Isle Royale Forums

Been reading around the forums and there seems to be conflicting reports on the bugs. I was thinking of doing the permethrin soaking of clothes, is that effective against IR mosquitoes??? Also, does the stuff have a pretty strong odor?

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permethrin does not mention an odor. Do you own a cat?

Wow, haven't read much on it aside from it's effectiveness. Yeah, we have 2 cats. Didn't realize it was so toxic. Hmmm....maybe I'll need to rethink it.

I've used Permethrin on my clothing for my last 4 backpacking trips. Not for use directly on skin, but ok to treat clothing.

Sawyer Products makes a spray Insect Repellent for Clothing that worked great for me...they also have a new "soaking product" that looks more effective/thorough. Here's a link to their product page, and a video explaining the procedures:
http://sawyer.com/permethrin.htm

I've also used "Coulston's Perma-Kill 13.3% Permethrin Solution" purchased from Cabellas in Dundee, MI years ago. Mixing rate to treat clothing is 1 oz. to 48 oz. water. Put in a spray bottle & spray both sides of hanging shirts/pants-shorts/socks till moist, then hang dry. Store clothing in a dark plastic bag till used. The protection lasts through several washings.

Both methods with along with topical/spray repellent on the skin worked great for me. The Sawyer was pre-mixed & easy, but I saved $ using the Coulston's solution.

I've used permethrin with good success on the SHT. Just heed the advice above and keep it away from cats...

ExOfficio, among others, sells ($$$) clothing pre-treated with Permethrin good for 70 washings. Our limited use has shown the clothing to be extremely effective. I've heard that road construction crews make heavy use of permethrin treated clothing.

I have one of those ExOffico longsleeve pretreated shirts that you have mention which are good for 70 washes, but lucky I have not had the opportunity to see if it is effective because I used it in September last year and there were no bugs at the time. Even though it was pretreated, I treated it again with a whole bottle of Permethrin. You can never be too careful. Perhaps it was a waste to do this, but at the very minimum I got some peace of mind out of all of it

Keep in mind that permethrin is an insecticide, not a repellant. On your clothing, it kills mosquitoes and ticks that land on your treated clothing, but it doesn't keep them off or stop them from biting exposed skin. It just reduces the population around you.

Why do I have this feeling that when they land on my shirt they are not going to die? I hope I am wrong about this assumption, but I just find it so hard to believe that a year after drench my clothes in this stuff it will still work after 3 washes. We'll see I guess.

Drench them again ... I just looked at my bottle of Sawyer spray-on. It says 6 washings or 6 weeks. $20 now translates to priceless when on the trail.