Jul 09 2010
The Best Way To Treat Your Clothing With Insect Repellent
Have you ever heard of clothing that repels mosquitoes and other airborne insects? If not, I am willing to bet that there have been times when you have wished you could get some. Mosquitoes and midges can ruin a holiday or even make you have to get out of your own garden once it begins go get dark.
There are various ways that you can fight mosquitoes and the other terrors of the twilight, but they always seem to find a place where I am not totally protected. Often that spot is on the shoulder blade, where they will stick their proboscis through the material of your shirt to suck your blood.
I enjoy my garden, but so do the mosquitoes as there is a lot of open water in the surrounding area. My first technique of defense against mosquitoes is to plant flowers and trees that they are known to hate the smell of. I think that the odour that they hate the most is that of lemons.
Therefore, we have a few small lemon saplings, which will soon be playing a vital role in our protection, a patch of lemon grass for my wife’s favourite Thai curries and some as yet poorly-looking citronella plants. (I think that Thailand may be too hot for them, but I am hoping that they will acclimatize).
Then I have two mosquito lamps. The type that entice the insects to an ultraviolet light and then electrocutes them with 25,000 volts. They are very effective, but more so in the dark than at dusk, when they are probably less discernible to the insects. I am aware that there are insect lights that use smells or pheromones to lure mosquitoes, but I have not seen any for sale over here yet. I did once try a device that emits a sound on a high frequency that was alleged to drive them away, but it did not work on our mosquitoes.
In conclusion, if it was a bad night I used to put on some insect repellent ointment, often something that had DEET in it. This is very effective for a few hours, but it can damage some textiles and some plastics, which is why the makers suggest that you only put it on your exposed skin. If you do that, your shoulders and your legs become targets, even if you are wearing trousers and a shirt.
This is when it becomes a good idea to treat your clothing with insect deterrent. It seems that the military has been wearing them for years. The active ingredient used is called permethrin and it should be used at a concentration of 0.5%. There are two means of applying it: by drenching clothing in it, as the army does or by spraying it on. I assume that you will be spraying it on.
Do the spraying in the garden well away from any fish pond as permethrin kills fish too. Spray the clothing and wait for the chemical to soak in and dry out. Clothing treated with insect repellent like this will protect you for about six weeks and will still work after six washes. However, sunlight breaks permethrin down, so dry the items indoors and store in black plastic bags for longer effectiveness.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on quite a few topics, but is at present involved with indoor mosquito repellent. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Mosquito Repellent For Dogs.
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