Your mother, Nature. Treat her well.
PERMETHRIN
The insecticide permethrin (in the synthetic pyrethroid family) is widely used on cotton, wheat, corn, alfalfa, and other crops. In addition, over 100 million applications are made annually in and around U.S. homes.
Permethrin, like all synthetic pyrethroids, is a neurotoxin. Symptoms include tremors, incoordination, elevated body temperature, increased aggressive behavior, and disruption of learning. Laboratory tests suggest that permethrin is more acutely toxic to children than to adults.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified permethrin as a carcinogen because it causes lung tumors in female mice and liver tumors in mice of both sexes. Permethrin inhibits the activity of the immune system in laboratory tests, and also binds to the receptors for a male sex hormone. It causes chromosome aberrations in human and hamster cells.
Permethrin is toxic to honey bees and other beneficial insects, fish, aquatic insects, crayfish, and shrimp. For many species, concentrations of less than one part per billion are lethal. Permethrin causes deformities and other developmental problems in tadpoles, and reduces the number of oxygen-carrying cells in the blood of birds.
Permethrin has been found in streams and rivers throughout the United States. It is also routinely found on produce, particularly spinach, tomatoes, celery, lettuce, and peaches.
A wide variety of insects have developed resistance to permethrin. High levels of resistance have been documented in cockroaches, head lice, and tobacco budworm.
COALITION FOR ALTERNATIVES TO PESTICIDES/NCAP
P. O. B O X 1 3 9 3, E U G E N E, O R E G O N 9 7 4 4 0 / (5 4 1 )3 4 4 -5 0 4 4
JOURNAL OF PESTICIDE REFORM/ SUMMER 1998 - VOL.18, NO. 214l
http://www.safe2use.com/poisons-pest...report/cox.htm
:(
I love the woods. If I can’t walk the trail without POISONING all the biosphere I stay home.
Here is an alternative.
http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...t=17372&page=5
:)
Permetrin vs Alaskan Mossies
On a recent Alaskan trip ( state bird: Mossy) I did have my baseball cap that had been sprayed with Permethrin, but nothing else. We would hit some spots that had a lot of Mosquitos. None came near my head/neck, unlike the other folks. We had some DEET wipes, which were occasionally used. One day on a hike ( on mostly rocky slopes, no standing water and little vegetation) I failed to use the DEET, though I was wearing my hat. When I got back that night, I found several bites on my forearms and hands. Dang! I never even saw the sneaky blood suckers, except for one that I killed just as she was biting me! But nothing on my face or neck.
Dried Permethrin on clothing can be very handy compared to West Nile. etc. I do wish I had brought my Picariden, which has become my agent of choice for applying to skin for when I don't have enough clothing treated with Permethrin.
But the good news is that Alaskan mossies, believe it or not, carry little to no diseases. That's what a lot of folks say, anyway!