How & Why You Should Use Permethrin Spray for Travel 🦟
If mosquitos look at you like a tasty snack, this is the article for you! Let’s talk about how and why you should use permethrin spray, for travel and at home!
What is Permethrin Spray?
Permethrin spray is essentially bug spray for your clothing and gear (like bags and tents). Once it has dried, it is completely odorless and will last for 6 weeks or 6 washes. It protects against ticks, mites, chiggers, and mosquitos, and all the fun diseases they carry, like zika, west nile, dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.
How to Prepare Your Space
I take all of my clothing I plan to take for an upcoming trip out to my garage and hang it up on a portable clothing rack. Before I had a clothing rack, I used 2 ladders and balanced a broom on them, you can also use a clothing line; get creative, it doesn't need to be fancy! I would NOT recommend doing this inside your house; you should be somewhere that can get airflow. I use my garage (with the door ½ way up) instead of my backyard because I have a dog. The box specifically states not to expose cats to wet permethrin, they say it’s not a risk for dogs, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. Your clothing is safe around animals once the application has dried.
Make sure to wear disposable gloves for the application; there are a bunch of safety warnings on the box about not exposing permethrin to your skin when the product is wet.
How to Use Permethrin Spray
Give the bottle a good shake. Swap out the cap with the included sprayer attachment. Hold the bottle about 6-8 inches away from clothing, and spray in a slow sweeping motion. Allow items to dry for a minimum of 2 hours before using.
Sawyer brand recommends 3 oz of formula per garment, I have never actually used the recommended amount and have still seen the benefits of using this, but I think if I were going into deep woods or traveling for a more extended period of time I would follow that recommendation. I typically give about 3 good sprays to the front and then 3 more good sprays to the back of each item.
Again, this is NOT meant to be sprayed directly on your skin, this is just meant to go on the OUTSIDE of your clothing, allowed to dry, and then worn for up to 6 washes. The product information states that it’s actually the agitation of a washing machine that unbinds the permethrin from your clothing, so you could likely extend the use of the product by hand washing your clothing.
Make sure to spray your socks and shoes, too! I also like to spray my backpack, sleeping bag liner, and my outdoor chair. Basically anything fabric that I take on a trip gets sprayed.
I leave my items in the garage to dry until the following morning and then pack them up for my trip or put them back in my closet.
My Experience Using Permethrin Spray
The first time I used Sawyer brand permethrin spray was on a volunteer trip to Costa Rica in 2012. I was staying on a very remote island that didn’t have cars, and didn’t have the infrastructure to deal with the amount of standing water left behind after rainstorms… which happen almost every day in Costa Rica. Mosquitos absolutely LOVE me, and my arms and legs still got bitten during this trip, but there was an almost comically solid line where the bites stopped… right at the hem of my t-shirts and shorts. Anything covered by my permethrin-treated clothing remained unbitten. I’ve been a massive fan of this stuff ever since and always spray my clothes down prior to a trip.
Permethrin spray seems to be marketed towards hikers and campers, but it has served me well across the world on my travels and I honestly won't leave for a trip until I have treated my clothing with it. Permethrin spray doesn’t just have to be for a trip, you can also use this for your daily clothes, especially during the summer months!
Permethrin spray has proven to be a cheap yet effective way to protect against insects, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who will be spending time outdoors. I typically pick this up at REI, but they have it on Amazon, too.
If you have used permethrin spray and have any tips I may have missed, please help the community out and leave it in the comments below.