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Comment by jschwartzi | Hacker News Reader

Ticks and mosquitos are why I spray my hiking clothes with permethrin. It's a potent contact neurotoxin for both. It takes a little bit to act after exposure, but ticks will die quickly. Mosquitoes will also fly away and die after contacting my clothes.

It's derived from a chemical found in Chrysanthemums.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permethrin

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we make Permethrin 'tick tubes' for our yard. In a nutshell, it's bedding for mice laced with permethrin. Ticks attach to the mice during the mice breeding cycles in March and July here in New England.

https://organicdailypost.com/make-tick-tubes/

I'm out in the yard a lot, I pull ticks off daily. I fortunately never have had Lymes but I noted (anecdotally) that the tick population has exploded in the last 10 years with the milder winters.

It's concerning. Probably going to get a flock of guinea hens this year.

Get your whole yard sprayed, too. It does make a difference if you do it a few times. As other commenters here, and I, can attest, it just isn't worth getting a bite. Lyme is awful.

Get your whole yard sprayed, too

Problem with this is Permethrin is quite a broad-spectrum insecticide and won't kill just ticks but also a lot of other insects (which take care of e.g. pollination and in turn are food for others, etc, the usual picture) and is also not exactly friendly for aquatic life. Also mammals are not completely out of the danger zone, depending on dose. And longer term effects are as far as I know simply unknown. So it needs at least some careful consideration in my opinion.

I keep bees, so that ain't happening.

Be aware that Permethrin is highly toxic to fish and aquatic species. So if your property is anywhere near a stream or a lake, don't do this.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permethrin#Safety

First of all, keep the grass short. The hens are useful, so is a cat to keep rodents away.

Our neighborhood has quite a healthy population of opossums, which are well-known tick-eaters.

Permethrin poisons cats.

Cats kill birds; pets should not be roaming around like wild animals.

Birds also carry ticks, they're another important reservoir host after mice.

https://www.citylab.com/environment/2015/02/suburban-birds-a...

I've sent my favorite hiking pants and shirts to this place to get them treated with Permethrin: <https://www.insectshield.com/ISYOC.aspx>

It saves having to spray the clothing before each trip. Treatment is supposed to last for 70 washings.

The after-market spray I use lasts for about 5 washings.

Permethrin is really fantastic. Anyone here know the best way to apply it to clothes? I've sprayed my clothes with a 0.5% spray, which I got for $5.92/266ml or $14.99/739ml, so about $4.00/ml of pure permethrin.

Amazon has an 8oz/236ml bottle at 10% for $36, so about $1.35/ml of pure permethrin, but then you've got to soak your clothes instead of just spraying them, and that takes several hours and you've got to get rid of the fluid afterwards.

Anyone notice a difference in effectiveness between spraying and soaking clothes?

amazon half gallon Permethrin SFR 20% for $30 and dilute it down

I'm a trail runner, and I _always_ wear knee-high white socks, sprayed with repellent (I will look into Permethrin now).

In NY, VT, ME, and NJ I find ticks on my socks almost every single time I run in the woods. The white socks make them easier to spot.

The socks are not exactly stylish, but I've embraced the look.

I looked into this when I was getting into hiking and found out that this is not allowed in Canada, though apparently the Canadian military uses it.

Fortunately at the moment it is too cold where I live for ticks so I don't need to worry about it, but as this article notes, that may not be that way much longer... :(

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