permethrin on merino wool shirts

[Tim Cheek]

Has someone tried the spray on or soak in method of treatment? Does either method wreck the shirt?

Lots of snow this year makes me think I’m going to get bitten if I don’t take extra precautions, and I was wondering if this stuff would mess up the wool or not.

[Sandra Warner]

Hello Tim,I sprayed my light weight merino wool top 2wks ago with Sawyers permethrin from REI. The top looks fine so far! PS only one mosquitoe got me.

[Jerold Swan]

I have sprayed an Ibex merino shirt with permethrin at least a dozen times over a couple of years with no problems other than a slight (barely noticable) discoloring of the fabric.

[John Davis]

I wouldn’t put this stuff on my clothing after this weekend’s little adventure.

My chosen pitch turned out to be midgy so I put on a head net and got into my bivvy bag, a simple thing with a draw cord so the head net was essential. All was fine till dusk when some sort of allergic reaction set in. I couldn’t continue wearing the head net and couldn’t stay without one. The result was a night walk of 11 miles after a 21 mile day of up and down coastal walking.

I seriously enjoyed walking in the dark and must do more of it. I doubt that the 11 miles would have been as pleasant with standard, lightweight backpacking gear but, in the hope of sleeping, I probably will carry a tent on future forays into midge country. Then I’ll only need the head net for a few minutes at a time.

[Mike Storesund]

John,
Are you saying you treated your clothing with Permethrin and it did not work?

[Ryan Jordan]

All of my merino shirts are permithrin-treated when I hike in June and July, and I wouldn’t have it any other way! With my wool shirt (which is my baselayer and hiking shirt, and almost never comes off), I don’t need a wind shirt to keep mosquitoes at bay, unless they get really bad and the permitrhin treatment is starting to wear out, which seems to occur after 10 days or so.

I have heard of the occasional skin reaction to permithrin (two cases including the one above) but it seems quite rare.

[Whit Kincaid]

I treated almost every piece of gear my wife and I carried last summer on the Oregon PCT in June.I bought the garden lawn insecticide from Lowe’s, dilluted it and dumped everything in. The Tarps, tyvek, clothes, headnets, hats, the whole shootin match. The only change I noticed specifically in our marino wool shirts….was that the bugs did’nt bite us when we wore them. I’ve got to say that I’ll never go into the woods without it again. It has almost got me considering, and for me this is special as I’m a Floridian, that I might even consider hiking in my own home state!

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