IC
The mesh pants are absolutely useless against mosquitoes but work great with flies. Where ever the mesh lays against your skin it is very easy for the skeets to find a gap in the mesh to poke you.

Here is how I found out  ;D : I went into Glacier solo and a bit nervous especially after having done extensive research on old Mr. Griz. Both authors suggested not using bug spray or smelly soaps etc. so I went to Cabelas and purchased a "bug suit". (Now it was nothing like the highly endorsed "original bug shirt" which actually is a real fortress). This was just a mesh top and bottom.

The first night in I made it to fishless lake Poi (something like that....out of Many Glacier/Swiftcurrent). The next morning there were hordes of the little beasties and I smiled as I put my little suit on. Unfortunately it was little better than nothing and they tore me up for the hour or 2 it took me to get out. Boy was I mad.

Later that afternoon while setting up I got deluged by flies and was a little unsettled about not having any spray for a week but then I remembered the mesh pants. Bingo, fly problem solved. I still have the original pair a decade later.

I will also never forget the look of enchantment on a young gals face when she stopped me on the Wonderland Trail and asked me in a halting and smiling way....."Are...... are those bug pants"? Of course I couldn't help but stand a little straighter and puff out my chest just a bit  ::) "why yes, yes they are". I could tell, as she walked away with a dreamy look in her eye, that she was envisioning her own bug pants  ;D.