DEET vs Permethrin

[Kayak Jack]

OK, I have a question for you 'sperienced-type campers and outdoorsmen.

What are the favorable characteristics of DEET and Permethrin? Which is "best" - or, least worst - for our use?

I've had doctors who paddle and camp tell me that the permethrin is a much better way to go. Spray it on clothing and tent/ hammock openings, and you will have few mosquito bites & bug bites than if you apply DEET to your skin.

Any of you have some personal experience to share? Professional advice to provide?

 

[oldsparkey]

You might be asking the wrong person .... I know which one works the best for me.

All I use is the Permethrin , I spray it on my clothing, hang them on a line and let them dry. The slacks are sprayed inside the legs up to about where the knees would be. Socks and shoes are also sprayed. It is for clothing and is not to be sprayed on a person.

You can purchase clothing today from several places that have already treated there clothing with it...They say there clothing is good for 50 washings , I would rather do it myself just before I go camping.

If there is one tick in a five acre field he will find me so this is my way to be camping tick free. I should have done that today but did not think I would be tramping around in the woods ....WRONG. I went to Tosohatchee State Reserve http://funandsun.com/parks/Tosohatchee/tosohatchee.html for some woods bumming and located this good looking area, parked the jeep and went for a hike, saw a couple of Wild Turkeys (Hens) and one hog at the same time they saw me. "O" Well no pictures today.
When I got back to the jeep I found five ticks on myself. Told you they like me.

Out camping if a tick gets on your outfit he is dead, it also repels (kills) mosquitoes and biting bugs. All they have to do is land on it and whamo they are goners. One spraying is usually good for two weeks.

Hanging a hammock you are usually into some sort of underbrush and that is where the blood suckers like to hang out so the spray gets rid of them before they can get you. I have sprayed the outside of my tent , about a foot up from the bottom but haven't sprayed the hammock , it does not touch the ground or weeds.

When I was doing my lectures, talks, gab fests or just BS Scission (You choose one of them) about the Outdoor Opportunities (Camping & Paddling) here in Florida I would have a can of it to pass around so folks knew what I was talking about and see the light.

The one I like is the REPEL Permanone (green can) It is a clothing & gear insect repellent (Do not apply to skin) Unscented two week protection, repels and kills Mosquitoes, Ticks & Mites.

1..... DO NOT SPRAY your clothing for two weeks after the 1st application. Residual protection lasts a mimimum of two weeks.

2......Wash your clothing at lease three times before retreating it after the two week time limit.
Active ingredients
Permethrin ............ 0.05%
Other Ingredients 99.5%

It makes DEET look like something that the Cave Men used , heck spraying deet around is so easy even Jack could do it. Bet you thought I was going to say a cave man could do it..... I sort of did that. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Chuck.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Thanks, Chuck. Damned if I can understand why a tick would like you??!! I thought they normally went for dead meat. (Maybe they know something you don't?)

( They only want fresh, tender, sweet meat, actually the victims blood and I have USA Class A - Extra sweet. Thinned out with medication and with extra pressure (Less sucking for them).

Now that it is grit flavored , all the better for the southern ticks , they do have tatse you know. :lol:

Chuck. )

 

[Running Boar]

Jack,

I will second what Chuck said. when I was stationed at Ft Stewart they issued us permethrin and it made a believer out of me, it is the only thing that I have seen that keep the seed ticks off of me, much better than Deet IMO. Chris

 

[Kayak Jack]

Thanks, Chris. I like it when trusted outdoorsmen say the dame thing. I'll get some permethrin next spring. Maybe I'll learn how to spell and pronounce it by fall?

 

[Kayak Jack]

Oh, and Chris, I forgot to tell you. It's OK to say the same thing as Chuck, even the same words - but it's often dangerous to openly say that you agree with him. Then, he gets to being big headed, struts around al banty rooster like, and makes it rain all over hell's half acre and three fourths of Georgia.

See, we let him out only of Friday evenings after five, and Tuesday's after three. Throw him a bone now and then. "GOOOoood Chuckie". Ya know, stuff like that.

He started one time ta counting backwards from a million in Roman numerals and we couldn't shush him up before he got down to M or so.

 

[oldsparkey]

Oh, and Chris, I forgot to tell you. It's OK to say the same thing as Chuck, even the same words - but it's often dangerous to openly say that you agree with him.

See, we let him out only of Friday evenings after five, and Tuesday's after three. Throw him a bone now and then. "GOOOoood Chuckie". Ya know, stuff like that.

Well it is after 4 and a Friday so I am running late today. Pup's and I have been fighting over that 3.PM. Bone, I won and that is why I am late responding. Besides I thought it was Thursday.

Chris .. I agree with you, Deet is only second best. I found that out at "O" Leno State Park here in Florida.

Returning from a paddling trip on the Suwannee River I stopped there for a couple of days and managed to pick up some of those seed (Deer) ticks from the deer walking around the campsites at "O" Leno.

1..."O" Leno State Park for the seed (deer ) ticks
2... Tomoka State Park for the big brown dog tick
3....Tosohatchee State Reserve for the red headed dog tick.
I could go on and on and on about where you can find ticks here in Florida.

Anyway .......... That resulted in a case of Lime Disease which required a doctors visit and a weeks worth of medication. Ever since then my clothing has been treated with the Permethrin and I have never had a tick or bug problem from that day on.

In 2007 I will be padling with a bunch of Yankees so it will be interesting to see if it works on them. No , No , No not for them ...........as a repellent. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Chuck
PS. I know a big bowl of hot buttery grits will make those Yankees scatter faster then a covey of Quail under a bird dog's nose.

 

[Kayak Jack]

We used gritz as a bug repellent. Worked fine, but was a helluva mess to clean up afterwards. Actually, it was kind of a bug attractant and people repellent.

Some suthriners delighted in picking through and sorting out what bugs to leave in the gritz t breakfast time.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Well, my first bottle of permethrin is on its way from Campmor. I'll test it next spring

 

[Deer Slayer]

I'll echo what others had said about Permethrin. Around here in the Great Dismal Swamp the Lone Star ticks, and seed ticks get real heavy starting April, and Merchant Mill Pond tends to swarm with em, along with chiggers. DEET won't slow them down. To keep ticks off of me boots, I'll dust them down real good with Flower of Sulfer since sloshing about in water, and squishing through mud on a portage tends to wash away the Permethrin. Keeping the sulfur in an old sock allows me to bat my boots a wee bit any time I like before stomping off into the grass and weeds....

However, DEET seems to do better with southern skeeters, whereas those dang Yankee skeeters up in Maine tend to co mingle with the Black Flies making it hard in knowing which of the critters are doing the misery making. DEET won't work on Black Flies.

My solution for this is mixing a bit of DEET with Old Time Woodsman Fly Dope, and wearing netting when they are thicker then fleas on an old coon dog.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Aye God, DS - you oughta carry a tight-weave butterfly net and catch all those bugs. Would save you carrying food. Just a pot and some spices for simmering.

I try to venture forth before the Decoration Day weekend and after Labor day weekend. That way, most bugs are dead and kids are in school. But, a few still find their way to me.

I have a head net, but it may be handier for straining spaghetti after cooking than for keeping bugs outa my face.

 

[Deer Slayer]

you oughta carry a tight-weave butterfly net and catch all those bugs. Would save you carrying food. Just a pot and some spices for simmering.

:idea: :idea: :idea:

 

[oldsparkey]

BackPacker Magazine had this to say about the repellent.

" Clothing sprayed with an environmentally sound insecticide known as permethrin , plus a Deet repellent on the skin , is the best protection against ticks. Permethrin is sold as Permanone Tick Repellent aerosol in lawn and garden and sports stores.
In military tests , 0.5 percent permethrin was sprayed on clothing, and the treatment was 100% effective against ticks. A 20 % Deet spray was 86% effective."

I spray the outside of my clothing and then the inside of the pant legs up to about the knee area in case one of the blood suckers tries to sneak up an inside path. Also spray the shoes and socks.

One application will last two for weeks or three washings.

Chuck.

 

[Kayak Jack]

... One application will last two for weeks or three washings.

You WASH your clothes now??!!

 

[Bullhead]

As far as I know Deet does not repel Ticks at all nor deer flies nor blackflies... just mosquitos.

 

[oldsparkey]

If you use the permethrin on your clothing ( NOT on your bare skin) it stops everything and if you do not bath then that allows a person a lot larger camping area from the rest , now if you pass gas or snore then you are in Kayak Jacks way of doing things.

I have been told he can claim a whole island all to himself ..... Or is that when he starts singing...... either way he has all of to himself , no bugs , no paddlers , no campers , no critters .... NOTHING .... but Jack. :lol:

Lordy , Lordy ........ No one has said anything about when he takes his socks off but there were several reports about 300 year old trees kicking the bucket over night and they had rope marks around them which would suggest someong had a hammock hanging there the night before the destruction.

Me .... Anyone can tell where I have been , the flowers bloom , the birds sing , the critters are so happy after I leave an area because my snoring has been known to take the bark off of redwoods and destroy smaller trees.

I have been told I sound like a group of air boats without any mufflers chasing a bunch of wild hogs. I like to say ..... The sound of the Florida Outback. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Chuck.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Yep - when I walk down the street, bad guys wet their pants.

 

[Bullhead]

Makes you wonder.... If you used some of that Frontline or whatever brand they have out for dogs that gets rid of fleas, mosquitos and ticks for three months... what would it do for outdoors people????? :wink:

 

[bearridge]

I reckon ya kin put a flea collar round each ankle 'n one on each wrist. Wearin' one round yer neck too iz likely overkill? :wink:

Miz Bear sez she wont use no more bug spray cuz the vitamin B-1 kept the skeeters off her fer the last two years. I made her come out one evenin' when they were bout ta tote me off. They kept bitin' the stew outta me. They left her alone.....buzzed round, but didnt bite her. [Mebbe if she had been fulla stew?] :lol:

No idea if B-1 keeps ticks off. Mebbe the Sparkanator will test it fer us?

regards
bearridge

The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him. Robert Benchley

 

[Kayak Jack]

Dad used to let a mosquito bite him, and would then hold his breath. He said that it closed the pores of the skin.

I don't know, but you could see the little mosquito bracing her front legs, trying to pull the beak out. And it wouldn't come out until Dad breathed out again. Then, it would buzz off.