Tick Season

[Mike Furness]

For ticks I have stumbled on to a product called YaYa thanks to a friend that spends a lot of time in brush and high grass. It works well. Just spray it were ever you have open seams ... bottom of your trousers, sleeves, button line, neck line and hat. I don't spray directly to my skin intentionally but I have experienced a little over spray without any reaction to my skin. Ticks literally run away from the stuff. A little over spray hit the grass around a fence post. The ticks ran up the post to get away from the grass! Laughed when I saw that. Yup ... stuff works!

[Badger-NH]

 

The YaYa Tick Ban sounds interesting. If anything, it's a good backup for other products and I like that it's safe but I wouldn't depend on it by itself.

I don't care for Permethrin. I've tested it and it only lasts a week at best. The label may say it will survive a wash but it doesn't. You have to re-spray your clothes at least once a week or before each hunt. It's very easy to test the effectiveness of the Permethrin spay. When you find a tick, put it on your clothes and see how long it takes to die. As the toxicity starts to fade, the ticks will be able to crawl around until they find a safe place on your body to bite. That's when you know it's time to re-spray your clothes. I also don't like Permethrin because it can cause neurological damage in cats and probably other animals. Many people are not intelligent enough to use it responsibly.

You are better off just buying the Insect Shield clothing. The infusion process they use is much more permanent. My Insect Shield shirts typically last a year or more. They last longer if you avoid washing them.

[Gold Catcher]

12 hours ago, Badger-NH said:

They last longer if you avoid washing them.

Do you know what my shirt looks like after a day detecting...? 😬 Not washing it would mean the end of any social activities. Perhaps not a bad idea....Permethrin works well for me and is the only reliable tick defender of those that I have tried. I have tried many "natural" sprays, none of them worked for me. Those ticks on the North Yuba river need the nuclear option, otherwise they just laugh at you. But I will give YaYa a try. I do pretreat my clothes and gear regularly though when using Permethrin. A small price to pay IMO when operating in heavily tick invested areas. I usually spray Deet on top of it right before detecting and always wear long pants and long sleve shirts, tucked in. I am not (too) worried about bears, mountain lions and snakes (except Mojave Greens). But ticks I am most scared of.

GC

[Badger-NH]

Insect Shield - https://www.insectshield.com/