Permethrin

[Skychief]

I'm seeing some discussion regarding Permethrin use to battle ticks.

I use it in the pre-diluted form and am satisfied with my results (outside of the cost of the bottled brand name sprays).

I want to ask the hunters here that use it, do you make up your own from concentrate?

I would like to do so for the savings, but, am not convinced that it is 1)Safe, 2), Non-Smelly.

It seems that other threads that I have read about diluting permethrin down to .05%, for use on clothing, always ends with one "expert" saying it's perfectly safe. The next "expert" swears it'll kill ya stone-dead.

Does anybody here KNOW????

Best regards, Skychief

PS, take it from a guy that contracted Lyme in 1990 while turkey hunting in Wisconsin and going undiagnosed for way too long.....you DON'T want the stuff. Period.

 

[George]

I will tell you what I do, which has worked 100% for me for two years. I'm still alive and well.

I bought a 16 oz. bottle of Martin's 10% permethrin concentrate for $13, free shipping. I mix it 1 oz. of the concentrate to 19 oz. water for a batch of 20 oz. spray of .5%. That bottle of concentrate will make 304 ounces, or 15 of my batches. One batch easily lasts a whole season. One 24 ounce bottle of Sawyers pre-diluted .5% cost me $15. Expensive water.

I keep that in a spray bottle, and just mist my clothing with it. That is what the Sawyers company, the main retailer of the stuff in diluted form, showed in their instructional video. A lot of people submerge/saturate their clothes, I've never done that. I don't even spray all the garment, just around all edges where ticks might enter--- the edges of the tail, cuffs, collar and front opening of a shirt, for instance. Ticks can't go through cloth. I've used it on my leather leggings, moccasins, etc., works there, too.

I've waded neck deep in fields of weeds at the height of tick season, many times, have never found a single tick on me since I began using it.

It's safe, has very good ratings as far as human health is concerned, look it up on the web, the government info is there.

Doesn't work on skin, if you have bare skin you need Deet or some such on that.

Odor isn't a problem, as far as I've ever seen.

Spence

 

[dhaverstick]

Permethrin has been around for a long time and I've never seen any studies showing it to be harmful if used as directed (don't put it on your skin). I buy the concentrate from local farm supply stores and mix my own according to the directions on the bottle (usually a little more concentrated). I spray it all over my hunting clothes and set them out to dry. I will also spray it on my boots in the spring and summer months. It certainly keeps the ticks off of me.

The only time I ever use anything else like Deet or Picaridin is if I need to spray something on my skin to keep the skeeters away.

Darren

 

[Patocazador]

Two problems with it: 1) Since the government has banned Dursban and other pesticides that worked extremely well, they have also restricted concentrated forms of certain pesticides. Ready to use Permethrin has this restriction. I believe it is 0.5%. That breaks down to 0.005.

2) The pests (fleas and ticks) are getting resistant to it. I used to use a permethrin flea shampoo for my dog that I got from the vet. It's not available any more and the OTC stuff doesn't faze the fleas. I doubt it does much against the ticks either.

I sprayed my pants with the Sawyer's stuff as directed and still got ticks latching onto me.

I do believe the stuff is dangerous but this nanny state needs to let informed adults make up their own minds if they want to take the chance with potentially dangerous chemicals.

 

[Spikebuck]

I buy 36% concentrate and mix it 4 oz to 1 Gallon in a sprayer. I can pour it from there into a smaller spray bottle for clothes or I spray around my garage doors, and other places on the house and shed that spiders, wasps, etc like to make their little homes. One spray in the spring lasts all year.

It's hard to believe this stuff is harmless when you see the results on bugs months after spraying it. I find beetles and other larger bugs dead within inches of where I sprayed the stuff. Fortunately it appears to be far more dangerous to bugs than humans. The military tests are interesting reading, especially how they had to move their testing sites periodically as there was nothing left to kill after a few weeks of testing. I can't recall exactly, but one test was something like the tick had to die within a few inches of walking on the treated surface.

If you search on Roundball's posts here for Permethrin, he always had interesting things to recommend/say on it.

Approx $23 a quart, shipped.
http://www.amazon.com/Permethrin-3...=permethrin&qid=1465350127&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2

 

[Tilford]

I didn't know it was so strong I'm going to have to buy some

 

[Brokennock]

I use the Sawyer aerosol spray, it isn't cheap, but, its easy to apply, and works too well to bother messing around, especially living/hunting/scouting where Lyme disease got it's name.
No need to submerge clothes, just an even misting, maybe a little heavier at access points like Spence suggested. I tried Sawyer's pump spray bottle but found it to be a p.i.a. to use.
Only trouble with the stuff, just like deet and some others, it is very unfriendly to certain plastics and rubber compounds. Careful what you get it on other than fabric.

 

[The Baron]

I just bought a spray bottle off the shelf in NY. I've got a friend using it (sprayed his clothes prior to turkey season) and he swears by it. The gentleman at the store in NY claimed he knew a fellow who had sprayed his clothes and watched a tick crawling up his pant leg get to about the knee and drop off. I've been very luck to not have any ticks in me, but I've had the odd one on me and am hoping this Permethrin will help. Lyme disease is a nasty thing and I don't want to get anywhere near it.

 

[Dave Marsh]

I use Roundball's recipe he provided a while back. Have not had any ticks on me since. After seeing several friends suffer seriously with Lyme disease I figure at 67 the long term effects on me won't really matter and the short term effects with contracting Lyme disease could seriously affect my health right away. Might feel differently if I was 30.

Dave

 

[coloradoclyde]

PS, take it from a guy that contracted Lyme in 1990 while turkey hunting in Wisconsin and going undiagnosed for way too long.....you DON'T want the stuff. Period.

Agreed you don't want lyme disease...it is probably one of the worst non-terminal diseases you can get.
I've used permethrin and made my own from concentrate..Didn't protect me and it is deadly to bees..

Personally I think 100% deet is better.

Lyme's is no joke!....It's an epidemic and is spreading across the country....

You can get it by simply mowing your lawn or walking the dog.....

 

[eggwelder]

Our uniforms were soaked in it at some diluted strength before we went to Afghanistan in 2003. never saw many bugs of any kind in our tent quarters when everyone had their uniforms hanging up during my tour. i still have one of those uniforms...weird, but don't need skeeter repellent when i wear that one .
the particular chemical up here in Canada under dispute is Mefloqinine, the Wacky Wednesday dream drug...lol.
nobody ever mentions permethrin. its a controlled substance here and i know that you could not buy it at the local hardware store back in 03. its not used on uniforms anymore

 

[Shooey]

I use the spray-on stuff any time I plan on being in the woods. I just spray my clothes like the instructions say and I haven't come home with a tick or chiggers.

Jeez I hate chiggers...I'd rather have a dozen ticks than two chiggers bite me...

 

[Spikebuck]

Jeez I hate chiggers...I'd rather have a dozen ticks than two chiggers bite me...

You said it! Never had a chigger bite in my life until a few years ago when visiting President Jackson's estate in Nashville. My son-in-law and I both picked up chiggers and frankly, I'd rather get poison ivy. Never itched so bad in my life!

 

[coloradoclyde]

Jeez I hate chiggers...I'd rather have a dozen ticks than two chiggers bite me...

You said it! Never had a chigger bite in my life until a few years ago when visiting President Jackson's estate in Nashville. My son-in-law and I both picked up chiggers and frankly, I'd rather get poison ivy. Never itched so bad in my life!

+3....Chiggers are even worse than that time I was captured by the Blackfeet and they tied me to an ant hill.... :shocked2:

 

[jon math]

I wash with Dr Woods Tea Tree Oil soap. It’s a Castile base liquid soap. I use it as both a body wash and a shampoo. The ticks and most insects seem to strongly dislike it.

I also wear Gamehide brand "Elimi-tick" treated clothing when actively hunting. Between the two methods I’ve stayed tick free.

 

[nhmoose]

Will Frontline work? :rotf:

I use deet and anything else that works. It used to be sold as a powder and when a little bit was burned it would clean out a tent of skeeters and such.

Lyme is no joke have a few folks in our town in NH that have got it 2 are in wheelchairs due to it.

 

[Canute Rex]

I soak all my jeans in permethrin in the spring, along with some shirts and socks. Then again mid-summer. The soaking type treatment says it will last "six weeks or six washings," perhaps more if you keep the clothes in the dark in plastic bags.

At a shoot a few weeks ago I noticed that the black flies were swarming everyone else, but not me. I am usually the bugs' favorite meal.

You can't use permethrin on your skin, not because it is bad for your skin but because it is bad for the permethrin. There's something in your skin that breaks it down.

Military BDUs and some commercially available clothing have permethrin bonded to the cloth as a polymer. Apparently that stuff will last the life of the clothing. I've seen a video of a tick placed on treated cloth; it walked around in a little circle and then rolled over on its back and became listless and depressed (fatally).

My girlfriend worked in the New Jersey Pine Barrens and used permethrin on all her clothes. She would brush dead ticks off her clothes after coming out of the woods.

I'd also recommend picaridin (20%) over DEET. It works just as well and isn't a neurotoxin. It was used in Australia for years before it got approved here. It doesn't smell, doesn't stain or melt cloth, and it doesn't make my upper lip go numb if I apply a lot.

Be careful out there.

 

[Grumpa]

I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease 4 days ago, after 3 weeks of fevers, night sweats and chills, and doctors scratching their heads. By yesterday the fevers, chills and sweats were gone, and I am feeling somewhat normal. Two weeks of antibiotics, and some folks are telling me I'll need a month's worth! Whatever it takes.

We had gotten careless with not using permethrin or picaridin, not having seen any ticks for a long time. I never saw the one that got me, either. From now on, it's "Spray and Pray!" :grin:

I am dang lucky that the ER doctor ran the Western Blot test "Just to rule out Lyme". We caught it in the early stage. If it is missed, or mis-diagnosed, the spirochetes move deep into the muscle tissue, and don't show up in blood tests. Bad News.

Richard/Grumpa

 

[coloradoclyde]

2 weeks is not enough in my opinion ......Heck 2 months may not be enough.

What did they give you Doxycycline?

 

[hanshi]

I bought a bottle of the concentrated permethrin. I mixed a little with a gallon of water and had a mix with twice the strength of the normal spray cans. A bottle of concentrate will last the average hunter a lifetime. I spray my hunting clothes with the mixture, let them dry and am safe for the next three years. Have not seen tick one on me since then and I use to come home crawling with them. I use DEET concentrate on exposed skin surfaces.