Big Permetrin find!

**Can't Wait** · 05-24-2011, 16:55

Ya I just finished the sawyers up on blackbird will hit TS and get something even the 10%

**BillyBob58** · 05-29-2011, 19:53

Last evening I sprayed some of the diluted 10% Hi Yield( dil. to .5%) on the outside of my HH Safari No Net( a single layer hammock).

Today, out in the woods at my Mom in Law's house up in Booneville, MS, I had a marvelous couple of hours reading/relaxing while my Wife took care of most of the visiting duties. I usually just make a brief appearance for that, because it is always to hot in the house for me to stand it. And the brief appearance seems to make every body happy enough, so then out to the woods I go!

It was hot- 90F! I was amazed to find that I was able to tolerate the heat while in the hammock, except sometimes when the Sun would get past the leaves and shade and heat up some random part of me. And I was, as always, just so comfy in that Safari! ( I love this hammock!) No pillow under my head OR knees, no calf pressure, virtually no knee hyper-extension, comfy in numerous positions side and back. Hard to beat! And just barely overheating ( no net, should have put up the tarp for more shade but too lazy), which is amazing to me considering it was 90! But I did have pretty good shade.

Anyway, all I had on me that was treated was my hat and socks, and the one side of the hammock. Plus I sprayed a small amount of 15% Picaridin on my exposed skin, but really very little. What can I say? Once again, I never saw a bug, except a couple of flies and a ugly black wasp looking something that briefly flew close to me. Never heard any mossies whining, either.

In the past, I have gone out of this house to hike with the grandkids, and they were ate up with bites (from something we never even saw) before we knew what hit us. But who knows, maybe the bugs just were not out today? Whatever, I did not see or hear any, and had a wonderful, peaceful couple of hours.

I did see lots of large red ants on the trees, and watched them suddenly fall off when they hit the huggers. They finally found a passage where the hugger did not quite contact the tree on the hammock side of the tree.

This stuff works great and has NO smell, but it does leave some greasy ( or at least wet)looking spots behind when I spray on nylon. From the petroleum distillates? I suspect that will wash out, and I can't even see it on my clothing. But you might want to stick to the Sawyers for your most prized equipment, just because of appearance, even if it will wash off.

**Knotty** · 05-29-2011, 22:15

Congrats on your bug fighting success. So nice to enjoy the outdoors w/o little buggers enjoying us.

**jraffini** · 05-29-2011, 22:40

Thanks for the continued testing on this stuff! I'm looking forward to a much more pleasant summer hiking this season since I won't be swatting away bugs all day and can enjoy the woods!

**louie** · 06-17-2011, 14:19

Can this be used to treat clothing that will be next to your skin?

**beep** · 06-17-2011, 14:24

Originally Posted by louie

Can this be used to treat clothing that will be next to your skin?

Yes. I hang my clothing on the porch, dilute my permethrin to 1/2% concentration (I bought 10% solution at Tractor Supply), use a spray bottle to "wet" the clothing with the Permethrin solution. Let dry (2-4 hours) and it's good to go. I treat hat, shirt, pants, socks...all "next to skin".

The treatment is good through a half dozen washing cycles or so.

**louie** · 06-17-2011, 14:28

Originally Posted by beep

Yes. I hang my clothing on the porch, dilute my permethrin to 1/2% concentration (I bought 10% solution at Tractor Supply), use a spray bottle to "wet" the clothing with the Permethrin solution. Let dry (2-4 hours) and it's good to go. I treat hat, shirt, pants, socks...all "next to skin".

The treatment is good through a half dozen washing cycles or so.

Thanks Beep
I just wanted to be sure ..
Keep thinking I am going to absorb through my skin and kill one of my 2 brain cells...

**JohnSawyer** · 06-18-2011, 05:29

I just noticed that the carpet flea spray we use once a year is .5% permethrin and .09% methoprene. Based on a few sites assessments of Methoprene, I might just spray my bugnet and bottom layer of my DL hammock with the stuff! Thoughts?

My other thought was to buy some high-concentration of permethrin, and bottle up small quantities to share with HF... That way, we could share the costs... 32oz of 36% permethrin is about $40.

According to my math, 1 oz of 36.8% dilutes down to 74 oz at .5%, which is about 9 cups... more than half a gallon of usable product!

Add packaging and shipping... the question is, could you legally ship the stuff USPS...

**BillyBob58** · 06-18-2011, 07:20

Originally Posted by JohnSawyer

I just noticed that the carpet flea spray we use once a year is .5% permethrin and .09% methoprene. Based on a few sites assessments of Methoprene, I might just spray my bugnet and bottom layer of my DL hammock with the stuff! Thoughts?

My other thought was to buy some high-concentration of permethrin, and bottle up small quantities to share with HF... That way, we could share the costs... 32oz of 36% permethrin is about $40.

According to my math, 1 oz of 36.8% dilutes down to 74 oz at .5%, which is about 9 cups... more than half a gallon of usable product!

Add packaging and shipping... the question is, could you legally ship the stuff USPS...

That is pretty much my thinking on using the Hi Yield 10% Indoor/Outdoor diluted to .5% on my clothing, pack and hammock. I felt a little safer about the additives just because it is specified for use in the house. It may not be a bit safer than the Hi Yield 38% I bought and have only used outside, there is not much difference in the odors. Plus, the additives in the 38% end up getting diluted 4 times as much as in the 10%. But I still felt a little better that the label specified indoor use.

I tend to have the same theory about your carpet spray. After all, they know people will be walking barefoot on, and babies might be crawling on, this treated carpet.

I just wish I could find some like Sawyers- but in bulk- that does NOT have "contains Petroleum distillates" and that even has directions for applying to clothing.

**BER** · 06-18-2011, 09:31

BB58~

Amazon Permethrin

I don't know how these (or the prices) compare to the product that you used, but I suspect most would be similar. They carry the Sawyer's brand, as well as more concentrated 10% and 36.8% permethrin. Unfortunately, Amazon does not list all the non-active ingredients, so a little more digging might be required.

I looked at the Durvet brand (10%) website. The product also has petroleum distillates. But the product information also gives dilution instructions for various concentrations, suggests uses both in the home (on carpets or furniture) and out. One once mixed 1:19 with water for the 0.5% concentration. $6.49 on Amazon would yield 200oz of diluted product vs $14.38 for 24oz of Sawyer's 0.5% concentration ($0.03/oz vs $0.60/oz). I may have to try this next time rather than buying Sawyer!

Thanks for the good idea.

EDIT: I looked at a couple other products there on Amazon and then hunted down the parent company labeling. All of them pretty much seem to have petroleum distilates.
And just for comparison, with the 36.8% concentrate (Amazon $37.70 for 32oz), you mix 1.66oz + 126.33oz water to get one gallon of 0.5% permethrin. If my calculation is right, this comes out to ~$0.015/oz. I'm not sure what the shelf life is of the concentrate, but that seems like a WHOLE LOT O' PERMETHRIN (one 32oz bottle yields ~19gal of 0.5%), but not a very big savings over the 10% concentrate (well, technically it is half the price, but only if you think you are going to use that much).

EDIT 2: Looked up the MSDS for Sawyer permethrin spray. It also contains petroleum distillates (<1%).