Bug Bivy

I'm not a weight weenie, but when I can reduce bulk [weight and volume], It's always good. I have a few O.R. items in my camping and outdoors gear list and I've always been pleased with them. That trend continues with this Bivy. The Bivy construction is very good. Stitching is well done and overall, I expect good reliability. The underneath is tough wearing and as I use a light weight groundsheet for an extra layer anyway. The pole is easily put in place once you find the little velcro entry on the side. There are marking to show you where to insert the pole. It packs away to a very small and manageable size. I'm ~6", ~100lb so I'm consider myself the larger side of the one size fits all chart. I was easily able to roll inside and I had plenty of head room. Access to the zip [door/entry] was easy and the zip operation was positive. This product does what it says and provides great protection against airborne and ground borne blood suckers. A colleague woke in the morning from his tent and upon checking himself, found two ticks on his upper body. We're pretty used to mozzies now and they are not disease carrying. Ticks are real threat however. Two ticks in the tent was somewhat of an exception in fairness [first time in many trips], though certainly not shocking. If I needed a case in point to justify my new bivy purchase, I had just been given one. I don't see any negatives to be honest. I used a Thermorest and Snugpak lite sleeping bag and everything worked well. OK, this is all light stuff. For instance, a blow up mattress or other luxury bedding may make the available space too little and defeat the point of this bivy. There is some room for some small items in the head area of the bivy [keys, phone, camera and the like]. Not enough for anything more than a small fanny pack or the like but again, storage is not what this product is about. I did not use the guy line or stake loops on the first night and had no problem. The delrin pole was standing up well. I did on the second and this helped the delrin pole remain upright better. I put in my larger 4 season bag [Mountain Hardware] just for a test and found it works well also. The purchase experience from Amazon was great. I needed the item fast and I was impressed with Amazon and their shipping partner choice. I live in EU. This solution would work well on an MTB / bike trips, hiking, fishing etc. If you need to go light, are in warm climates and need protection at night against bloodsucking bugs, this is certainly a product you should consider.

I'm planning to walk the Camino de Santiago for the first time next summer, and I heard quite a bit about bed bugs. I bought the bug bivy and the Outdoorsman Lab Ultralight Sleeping Pad to go inside it. I was looking for a very light bed bug proof sleeping system that I could either use on top of a bed, or use to sleep outside if the weather permits, and I can find a place to set up. I just set this up at home, and tried it on the floor. Everything is fine, except I agree with the other posters that it needs additional support to keep the net off the rest of the body. I won't usually be able to stake it out. I'm going to try modifying it with polyethylene tubing from Menards (I think it's 1/4"). My plan is to take a wide cloth ribbon cut to the width of the bag, double the ribbon, and sew the sides, leaving the middle open for the tubing. I think I will need to also sew an additional ribbon inside the bag, to avoid stressing the netting. (cut 3 lengths of ribbon that are the width of the bag. Sew 2 of the ribbons together along the width. The single ribbon goes inside the bag and is sewed thru the netting on to the double ribbon that is outside the bag, sewing only along the outer edges of the ribbons.) Basically, I'm duplicating the existing channel that has the poles. I think I'll run one ribbon width-wise at around hip level, and possibly another ribbon over the lower leg position. I'll sew a little pocket at the bottom of each side of the ribbon channel, so the polyethylene tubing doesn't spring out. The polyethylene tubing is cheap ($7.00 for 100 feet, way more than anyone needs), light-weight and very packable. The ribbon won't add much weight, and is also cheap. If the tubing is too flimsy, I'll probably thread some type of wire inside the tubing. I have very low-level sewing skills, so I would rate this at a beginner-level modification. I included the exact sleeping pad I bought, to answer the question of whether a sleeping pad would fit inside. As far as roominess, I'm 5'3", and on the chubby-wubby side, I obviously fit length-wise, but I also found it roomy enough in width. I'll be buying a silk sleep sack, since I'm traveling in the summer, and there's plenty of room for it. If you are buying the bug bivy and plan to only use it outside, you may be able to stake it out in such a way that the netting stays off your body and legs, and then you won't need to modify the bag,

Bug bivy, came with no poles to erect the most. Just the cover and the bivy in the box.

I got this bug net primarily because I was spending a month in Louisiana with a lot of sleeping outside. There were handfuls of reviews about it being flimsy and cheap. I couldn't disagree more. This bug net bivy did exactly as expected and did it will. The bivy is lightweight, packs up quickly and sets up even quicker. This outing was much more cowboy camping if you will, no sleep mat and minimal blankets. I have set this up at home with my Sea to Summit sleep mat and personal sleeping bag, it all fit well and I believe will work in all situations.

This is a marvel of engineering. You unzip the top, slide your sleeping bag in, then you get in and zip it up. Presto! No more bugs. The flexible hoop that keeps the netting up and off your face easily folds down flat when you are not inside the bag. The best part is the hoop breaks down into several pieces and the whole thing stores in a small pouch, about the size of one of those compact raincoat pouches. The construction of the solid piece of vinyl that comprises the bottom of the bag feels a bit flimsy. I was always afraid I was going to rip it, but I never had a problem. I used this bag for approx. 45 straight days and have no complaints.

I'm happy with this bivy because it keeps bugs out. Returned the REI bug hut because it couldn't keep spiders out. My only problems with the OR bivy are 1. the plastic bottom smells strongly like plastic, and 2. there isn't enough room to comfortably read or write while within the bivy. Not huge problems since it does its primary job, but it would be nice to be able to read a book in there without keeping the book 5 inches from your face.

Pros Light, thick bottom, no ground cloth needed. Good customer service Cons If there is wind or if you slightly move in the bivy it will collapse in your face. I thought this would be a great idea because of the pole; but it's very unstable and will frequently pop out of place, meaning you have to get out of the bivy to put it back in. The pole is held together with a small piece of velcro that is not perpendicular with the bivy pole and on the other side is a small hole for it.

In theory, this design should work fine since it has a bow above the head/shoulder area. But in reality there isnt adequate tension on the net to keep it taut and away from your face and arms. A separate bendy stick perpendicular from the bow to the top would bolster that area, but there is another issue. From the waist down, the netting lays limp so any movement or turrning during the night means you roll into the fabric like a mummy - unless you sleep perfectly still all night, this net design really isn't practical. If it's hot and you arent using any bedding then you'll get bitten all night. They could easily fix this by adding a second bow equidistant between 1st bow and bottom of bag which would hold the net up and prevent the net from getting wrapped up in your sleepsack or bag. It would also make it infinitely easier to get in and out of this sack, which you can only access from the top. In fact if they did add a second bow, they could also add a zipper 3/4 length of the sack which would solve the access problem! I left my net in Ethiopia, but was tempted to bring it back just to modify it myself to see if I could create a better version - i kinda wish I had!

Wenn man Eine Große Isomatte 6cm dicke mit rein nimmt Wird es sehr eng und man kann sich kaum drin bewegen Habe Den Helium byvi und da passt das wunder bar Etwas mehr stoff währe etwas besser So man auch größere matten rein passen sonst muss mann die matte draußen haben was ja kein sinn macht

タープ泊用に購入。 コットの上で涼しく快適に寝れます。 顔の部分の空間が自立で保持されるのは良いですね。

小柄な私だと、荷物も頭元足元に入れれるので凄く安心感！ 快適にsolo campさせて頂いてます！

自転車での旅用に購入しました。野宿メインの旅で、難敵「蚊」を見事シャットアウトしてくれました。さまざまな虫がいる野外では必需品と言えそうなグッズです。アメリカ製品ですが、ファスナーの操作感にも不安は無く、きちんとした作りと思えます。「蚊対策に万単位の出費とは」とためらう人もいるでしょうが、費用対効果は十分。繰り返しキャンプをする人には是非お勧めしたい。