![]() ![]() The product labels can help give you a good idea of how much to use. You don’t need to drench them-to where they’ll drip if you wring them out-but they do need a thorough coat. Mather says you should spray enough for your clothes to become damp (they should look a little darker in color) and not spray the clothing you’re wearing. ![]() But it takes a slightly heavier hand for full protection. Mather says he often sees people making the mistake of giving their clothes a quick spritz of permethrin, even while wearing the clothing. According to Sawyer, which makes permethrin products, treated clothing is not dangerous to cats once it has dried. Keep your feline friends away from the area while you’re treating your clothes because permethrin is highly toxic to cats. Don’t apply permethrin to your clothes while you’re wearing them, and don’t apply permethrin indoors, where you could risk inhaling it. Hang them on hangers outside, and spray them down while they hang. Spray while the clothes are off your body. ![]() The Environmental Protection Agency says that you shouldn’t treat underwear with permethrin. And when treating clothes, stick to outerwear. We said it before, but it’s worth repeating: Permethrin spray is only for your clothes and gear. (Higher concentrations of permethrin are used in medications for treating both head lice and scabies.) If you follow the directions on the label, however, the dose of permethrin you receive by wearing treated clothing is considered safe, even for pregnant women. Hansen also says that some recent studies suggest permethrin and other synthetic pyrethoids may be linked to adverse effects at lower doses, too. “You don’t want to be inhaling it or getting it directly on your skin," Hansen says. The CDC notes that permethrin and related chemical compounds can cause serious health problems in people exposed to high doses. That means “if it gets into your system, there can be effects on the hormonal system." “It’s an endocrine-disrupting compound," he says. It’s also important to follow the instructions on the label to ensure you’re using the pesticide as safely as possible, says Michael Hansen, PhD, a senior scientist at Consumer Reports. (Because permethrin is a pesticide, the Environmental Protection Agency regulates its use.) If you don’t, you could be violating federal law, Conlon says. The most important thing to remember when spraying your clothing with permethrin is that you must follow the instructions on the product label. Manufacturers of permethrin spray for clothing note that because the spray is meant only for fabric and not for skin, for full protection people also need to use an insect repellent on their exposed skin. In one 2020 study of outdoor workers in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, there were a total of 60 tick bites over two years among the 40 workers who used permethrin-treated clothing, compared with 166 tick bites among the 42 workers who didn’t use treated clothing. But other research shows permethrin can be effective against ticks. The shirts we sprayed with deet didn’t cause any knockdowns, however, because no bugs ever landed on them.Īnd what about ticks? Consumer Reports’ testing hasn’t evaluated how well permethrin-treated clothing works against ticks. The permethrin-treated clothing also resulted in “knockdowns,” meaning mosquitoes were incapacitated or killed after contact with the clothing. ![]() “It’s like they landed on an electric grid.” Permethrin is “very irritating to ,” says Joe Conlon, a former Navy entomologist and former technical adviser to the American Mosquito Control Association. A shirt we sprayed with a deet-based repellent, meanwhile, kept mosquitoes from biting and kept them from even landing, something none of the permethrin-treated clothing items did. Two types we tested in 2016 kept mosquitoes from biting, but two didn’t. A number of studies have found that permethrin-treated clothing can help protect against mosquito bites, though results may differ depending on a variety of factors, such as the species of mosquito, the way the clothing is treated and laundered, and the level of pesticide-resistance among the mosquitoes.Ĭonsumer Reports has also tested several brands of clothing pretreated with permethrin to find out how well they worked at stopping mosquitoes from biting. ![]()
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