Permethrin for Ticks?
General Topic
Hey Guys, that time of year again. In Canada we naturally don't have all the good permethrin tick options the USA has because we prefer Lyme disease.
Anyways, I was able to find some permethrin on Amazon that is 0.35% permethrin. The Sawyers stuff is 0.5% Has anyone used 0.35% before? It is an OnGuard product made for pest control spray. Curious on experiences. Would love to buy concentrate and mix my own but can't seem to find any. Thanks.
I bought the 10% solution this year. Here's the mixture for the 36.8% solution.
Better than nothing, that's for sure.
IME, the extremely diluted stuff 1/2 of one percent works great...on Ticks and Mosquitos...long after it's dried on your clothing.
Resist the urge to mix it stronger........no need.
APauls be careful Trudeaus police will come and confiscate that banned stuff.
Use it and just spray twice if you see it not working.
Here is what I use 8 ounces to a gallon of water in a pump up sprayer wet your clothes hang em up let them dry thoroughly and you are good to go for the year.It can withstand several washings.Been doing it for well over 20 years and I don’t glow in the dark.Good luck Lewis
Can you find some for horses? I think it's usually around 10%?
I'd imagine it would work fine, maybe put it on a little "thick".
Can you not find in up there or is it banned?
I’d imagine it will work just fine, permethrin is powerful stuff. I may get Hodgkin’s lymphoma but no chance of Lyme disease lol
No can't find anything stronger or any concentrate. All the horse stuff I've been able to find is 0.1% which is even less.
Maybe some bear hunters can smuggle a bunch in. Then you can sell it in Canada you could start a permethrin cartel.
It's good stuff, as Michael Arnette mentioned, it'll keep the little bastards off of you but who knows what it does to us, I only use it during turkey season, after that I stay the hell out of the woods till deer season.
It's a lot cheaper to do what I do and get the Gordon's livestock concentrate from Tractor Supply and "roll my own" clothes spray. For liability reasons I won't post my recipe...all I need somebody who slept through chemistry class screwing it up and suing me for all their babies being born naked!
Holy smokes! Why does Canada restrict it so much? What's their reasoning?
Lol about the babies being born naked lawsuits!
I would recommend buying the formula created for treatment of clothing and equipment not animals. It has an adjuvant (carrier solvent) that will make it work with the fibers in the material. Don't buy a higher concentration than you need. The stuff works no doubts there.
TonyBear, do you have a link to a specific product? All I seem to come up with has the petroleum distillate in it.
Sawyers permethrin has worked great for me.I soak my clothes in it two weeks before the season {turkey} and I have not had a tick stay on me. I treat my clothes with it about every 2 months. Its strange that Canada would not allow Sawyers over the boarder.
Since Canada has gotten so strange I can send you a bottle of sawyers and use a pound of pot for packing material.
What nchunter said about soaking his clothes and letting them dry, is what I do and it’s been 100% effective against ticks.
I’ve bought it in the states and brought it over before, it just isn’t found for resale in Canada. SO no one has ever used a lesser dose than 0.5% eh?
Adam, you said you could get the 35%. What's the problem?
Edit: I'm an idiot....I missed the decimal point.
.35 will work fine. Saturate the clothes, dry and go hunting.
Sawyers is a rip off. Mixing you own is the way to go for sure!
For probably the last 7 or so years I've been treating my clothing by mixing my own spray from a permethrin 10% concentrate made by "Duration" and sold by travelers supply. See Link.
One 24oz bottle of Sawyers is around $20. One 8oz bottle of duration concentrate is around $30, but it'll make 16 - 18oz bottles of spray at minimum - huge $$$ savings. The concentrate I'm sharing here is used for soaking clothing and the mfg recommended mix ratio is 18oz water : 0.5oz concentrate. I have a problem with the idea of soaking clothing however ... A few questions come to mind such as; What happens with this active ingredient once it gets wet after having bonded to the inside of my garments? Why would I want permethrin bonded to the side of the garment in direct contact with my skin?
I had saved an old sawyers bottle early on, which I refill, so there's no concern of making a mistake with what's in the spray bottle. Also worth noting, I always mix this at a slightly more diluted rate of about 24oz water (fill the whole spray bottle) to .5oz concentrate. At this dilution I have noticed no difference in effectiveness, in fact it has been my experience that its plenty potent. I hang my stuff on the clothes line, don a par of gloves and long sleeves, then while standing up wind I spray down my garments. I don't ever saturate my garments. I do spray them until they appear wet on the outside only, and with emphasis from knee to waist line. Let dry fully.
I'd say 95% of the time when I see a tick on me its just above or around my knees. I log around 200 miles annually during shed season and have never had a tick embed in me as long as I follow my routine; wear treated pants, tuck in shirt/ baselayer (sometimes but often not even treated) tuck pants into knee boots or wear gaiters when in lace-ups ... and that's it. I walk deer and tick infested areas, sometimes noticing up to a dozen ticks on me at once, but they never last long. If I don't brush them off I just keep walking and when I check they're always gone after a short crawl upward (Ticks always crawl up in my experience).
I've been vigilant about wearing treated clothing this way when doing woods things, and its worked well for me. There's no telling how many hundreds or thousands of ticks permethrin has warded off of me.
As pictured... on a slow day shed hunting I came to an area with vegetation I'd always picked up ticks from. Didn't take more than a minute of looking to find some of the little bastards!
Sawyer Brand-Active ingredient, Permethrin, is a synthetic molecule similar to those found in natural pyrethrum which is taken from the chrysanthemum flower. Repel insects from clothing and other fabric products, and will actually kill ticks, mosquitoes, chiggers, mites and dozens of other kinds of insects. The permethrin is a contact insecticide which is non-toxic to humans.
I use it with Picaridin which is derived from "Piperine" in pepper plants. The Sawyer brand picaridin is supposedly a synthetic replica of a natural solution that has proved to be a very potent formula on mosquitoes, ticks, and black flies while still being family friendly, gear safe, and comfortable to wear on your skin. Just don't get it on your fingers and rub your eyes.
Both of these are available at Scheels, Fleet Farm, Bass pro, Cabela's etc.
I was in the blind with my wife one spring and noticed a tick climbing on her pants. I picked it of and said watch this.. Placed the tick on my pants (freshly treated) and the tick jumped around like it was on a hot plate. We re-treated her's after we got home.
On another site they recommended a brand that had the petroleum distillates in it and said it was scent free after drying. It was terrible and the smell lasted through two washings. I'm going to use the rest to spray my yard after I get deer. I ended up getting Martins 10% permethrin and that is truly scent free after drying. I might try the Duration when the Martins is gone.
When I was a kid I used a product sold at Walmart that contained permethrin - worked great - zero ticks during Turkey season. Then as I got older I just got nervous about what that was doing when it was against my sweaty skin during spring Turkey hunts. I haven’t used it since. Perhaps I’m just paranoid.
Yes, TonyBear to the head of the class! Indeed, you'll notice the "animal stuff" and the "human clothing stuff" are different concentrations. The livestock stuff is way higher, but you can dilute your own with distilled water. That's where I'm "clamming up" to spare the babies....there's enough naked, adult morons these days! I could inadvertently be spawning our next generation of politicians! I'll pass.
That mix will work just fine. No need to have stronger.
just some advice: use picaradin with treated clothes also. i purchased permethrin from tractor supply and mix it "heavy." even after fresh treatments i have had tics in my skin. the addition of picaradin, i use lotiion, seems to help.
I guess I always had a soft spot for sawyers due to the mission work the company does every year. And since using it I have been tick free.
I've used Sawyers and a Repel version. Havent seen the Repel version lately. Its pretty amazing how well it works.
Well I pulled the trigger on the OnGuard 0.35% stuff off amazon. We'll see how it goes. 3.8L for $40 at least is good value.
