Protection from Ticks

[Mid-Lake Rock]

As we get ready to hit the woods soon in search of morels and other edibles remember to prepare yourself for ticks! I am a firm believer in permethrin. If anyone is unfamiliar with this product, you spray it on your clothes and it dries odorless. Helps keep ticks and other pests off. I treat a pair of pants, socks, boots, shirt and hat with the permethrin.

In addition to treating clothing, I keep my shirt tucked into my pants, wear a hat and pick light colors so if I do have a tick is is easily seen. I usually pick morels with a friend and after each trip out of the woods we carefully check each other's clothing.

Just something to think about before hitting the woods.

[leech~~]

The only way that I have found that works is stay out of the woods! But, that's not happening so deal with a few ticks as people have since the begaining of time!

[Slabasaurus]

As we get ready to hit the woods soon in search of morels and other edibles remember to prepare yourself for ticks! I am a firm believer in permethrin. If anyone is unfamiliar with this product, you spray it on your clothes and it dries odorless. Helps keep ticks and other pests off. I treat a pair of pants, socks, boots, shirt and hat with the permethrin.

In addition to treating clothing, I keep my shirt tucked into my pants, wear a hat and pick light colors so if I do have a tick is is easily seen. I usually pick morels with a friend and after each trip out of the woods we carefully check each other's clothing.

Just something to think about before hitting the woods.

I always figured it'd be a matter of "when" i get lyme disease, not "if," considering the places i like to hike/fish in. I'm pretty good about wearing light color clothing, and tucking clothes in... but last year I apparently missed a deer tick after an outing and wound up with Lyme disease.

Not much fun... caught it early enough so my symptoms were relatively minor, but I'll be adding Permethrin to my hiking outfits this year for sure.

now if only that stuff worked to repel deer flies.... oh well.

[delcecchi]

I think the deal with ticks is it kills them before they can crawl around and bite you.

[Jmnhunter]

i've tried the permethrin treatment on my jeans let it "cure" and still find deer ticks crawling up my pants, unless its supposed to kill them after awhile like delcechhi says, i'm not sold on that stuff, as useful as deet

[NoWiser]

In the 8 or 10 years since I've discovered permethrin I've had a grand total of 0 ticks attached to me. I've found a few dead ones on my clothes but nothing makes it long enough to attach to me. I treat my boots, socks, pants, undershirt, overshirt, and hat. I also treat the seat of my truck so I don't get any stowaways. I also go in and get tested for lymes every 2 years at the time of my DOT physical. It's definitely not something to take lightly! That disease can be nasty.

[Stringerless!]

Not a believer in permethrin either. treated light pants and walked through tall grass to test. Ticks all over me. Watched em climb and had to flick em off my pants when they got to my waist. Seemed unfazed by the stuff. Dog and deer ticks.

[minnesotathorn]

I buy the sayers brand. developed by the military. I have seen ticks fall off my pants & have not had a tick since I started using it. you roll your clothes up, shirt socks & pants, put them in a bag that comes with the kit, soak for min of 2 hours, let it dry. lasts through 6 washes they say but I don't wash till the season is over & retreat each year. tried the spray but was not happy with results.

[nate larson]

Many years in the woods using permerthrin and the only ticks I have found are dead ones in my pant cuffs. That stuff works awesome.

[Bureaucrat]

We used permethrin this week. We didn't have a single tick. That being said, I'm not sure the ticks were out as far north as we were. It was early, and it was extremely wet. Last time it was this wet, we could walk the woods without any kind of repellent and not pick up a tick in mid summer.

[JP Z]

Well, I just ordered up some to try it out. I will let you know what I find.

[NoWiser]

I was down in southern Wisconsin this past weekend doing some shrooming. The deer ticks were out THICK!! I had a number of them climbing up my pants, but before they could get to my waist they all died and fell off. Every piece of clothing I was wearing was treated and not a single tick made it to my skin. I had a couple friends using DEET and their luck was not so good. I felt bad that I ran out of permethrin or I'd have given it to them to treat their clothes, too.

[JP Z]

The more important thing NoWiser is how was shrooming???

[NoWiser]

The more important thing NoWiser is how was shrooming???

We probably found 2 lbs of morels, a decent cluster of oysters, and a bunch of pheasant backs, which we don't pick.

Most of the morels were smaller grays, although we did find about a half dozen good sized yellows on the top of one south facing slope. We did better than I expected we would and had a delicious meal at the end of the day!

A few more warm days and I'll be checking out my early spots in the metro here.

[Stringerless!]

I will check into this " Sayers" brand. Can't remember the brand I tried before. Thanks

[haleysgold]

I will check into this " Sayers" brand. Can't remember the brand I tried before. Thanks

Not positive but I think it's "Sawyers" not sayers.

http://sawyer.com/products/

Very good reviews from what I'm seeing.

I'm picking some up today. Wally World, Dick's, Cabelas all carry it...according to the web site.

[delcecchi]

Interesting. They call it a repellent. I thought it was an insecticide.

Upon further study it is a "repellent" because it kills the insects and ticks before they bite you.

One thing I saw on the sawyer site that I didn't know was that it takes a considerable amount to treat clothes etc. They said 6 oz for pants, shirt, socks. That would be most of a spray can for one outfit. So that might explain my limited success with it.

[haleysgold]

I just found this out and it'll save you a ton of cash.

Get the Permethrin in a concentrate and mix your own.

FF has it for around $20.

Dilute it so you get around .50% which is what the Sawyer product is...all you need is a spray bottle.

With the quart of concentrate, you'll have gallons of the stuff.

Country Vet 13.3% Permethrin Concentrate

[Stringerless!]

Thanks !

[Jmnhunter]

well, did a test with my treated pants from the OFF brand that i use, picked a tick off the dog and put it on the pants, it walked about 2 inches fell down, walked around for about 3 minutes than it died. my first impression of permethrin was that it repels them instantly but if they do attach they will die granted they are treated properly, so i wouldnt count it out if you havent seen instant results!

[JP Z]

My bottle should arrive today........if it works out I may just get the concentrated at Fleet. I'm hoping to get in the woods this weekend to put it to the test.