Bug defense

[Sean McC]

I melted a pair of sunglasses with 100% DEET. Effective repellent and perhaps not so good for you (I have no side effects I am aware of). But it is a very effective solvent for lots of plastics. Technically it is similar to toluene.

[BigGreenMoose]

I've soaked my WBBB XLC in permethrin. Found a number of dead mosquitos in it the morning after it dried out on my deck. Definitely effective. I have to remember to do it again this summer.

I do my camping pants and a couple long sleeve shirts in it too. It doesn't keep them all away, but it certainly cuts down on the swarms just after dinner!

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[sideshowraheem]

I spray mine once a year. Does a great job of keeping bugs away.

[Carver]

I used to use permethrin spray and then switched to Sawyer Premium soak. The problem was that the treatment only lasted a short time. I have found that Insect Shield clothing is well worth the price and has been effective over time.

[deadeye]

I spray my hiking clothes (including socks & shoes) with permethrin every spring, and sometimes again in late summer if I've been out that much. My hammock - including the suspension - also gets a good a treatment. This year, I also bought a pre-treated shirt and buff. I'm convinced it works. I've seen ticks roll over and fall off while walking on my pants. Most telling is that when others are complaining about the bugs, I hardly notice them. I'm clearly a less attractive target. Works on women, too.

[Sean McC]

Not that I would advise treating your hammock in it, but for reference DEET does not attack all plastics and specifically not Nylon. I can’t find anything on polyester. Though a hammock will have other plastics and even if it did not cause issues it would be a disgusting oily mess.

Though I kind of think DEET gets a bad rep sometimes for no real good reason. Picadirin does appear to be better.

[joe_guilbeau]

A somewhat unrealistic real world application of DEET on various fabrics.



DEET is the Gold Standard on repelling insects and has been studied more than any other insect repellent since the late 1940's in cited and double blind scientific studies.

Yes, DEET will compromise fabrics.

No, DEET is not applied in this fashion in the real world.

Here is how (since the 1960's) I have used DEET, the latest renditions are with newer container storage and application tools.

Ya'll head on down to the Dollar Tree franchise stores (Tree, General, Family Dollar and so on) to get the hand held loofah's.
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I stuff the Nylon scrub portion into a Barlean's Forti-Flax hard plastic container, with the handle up.
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The DEET is typically the SC Johnson OFF 25% DEET Sportsmen variety with the sheer-mist pump spray.

Now it is a simple matter of pulling the loofah and spritzing lightly, and insert/extract/insert/extract about 3-4 times in the Barlean's container to spread and distribute the solution amongst the nylon folds of the loofah.

Then laying a polyester shirt down, brush on both sides and then on polyester pants and finally use what's left on the loofah on exposed skin.

I have never had a problem, and this seems to last for 3-5 hours in my experience.

Been using the same loofah and same container for the past 8-years to no ill-effect.