Permethrin is a contact pesticide that kills black flies, ticks, and mosquitoes on contact but has no harmful side effects on humans if used properly. It is the active ingredient used in Insect Shield and Buzz Off clothing and kills bugs when they land on your clothing by overloading their nervous system. You can buy Permethrin in liquid form and spray it on your own clothes to the same effect. This self-applied form lasts for 6 washings.
Sawyer Permethrin – Kills Ticks on Contact
You can buy Permethrin at REI. A big bottle comes with a spray adapter and will cover 4 complete sets of clothing, including shirts, pants, and socks. It’s pretty nasty stuff so you want to read the directions carefully. You need to apply it to your clothes (not the ones you are wearing) in a windless but well ventilated place like a garage. Then you let them dry for a few hours and you’re all set.
This morning, I sprayed Permethrin on a bunch of clothes that I’ll be wearing this summer for hiking and bushwhacking in New Hampshire. These included long sleeve shirts, convertible hiking pants, short gaiters, and some hiking socks. When you spray the Permethrin on, you want to position the sprayer 6 to 8 inches away from the clothing you plan to treat. Pay particular attention to the cuffs of long pants and shirt sleeves where the bugs will try to attack you. This is why I also sprayed my short gaiters and socks. It’s also a good idea to spray it on your hat.
Permethrin bonds to the fibres of your clothes and therefore resists washing out. In addition, you need to apply DEET to the areas of your body not covered by clothing and/or wear a bug net to create a complete tick perimete
Updated: 2013
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Used properly (e.g applied. dried completely (preferably OUTSIDE LINE dried) the active ingredient remains in cloth for multiple wash dry cycles.
DO NOT GET THE SOLUTION ON LIVE ANIMALS OR PEOPLE. THE LIQUID IS TOXIC.
Dried it attaches to the fabric and has few reported problems. Most problems come when people apply it to themselves, or clothing they are wearing.
It’s mislabeled as a ‘repellant’ it is an insecticide which kills insects on contact.
Avoid use around beneficial insects and food plants.
You might want to get your facts right about the toxicity of pemethrin.
Q. Is Permethrin dangerous to my skin?
A. The warning labels on the cans or bottles are often misunderstood. Your skin metabolizes, or breaks down Permethrin within fifteen minutes of contact with skin. Therefore, it is of no value to you as a personal protection insect repellent when applied to the skin. In addition, the EPA precautionary statement, “Do Not Apply to Skin” indicates that Permethrin is ineffective when applied to skin; therefore, do not apply to skin.
Can this stuff be used to spray on furniture and carpets to kill and repel scabies? If so, what is your reccomendation on how to go about doing that? Thanks!
No idea, but I can’t see why not. It is toxic to cats, so beware. Perhaps you should try it on a sample of fabric and see.
It IS toxic to cats, but only when it is wet. Once it has dried they have no ill effects. Trust me, I treat a sheet with the stuff and let it dry completely. Then I put it over the covers on my bed on which my dog and cats sleep. None of the animals have shown ill effects (and two of the cats spend a great deal of their day on the sheet, sleeping on the down comforter. Last week, when I washed the treated sheet-cover, I discovered a tick — a very dead tick. So the stuff works, and has no effects on cats (or dogs and humans, for that matter) so long as it’s dry. One more thing. I’d dry it on plastic bags, not on a close line. A close line will allow some to drip off and you may as well have it all dry and attach to the fabric.
I have been using permetherin for two seasons now with no I’ll effects. Although I do not buy the stuff from the hiking stores. It is too expensive in that form. I buy it at mclendons hardware here in Washington. I can buy a bigger bottle for half the cost of the hiking brands. It is in the insecticide catagOry under bedbug killer. I travel to Central America and also hike/backpack. In trave I spray my luggage in and out plus most of my clothes. This way i keep unwanted travelers from coming home with me. I also spray my sleeping bag liner of which I sleep in on the bed of the hotels I stay at. Bedbugs, spiders,mosquitoes and other little biting critters are all part of the game when traveling and I have used this successfully in this approach.
In hike/backpacking I spray all my clothes, sleeping bag, bag liner, tent and backpack with diet on my exposed skin areas. The permetherin on the tent is a source of entertainment in the evening as I watch bugs land on the mesh trying to get to me, then fall over and off the tent.
The military has been using it for years and I know you can buy it at feed and tack stores for horses and other animal washings.. I do know it is not good for cats or fish in liquid form.
Read the instructions, wear Gloves, have ventilation,dry thoroughly, life is better on the trail and abroad
I don’t know about scabies, but Bonide sells it as a bedbug killer. On the back label it says it controls; bedbugs, lice, carpet beetles,flees, ticks,clothes moths, cockroaches,water bugs,palmetto bugs,millipedes, centipedes, sow bugs, pill bugs,ants,silverfish,firebrats, spiders, crickets, clover mites, cheese mites, granary weevils, rice weevils, confused flour beetles, rust red beetles, drugstore beetles,mealworms , grain mites and cadelles. I buy it at Mclendons hardware here in Washington, it is much cheaper than what you buy at the hiking stores(brick and mortar or internet )
I was going to purchase a concentrated form online and then found out a local feed store had it, although at a slightly higher price than over the internet. I opted to spend my money locally and help out a pretty nice store owner. I know the few bucks I spent with him don’t make much of a difference in the long run but I also got personal attention and benefited from the knowledge of a wise and experienced man.
I diluted the mixture to the concentration I wanted, and stuffed the clothes in a bucket with the mix and let them stew a few hours. I then hung them up over a plastic work table and squeegeed the runoff back into the bucket. The excess bucket contents got fed to the neighbor’s cat–NO! I put it into a plastic bottle and keep it stored for later use.
Well, I started this thread and I am so pleased to be learning so much about permethrin from so many people. I treated some socks today and had some extra left over so I re-treated some pants I had treated 2 months ago with it. I don’t think I can overdose my pants, can I?
Insect shield now will treat your clothing for $10/item, plus (I think) $10 shipping. This treatment lasts 70 washes, like the pretreated clothing. This would be more convenient for a long hike or trip.
http://www.insectshield.com/PDF/IS%20Your%20Own%20Clothes%20-%20U.S.%20form.pdf
Cool! Expensive for small items, but this would be great for gaiters, pants, and shirts.
Thanks for bringing this one out again, makes my job easier! After a 2010 section hike of the PCT, I got really sick, and then sicker. It turned out to be Lyme Disease. Since then, I have been giving Lyme Awareness talks at ADZPCTKO (yes, Lyme and other tick borne diseases are quite prevalent on the west coast!). I will add two things and I am not sure if they were covered in earlier comments, so I apologize if I am repeating information.
First is toxicity: in wet form is it very toxic (to humans and pets. Once dried however, it is not. Sawyer has a great page explaining how Permethrin works on a more scientific (but for lay people) level. I am happy to link to that page once I find it later.
Second is treating gear: so obviously I am a little gun-shy about ticks. I actually treat ALL my gear: tent, sleeping bag, pack, gaiters, clothes…I even treated my tyvek ground sheet, ha! So far, this has not affected my gear negatively.
After going from lots of fun backpacking trips to needing a walker to get down the driveway in order to get the mail, I promote Permethrin like no tomorrow. Especially since we don’t see (or feel) all attached ticks.
It truly is a safe incredibly effective product and in my opinion should be a part of everyone’s gear routine.
Wow that sounds terrible. One major fear I have when backpacking is Lymes disease. Is it at a state where you will be using a walking your entire life? What’s the long term prognosis? Sorry to get off track but I live in Northern California and hike sections of the PCT often so this hits close to home for me.
I fortunately have made progress after three years of intensive treatment (I had to have a port placed, home nurses, hospitals visits, etc). I no longer need my walker and am planning a hike of the PCT next year (2014) yay!. We are not sure if the brain damage is permanent, but it looks like it.
Clearly, I’m very frank about my illness and the hell I went through for years. It is not to gain sympathy or pity but hopefully I can impart how important tick born disease awareness is here on the west coast. Nobody really considers it a real threat out here, but it actually is. Permethrin is such an easy and effective step!
To further protect yourself, think like a tick. They crawl until they reach skin. They come from the ground, not falling out of trees like some think. So in addition to treating clothing and using DEET (I hate that stuff) make sure that the tick wont have an entry point -> tuck shirt into pants, pants into socks or gaiters, etc.. You will look like a huge dork but to me it’s worth it :-)
I really recommend watching “Under our Skin” which is available on Netflix and Hulu. I know it’s been airing on PBS too.
Here is a link to the risk map of California http://www.lymedisease.org/california/california_map.html
http://www.lymedisease.org is a great resource in itself. I am currently working with a Board Member to train Dr’s that are near the trail to identify and properly treat TBD.
Knowledge and awareness is power and with the proper precautions, you can have an awesome hike without fear of getting sick. :-)
Ah ha! Here is the link regarding permethrin. http://www.sawyer.com/tech-bugs1.html
Thanks for sharing the gear choices.
I think you were misled if anyone told you it was organic – I’ve never seen it labeled as such.
I have not had issues, nor has anyone else I know, including my cat (tho I am careful to never apply it to anything while inside the house, she comes into contact with the treated, dry clothing frequently). It wears out after 6 – 8 washings and needs to be reapplied.
Since you are not supposed to use it on live people using it on children probably won’t happen to anyone following the directions.
I’ll keep using it. I think Lyme and other tick borne diseases are likely to cause permanent damage faster than the permethrin will, since I’m not sensitive to it (thank goodness, since it’s the only thing that keeps the ticks off reliably, they walk across DEET treated clothing). I dry my clothes in the dryer after washing treated clothing, but let it air dry when applying the treatment. It’s bonded to the fabric after it’s dried into the fibers.