, green being good at NOT attracting them, maybe things have changed.

I appreciate a lot must depend on the country and that some countries ban camouflage (with significant fines).

Ian

I avoid wearing clothing with bright colors (red, orange and yellow, for example) and navy blue and black. The latter is especially true when traveling in Africa where there are tsetse flies. See this link: https://www.tsetse.org/tsetse-faq/catching-tsetse/why-are-most-traps-coloured-blue-and-black

When traveling I usually wear green plaid shirts and light-blue-grey plaid shirts, the latter in destinations with minimal or no risk of mosquito-borne illnesses. Plaid shirts help mask stains better. My travel shirts are quick-dry durable nylon. I mostly wear quick-dry khaki tactical pants for durability and the extra pockets.

Attracting mosquitoes.

I think how you smell is a serious factor too.

Body odor, cologne, after-shave, perfume, etc.

Even carbon-dioxide we breath out attracts the little buggers!

From what I read, some people are simply more tasty to mosquitoes than other people. (Bug magnets!)

No we are told not to wear blue or black because those colors attract the tse tse fly (not mosquitos). I didn't believe it either and not sure I am convinced now, but they put out dark blue and black cloth squares to attract the flies.

Yes, some people are more attractive to mosquitoes than others.

But back to military - I didn't think it was green that one had to avoid - it was camo. And in some places it is actually illegal to wear it- I think Barbados is one place like that.

Oh no, we follow this recommendation not wearing black or blue clothing in Tanzania, we only wear light beige ones. But the TseTse's seems not to understand it. I was bitten dozends of times.
And as for Mosquitoes: I could wear what I want, I always are the one who is bitten. My husband, sitting just besides me, doesn't get any bites. And even if I try to hide the smelling of me, taking any perfume, it doesn't help. Mosquitoes seems to be more intelligent as we think, they find me anyway.

I followed that recommendation too although almost all of my wardrobe is blue. And I only saw oe of the tse tse flies. I think some people smell sweeter to flies and mosquitoes than other people. Some people recommend 'Skin So Soft" as a rub to repel mosquitoes. But there is no scientific proof that it works.

Skin so soft combines an emollient with citronella. It works as a barrier, flies will still land but supposedly dislike the taste so won't bite through it, hence the need for good coverage of all exposed skin.

DEET based products are apparently the only real answer.

I am one of those bug magnets... and for me too it doesn't really matter what color I wear..So I mostly stick to black. And I wear the same clothes when I am travelling that I would wear at home. Jeans and hoodies (mostly blue and black) when it's cold and skirts, tops and t-shirts (some variations of color like red or green, but mostly black) when it is warm enough.
Black is good masking stains too

I do have one grey camo pants for winter but I am too lazy to figure out which countries have banned camo for other people than militia, so I use those only when I am home

It's not simple green, it's camo. I've never worn any camo on principle because of its military links.

I too am..and always have been... a bug magnet. Colour of clothing makes no difference.

I can cope with UK bugs (get lumps) but react even more to 'foreign' bugs. US mosquitoes give me golf-ball-sized lumps, US midges/'no-see-ums' give me UK-sized lumps. UK 'jungle formula' or citronella doesn't seem to work in the US so...after a hugely swollen ear from a midge attack... I eventually gave in and now use the same US stuff as family, which does work (more DEET, I assume).

I rarely sweat and covering all exposed skin quickly makes me overheat and feel ill. A week or so of chemical use is the better of two evils.

I'm a bug magnet too and like Leics, react differently to bites from foreign insects than domestic. Was bitten so badly in Florence during the night that one foot puffed up to a rather alarming size; had to lance/drain it myself to get a shoe on. Fun time, that, but better than losing a day or two of great sightseeing.

Our Minnesota mozzies are vicious little critters, and the light clothing we're advised to wear to repel them hasn't worked for me at all. They rarely touch my husband so it must be my chemistry.

Camo: Funny, I usually associate it with hunting than rather than military. There are lots of deer and bird (pheasant, grouse, turkey, duck, etc.) hunters in my state that buy/wear the stuff. When out in the woods or field during the season, they're also required to wear blaze - a specific, obnoxious shade of bright orange or pink -on their heads and above the waist, arms excluded. It's highly visible to other hunters but it's said to appear as a shade of gray to most game animals.