I just got back from a week in the Boundary Waters as well. The main pest of prominence this time of year is the mosquito.

I brought along a light weight modern camo kilt (GrodyGoose) in place of shorts and wore it most of the time. My findings were that mosquitoes are not interested in going up under the kilt so much, too much swishing about of fabric to safely do their business I suspect. When sitting still, the pleats and the overlap of the apron provide multiple layers of fabric and thereby protection. In fact my fiancée (proposed to during the trip!, but that's another story) got a nasty bite through her jersey-cotton pants rather close to sensitive areas. Overall, I think a kilt is better attire in mosquito situations than shorts by far.

Another repellent not yet mentioned (I'm shocked!) is several pulls on your hard liquor of choice. int: Having had a good buzz on during the witching hour, dusk, I observed that the mosquitoes would buzz about my head but dared not land. This method worked two out of the three nights it was attempted. We still had fun that third night.

We ran out of camera battery and left the spare in the car so this is the best picture I have of me camping kilted. My Betrothed is an artist: