**A lot of this is theory based**
Been reading up on a lot of the permethrin threads here and elsewhere and noticed a trend: everyone is buying the water-based concentrates designed for lawn use over the petroleum-based concentrates designed to be used on cattle, horses- and dogs due to the petrol smell of the latter. Let me state some facts:
-Sawyer's spray is made for human use on clothing, it contains petroleum. The MSDS states it contains a "Proprietary mixture of SOLVENTS...". The second ingredient is listed as: "64742-95-6 Aromatic Petroleum Distillate, Xylene Range"
-Farming style permethrin concentrates are petroleum-based and designed to be used on fur and leather (very similar to our clothing, especially wool).
-Lawn style permethrin concentrates do not contain certain petroleum products because they pollute the soil and ground water. Certain petroleum products are banned from being used in consumer-grade lawn care products because they can contaminate ground water.
It would appear petroleum-based concentrates MAY work better for our purposes (sans the smell), and water-based concentrates are second rate. My reasoning says water is cheaper than solvents, so farm concentrates would use water-base if it was both cheaper and worked a well/better. There MUST be a reason petroleum-based concentrates are used in Sawyer and farm products. This reason may affect us and the effectiveness of the insecticides we use.
Discussion?
Bookmarks