Quote
plawrence
Quote
Patsfans
Does the ExOfficio shirt need the same dousing that our other clothes recieved?
No, they don't require any additional dousing with permethrin. They're rated to work through 70 washings.
I haven't washed my ExOfficio Bugsaway shirts and pants that often yet, but after 20 washings (for some of my shirts), they still work as advertise. So you could maybe justify their cost to your "boss" on the money you'll save by not having to purchase permethrin to apply to them.
Ok, I spend a lot of time thrashing about in the bush, so let me make a few comments about this subject. I do apply permithrin to a couple of long-sleeved shirts and long pants every season, and it does work very well. But I run into people who have no idea why and how it works, so it doesn't work for them. (not you two, I presume) This reply is for the unwashed masses reading this thread....
Permithrin is not a repellant. There is no "halo" of vapor that disorients and repels bugs. If there were, it would evaporate in hours, like DEET and Picardin, rather than the months that permithrin works. Permithrin is a dry contact poison for insects and ticks. It attacks their nervous system, sending them into convulsions. They stagger off, fall away, and die. You can watch it happening. It works because most bugs taste with their toes. Before they bite you, they check the taste and smell of your surface layer, and the permithrin hits them in a flash.
As far as I know, permithrin has no smell for people. But it is applied using a solvent that will leave an odor for a while. When the solvent is gone, permithrin is supposed to be harmless to people's skin. It probably is....the military has been using and testing it for a long time.
Home application comes in two forms: a spray bottle that you use to wet the surface of your clothing while it hangs on a clothesline, and a zip-lock bag that you put the clothes and liquid into, and shake to saturate the cloth. I find the latter to do a much more uniform job of application. In either case, you have to wait until all the liquid evaporates before you can handle it. The home liquid is mostly water, but I suppose that the Bugsaway factory treatment is done with a more penetrating solvent.
So you can see that
permithrin does nothing for exposed skin and gaps in your clothing. You still need the DEET or Picardin in those places. I sometimes use the sun lotion that contains Picardin, though it stinks a lot.
California's little biting flies are a different sort of nuisance (though not nearly as blood-thirsty as New York State's black flies!). They are attracted by your breath, and frequently get inhaled. They go for eyes and ears and lips, where repellants are not easily applied. When they are swarming, only a head net works to keep them off. Head nets are hot and interfere with your seeing, but I still carry one to use near the bottom of Tenaya Canyon. When the biting flies are bad, all you can do is keep moving as fast as you can....
