Oregon Hikers

https://thewirecutter.com/blog/permethr ... rom-ticks/

In the spring and summer, it’s best to treat your socks and shoes. That could make you about 74 times less likely to be bitten by a tick, according to one study.

I usually use this site when I want to buy something like a toaster or some electronic gadget and don't want to run all over town looking for a good one.

Thus far they haven't steered me wrong so I'm putting this here not as an endorsement, but it's worth a read, seems well presented in one article with not a lot of hemming and hawing about things.

good article, thanks

I usually wear gaiters to keep dirt and water out of my boots and socks. I treat them with permethrin. That's consistent with the article's suggestion to treat shoes and socks to keep ticks off.

That "74 times less likely" stat, apart from being a bad way to phrase it, is very misleading. It jumped out at me immediately as I read the paper. The ticks were placed in three spots on each subject: the top of the shoes, just above the knee, and just above the elbow. The ones on the shoes were placed directly on the treated materials, while the others were placed on bare skin. D'oh! The researchers mention that in their discussion, but fail to carry it into the abstract.

I would disagree with the conclusion that treating shoes and socks is more important than treating other clothing. My take would be that it's more important to get the questing ticks to land on treated clothing instead of skin. In other words, cover as much of yourself as you can with the treated clothing.

Ticks sit on brush and wait for someone to brush against them

It depends on the brush

On a normal trail maybe just feet and socks brush against brush

If you're wading through tall brush then your entire body needs coverage

I used to spray openings: cuffs, collar, etc. I figured that would create a barrier. Texasbb encouraged me to think of permethrin as an insecticide, not a repellent. Makes sense. A fully-treated garment means the tick will be exposed to permethrin as it crawls to an opening in the garment, and in that time it will hopefully become too impaired to feed on you. Sure enough, I recently had an opportunity to see a tick struggling to crawl up my treated shirt. It wasn't doing well at all. Permethin has long been my friend in battle against mosquitoes, but now I know how to use it against ticks as well.

I didn't care for the suggestion that commercially treated clothing can be superior to self-treated. It was observed that you might forget to treat your clothing before a trip outdoors. I suppose it's possible, but come on, that's silly. Just do it, no excuses. Can we be a little disciplined? Also, how does one measure the remaining strength of commercially treated clothing? As the effectiveness gradually diminishes, how does a consumer know when it's time to stop relying on that garment?

ha, ha, ha,...

yeah, you could forget to bring the commercially treated clothing so that's not foolproof either using that logic

maybe the commercially treated clothing is done more reliably, more completely. If you spray it on, it will bond to one side of the fabric. If you soak the fabric it will be completely bonded to all fabric fibers.

I don't like the idea of applying to the fabric, then letting dry, then placing against my skin. Probably the risk is low, but I'd rather just apply to the outside of the fabric and reduce the risk of my skin absorbing

retired jerry wrote: ↑

June 16th, 2018, 5:22 am

I don't like the idea of applying to the fabric, then letting dry, then placing against my skin. Probably the risk is low, but I'd rather just apply to the outside of the fabric and reduce the risk of my skin absorbing

Yes, the risk is low, unlike the many risks of letting a tick have its way. Easy analysis IMO.

It sounds like permethrin is not absorbed very much into skin....

Put directly on the skin, typically less than 1% of active ingredient is absorbed into the body; DEET can be absorbed at over 20 times that rate.

when I spray it on I try not to get any on my hands, but maybe a little does

I just quickly wash off with dish detergent