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Have recently tried - Sawyer Premium insect repellent for Clothing - to use against ticks.

Son and I have been out twice now and it has worked great. No ticks. Watched a couple on my pants and they eventually fell off. The time before having this on my clothing - pulled off 17 ticks.

Supposed to last 6 weeks. Smells initially, but after it dries it is odorless. Sprayed socks, pants, undershirt, outershirt and hat for me and my son. Used a little over 1/2 of the bottle.

http://www.rei.com/product/768970

6 weeks? WOW!!! Do you have to re apply after washing?

Okay, I just read the description. 6 washings or 6 weeks.

Mtnfisher: Thank you very much for that report and for the link to the product.
Did you buy that product through the mail or did you find it somewhere here in Montana?
I went on a canoe trip down the Winchester Wasteway near Moses Lake, Washington several years ago.
This spring trip was marred by enormous numbers of ticks.
I had new blue jeans on and they were a tick magnet.
Wherein the other three fellows would take 8 or 10 ticks off of themselves a day I was averaging 30 on me!
The only difference we could see was that I had brand new blue jeans and my partners had old jeans on???
Thanks again for the tip.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VarmintGuy,

The REI in Missoula has it - which is where I got it.

I was wearing a relatively new pair of blue jeans - only washed a couple of times. It is the same pair I sprayed. But, these were equal opportunity ticks - they were on our shirts, hats, backpacks, everywhere, - inside and outside of our clothes. Then of course, the end up in the house, car, on the dog.

The enjoyment level has gone up without having to deal with ticks

They've been out thick this year in Montana. I may be in the Zoo in the next couple weeks. Where is the REI down there?

Thanks for the heads up.

2230 N Reserve St. Across street from Sportsman's Warehouse. Next to Albertson's and Town Pump.

I don't know how much you're paying for that Sawyer spray, but you can make it yourself way cheaper. It's just Permethrin at .5% concentration (Ex Officio uses Permethrin in their bug-proof clothing, too). I've been using Permethrin on clothes and on my lawn to control mosquitos, chiggers, ticks, etc. for several years. Tractor Supply sells it in a 10% concentration (they only list a 32oz bottle online, but they have smaller bottles at my local store):

Permethrin 10% - 32oz

Just mix 1 ounce of the 10% with 19 ounces of water, and you'll get .5% concentration - exactly what Sawyer sells. The 32oz bottle ($18) from Tractor Supply will make 5 gallons of .5% spray! How's that for cheap

Hope that helps,
Scott

Thanks Scott,

Will look into getting a jug of it. That's definitely cheaper.

mtnfisher--
Please post if/where you find it. I'll call Quality and Cenex and post if they have it. I'm getting too many, too.

Called Quality and they said they had it - wasn't sure of the size or the price. Haven't gotten around to stopping in thou.

Cenex/Mtn West has it, but only in quart bottles. Look at the online warning sheets; the stuff is high octane.

Quality Supply
$27/16oz

Cenex
$9/8oz
$22/32oz

My brother and I got the stuff from REI and it works great, he used me as the control the first day out bear hunting before he told me about it . He had zero ticks, I had 30-40 in about 2 hours that I pulled off. I might have to go get some of the concentrate and mix up a big batch.

I was talking to the local veterinarian recently. Apparently we're having lots of tick and mite problems here in Northern Virginia this year as well. I haven't seen so many ticks since I was at Fort Bragg.

Frontline has worked well, at least so far, in controlling them on my pets.

Thanks for the permethrin posts above!

chuck

Permethrin works against chiggers too, and is great for those sensitive to DEET. Great stuff.

Big R has it also.

They had 8, 16 and 32 oz

Picked up a 32 oz jug in Great Falls ($19)

How well does it work on the mosquitoes? Lately, I haven't found a bug spray that has deterred them at all. The ones I always used to use just seem to have stopped being effective.