-- a small but reassuring addendum:   A few years back Birding magazine  
published a letter on research on this topic which explained that the  
2-hour
wait before wearing clothing  sprayed with it (or Permanone or other  
brand
names) was not  to protect the  wearer from possible chemical harm to  
the
skin, but just the opposite, to prevent the body heat from  
dissipating the
protective effectiveness of the chemical.

Leo Weigant

On Jun 27, 2008, at 8:25 AM, Rob Gibbs wrote:

> I'll throw in one bit of info in case no one has mentioned it.    
> Most folks use a repellent with Deet.  To repel ticks the repellent  
> needs to be at least 30% DEET.   DEET is actually not a very good  
> tick repellent and even with high % it will only last for a couple  
> of hours so it needs to be re-applied fairly often to be effective.
> A MUCH better alternative for folks like birders who are out a lot  
> in tick areas is a repellent called Permethin.   There are several  
> brand names including.   This repellent can only be applied to  
> clothing and must dry for at least 2 hours before you where them.    
> It will last for up to 6 weeks and can be washed a couple of times  
> without losing it repelling properties.  What I have done for years  
> now is have a set of field clothes that are treated with Permethrin  
> and those are the clothes I wear in the field.   The repellent  
> kills ticks and I have had ticks that crawled up under my pants  
> bite me but by the time I got home and checked the tick was still  
> there but stone dead and just brushed off.
>
> Here is a link to one product available at Walmart made by repel.   
> http://www.drugstore.com/products/prod.asp?pid=153116&catid=10539
> Enjoy and stay  tick free!!
>
> Rob Gibbs
> Damascus
>
>