Comment by tqwhite
7 days ago
I love DEET. It is absolutely the perfect way to avoid mosquitos and ticks.
At home though, I use Thermacell. It's the only thing I have ever used that makes a measurable difference. Of course, you need to have one ever four or five feet unless the air is perfectly still but that's a small price.
Deet works on most things except deer flies. One bite is usually enough to itch for hours. They feed during the daytime.
"Their mouthparts include two pairs of cutting "blades" that lacerate skin and cause flow of blood out of the wound, which females lap up with a sponge-like mouthpart."
https://extension.entm.purdue.edu/publichealth/insects/taban...
Having lived in places were mosquitos thrive, I 100% agree with you.
I keep bottles and sachets of OFF's DEEP WOODS DEET fueled repellant in my car, book bags, its a must-have.
DEET is super effective, especially if you go to an outdoors store like REI and get the extremely concentrated 95% DEET they make for backpackers. Will it give me cancer on 20 years? Who knows. But it does work.
Deet works just fine and is safe for us, but Picaridin works just as well and is safe for dogs. Thermacells are putting a pyrethroid into vapor. Flat out its a neurological toxin, its just a matter of dose. I use one now and again but I can't help remember all the early onset parkinsons diagnoses, and how those cases are going up.