Soaking Clothes In Permethrin

[Hunter4752001]

Yes ticks in South Africa carry disease, specifically African Tick Bite Fever. Its caused by the bacteria Rickettsia africae. The bacteria is closely related to the one that causes Rocky Mountains Spotted Fever. Best treatment is with doxycycline, standard antibiotics may not be effective. I picked up a few bites, without knowing, on the last couple of days of an Eastern Cape hunt. Symptoms hit about 1-2 weeks later after I had returned home. Local doctors knew nothing about the disease but I eventualy got treatment from a travel medicine doctor that had previous experience in Africa.

 

[Hogpatrol]

This thread and a pulling a wood tick off of my arm yesterday reminds me mix up some spray and get my clothes treated. Here in the mid Atlantic area, the winter was extremely mild and the ticks are out already.

 

[BeeMaa]

Update - after soaking my clothes, I squeezed all the liquid I could out of them…still too wet. Took them to the washing machine and put them through the spin cycle then hung to dry in the garage.

Had a gallon or more left in the bottom of the bucket and tote that I spread around the house. I also filled a spray bottle with some for stuff I may have forgotten. Obviously the residual from the washing machine went down the drain so it was wasted.

Things I’d do differently? Probably won’t do the soak method again because everything was too heavy and wet to hang up. Good thing my wife was out of town because using the washing machine gave the house a chemical smell. It’s better now.

Next time I’ll opt for a spray application using our lawn sprayer jut to get away from working the trigger on a spray bottle. Sticking with the concentrate and making my own dilution for the cost savings.

The good news is everything is treated and ready for the turkey hunt along with a bunch of clothes for yard work. Live and learn.

 

[HookMeUpII]

Update - after soaking my clothes, I squeezed all the liquid I could out of them…still too wet. Took them to the washing machine and put them through the spin cycle then hung to dry in the garage.

Had a gallon or more left in the bottom of the bucket and tote that I spread around the house. I also filled a spray bottle with some for stuff I may have forgotten. Obviously the residual from the washing machine went down the drain so it was wasted.

Things I’d do differently? Probably won’t do the soak method again because everything was too heavy and wet to hang up. Good thing my wife was out of town because using the washing machine gave the house a chemical smell. It’s better now.

Next time I’ll opt for a spray application using our lawn sprayer jut to get away from working the trigger on a spray bottle. Sticking with the concentrate and making my own dilution for the cost savings.

The good news is everything is treated and ready for the turkey hunt along with a bunch of clothes for yard work. Live and learn.

I like your idea with the concentrate. Sawyer works awesome but buying a bottle I can mix up for years down the road seems like a good idea. The lawn sprayer isn't a half bad idea.

 

[Ridge Runner]

Update - after soaking my clothes, I squeezed all the liquid I could out of them…still too wet. Took them to the washing machine and put them through the spin cycle then hung to dry in the garage.

Had a gallon or more left in the bottom of the bucket and tote that I spread around the house. I also filled a spray bottle with some for stuff I may have forgotten. Obviously the residual from the washing machine went down the drain so it was wasted.

Things I’d do differently? Probably won’t do the soak method again because everything was too heavy and wet to hang up. Good thing my wife was out of town because using the washing machine gave the house a chemical smell. It’s better now.

Next time I’ll opt for a spray application using our lawn sprayer jut to get away from working the trigger on a spray bottle. Sticking with the concentrate and making my own dilution for the cost savings.

The good news is everything is treated and ready for the turkey hunt along with a bunch of clothes for yard work. Live and learn.

IMO, I don't know why, even after reading the threads here, but soaking your clothes with that much permethrin isn't really necessary. IMO a waste of a good repellant.

All I did, and anyone really needs to do, is to heavily wet/dampen their clothes, and other outer wear, with a good ~20-25% mix; ie 4-5 ounces of permethrin to 16-30 ounce of water, then air dry.

This will repel no see ems, chiggers and ticks, even Tennessee mosquitos, and it will last for 4-5 washing on clothing. Boots, gaiters, hats, etc items that don't get regularly washed even longer.

One treatment lasted me through:

A) 14 days in Zimbabwe followed by another consecutive 14 days in RSA. With daily washing.

B) 6 conservative weeks of turkey hunting. Eh, whenever I felt my hunting clothes really needed washing, maybe once or twice a week.

C) 10 conservative weeks of deer hunting. Maybe 30 total washings over this period. Refreshing with permethrin mixture about every 6-7 days depending on weather (a lot of rain, or amount of sweating, or number of washings) or (usually after about every 6 machine washings).

 

[BeeMaa]

Spent 4 days turkey hunting in the western area of Virginia and no ticks on anything, despite seeing several while in the field. All the prep of treating the clothes paid off. Not a big hunt report because we only got one bird, but it was a lot of fun.

Here's a link if you want to see pictures of the massive bird my friend shot.

https://www.africahunting.com/threads/tss-ammo-is-it-worth-it.66788/post-1053599

 

[Pheroze]

Could a person use a standard horse spray like this? It seems to have the correct dilution

 

[BeeMaa]

@Pheroze - The dilution looks right and I would not have a problem using it myself, but there are other considerations. It's my understanding that permethrin products in the form of liquids or sprays for consumers to treat their own clothing are not approved for use in Canada.

The irony - Canadians are allowed to spray down their livestock for protection from parasites, but the person who owns the horses is not....makes perfect sense.

Not sure what kind of oversight the Gov't has if you purchased this. Something you will need to decide for yourself.

 

[Pheroze]

@Pheroze - The dilution looks right and I would not have a problem using it myself, but there are other considerations. It's my understanding that permethrin products in the form of liquids or sprays for consumers to treat their own clothing are not approved for use in Canada.

The irony - Canadians are allowed to spray down their livestock for protection from parasites, but the person who owns the horses is not....makes perfect sense.

Not sure what kind of oversight the Gov't has if you purchased this. Something you will need to decide for yourself.

Thanks

I only buy this stuff for our horse. He gets very bothered by flies. It just occurred to me that it was the same for those who could to save on the dilution hassle.

All the best

 

[BeeMaa]

Prepping for an upcoming goose hunt in NY and it reminded me of this thread. I diluted the 36.8%permethrin down to 0.5% in a small 1/2 gallon pump sprayer that's typically used for small gardens. Probably the easiest way I've done it so far. Much better than having to squeeze a trigger over and over.

Used 3/4 gallon of 0.5% to do everything I needed. Probably use a full gallon for turkey season because there is a lot more gear.

Here is the sprayer I used. Not positive, but I believe it was less than $10 at a local hardware store.

And this is the concentrate. Earlier this year it was $40 for the bottle but I'm not sure what the price now.

 

[Hogpatrol]

That's a good price for that concentrate. Tractor Supply has a quart for $21 but it's 10%.

 

[BeeMaa]

That's a good price for that concentrate. Tractor Supply has a quart for $21 but it's 10%.

I found it on Amazon for $58 recently for the 36.8% concentrate. Nearly 50% increase from what I paid less than 4 months ago. I hate to make pesticide a political subject but inflation is out of control.

Glad I bought 2 quarts when I did.

 

[steve white]

I'm always leery of using veterinary applications, since an acquaintance killed himself by taking equine antibiotics administered by himself.

 

[Rule 303]

I'm always leery of using veterinary applications, since an acquaintance killed himself by taking equine antibiotics administered by himself.

One has to ask how much of what, did he give himself. Some veterinarian products can be used by humans, after all we are animals, but correct dosage needs to be adhered to. I cannot recall what they are as it is a long time ago I was speaking with a vet about this and not sure if horse antibiotics were in there.

 

[Longwalker]

Could a person use a standard horse spray like this? It seems to have the correct dilution
View attachment 529478

Pherozone, That has s the product I used on my clothing before a hunt in Zimbabwe. It seemed to work OK but be aware that particular product also contains citronella and because of that has a strong lemony smell. After treating my clothes and then drying them the smell was way too strong. So I washed everything in plain water and dried it in a clothes dryer. Not certain if that diminished the effectiveness but it did make the smell more manageable. I had only one tick bite from a really large tick that oddly enough bit right through my treated pant leg. But it was such a big one, (size of a lentil seed) that I felt it biting and brushed it off before it got attached. I had no trouble with the nasty little pepper ticks at all.

 

[skydiver386]

I've spent a lot of time in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc., and dealing with all manner of biting and blood sucking critters is serious business. Permethrin will always be better than the alternative.