I am getting ready to go to Oklahoma D-Day paintball event (Go Allies!). I was reading on their site that they have a lot of ticks in the area.

My question is: what is the best way of preventing tick bites (chemically or otherwise) and also of preventing the little critters from getting into your tent?

If this was already discussed, please point me to the right thread, I couldn't really find it.

I have had very good experience by spraying my clothing with Permanone by Repel. It's for clothing use (not skin). Spray it on your clothing, hats, socks, gear, boots, etc. a day before you pack up so it dries well. No smell, no, stain, and the ticks will just about jump off of you. I live in Southeast Virginia which is thick with ticks and chiggers and this stuff is great.

You might be able to spray it on the tent floor if it's that poly type stuff, but not on the tent fabric because it might make it leak.

Regards,

Tom A.

Good ole tight cuffs is also a good way to help defeat them.

Any kind of clothing spray containing permethrin is effective. I've spent many a day in east OK that way; my parents live near there and it's our favorite camping area.

I've always just sprayed pants & cuffs with DEET - unless wearing synthetics - for that I've been using Cutter Advanced lately. Then do a REAL GOOD post-activity body scan as soon as possible.

Wearing light colored socks and pants will help you spot them -- they are just about impossible to find on dark colored clothes.

While it will make you look like a dork, you can tuck your pant legs into your socks if you need to walk through an area of tall grass. Also keep in mind deer tics and Western black-legged tics (the ones known to carry Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever) are much smaller than traditional ticks. The nymphs are only about the size of the head of a pin.

There is a bunch of information availble online, so read up on things. The Western black-legged tick is the one that you need to watch out for in Oklahoma.



Jim

Permethrin for your clothes & deet for you. That combo has always served me well.

I've heard that eating a lot of garlic will help keep mosquitos and ticks off of you .

I think Garlic failed one of the tests for mosquitoes, but don't know about ticks.

BTW, it takes several hours, after biting, to infect you. So, check after you're done and you should still be OK.

I wouldn't tuck my pants into my socks because it leaves the top of your boots exposed. Those little critters can squeeze in through the top of your boot.

What I would do is get lightweight, light-colored fishing pants that don't have zip-off legs with an extra-long inseam. After you put your pants and boots on, drop your drawers and tightly blouse your pants to the outside of your boots. Use really good blousing straps, large ranger bands, or duct tape. That is what I do and it works very well for me, YMMV. I then do a full body check when the day is over. Those little critters will get into the craziest places.

The whole trick is light-colored clothing with long sleeves and gap/opening control.

I know it’s already been said in this thread, but I also love Permethrin. My son and I camp at a campground locally and a lot of spiders crawl up in between the tent and rain fly. You can see them there at night with a flashlight. Last year we started spraying Permethrin around the base of the tent on all sides. We have a rug outside each of our tents where you get in & out of the tents. In the mornings, you can see dead spiders on the rugs, the Permethrin on the tent kills them as they walk across it.

Permethrin is great stuff, well worth the $5.00 a can it cost. It brings sanity to an otherwise irritating mosquito filled night.

Permethrin is easy to test. In the warmer months, go outside at night and find a spider, spray it with Permethrin. It takes 10 to 15-seconds but then the spider starts jumping around like crazy and within a min or so it drops to the ground.

Also to see how well it last, I have a few windows that face the back of my property, spiders love to make web across these windows all summer. I spray around the window with Permethrin and for the next month no spiders. I also have an old iron fence post with a cement cap on it. On the side of it there is a hole, wasp love to make a nest inside the fence post and go in & out the hole. I coated the hole very liberally with Permethrin and no more wasps there anymore. I don’t know if they died inside or could not get back in but they are gone


Permethrin Is great stuff.

pay attention to the DON'T HAVE ZIP-OFF LEGS.

those critters will line up nice and neat on the covered zippers if you don't pay attention.

experience speaking.

What are the known side effects of Permethrin? (Hopefully not worse than Lyme Disease...)

This remedy was found in Nessmuk's Book 'Woodcraft & Camping' which is available to view at outdoor-magazine.com

http://outdoors-magazine.com/spip.php?article303&var_recherche=
nessmuk&var_recherche=nessmuk

"It was published in Forest and Stream in the summer of 1880, and again in ’83. It has been pretty widely quoted and adopted, and I have never known it to fail: Three ounces pine tar, two ounces castor oil, one ounce pennyroyal oil. Simmer all together over a slow fire, and bottle for use. You will hardly need more than a two-ounce vial full in a season. One ounce has lasted me six weeks in the woods. Rub it in thoroughly and liberally at first, and after you have established a good glaze, a little replenishing from day to day will be sufficient. And don’t fool with soap and towels where insects are plenty. A good safe coat of this varnish grows better the longer it is kept on—and it is cleanly and wholesome. If you get your face and hands crocky or smutty about the camp-fire, wet the corner of your handkerchief and rub it off, not forgetting to apply the varnish at once, wherever you have cleaned it off. Last summer I carried a cake of soap and a towel in my knapsack through the North Woods for a seven weeks’ tour, and never used either a single time. When I had established a good glaze on the skin, it was too valuable to be sacrificed for any weak whim connected with soap and water. When I struck a woodland hotel, I found soap and towels plenty enough. I found the mixture gave one’s face the ruddy tanned look supposed to be indicative of health and hard muscle. A thorough ablution in the public wash basin reduced the color, but left the skin very soft and smooth; in fact, as a lotion for the skin it is excellent. It is a soothing and healing application for poisonous bites already received."

I think he called it 'Bug Juice'. Use it at your own risk.

Tim

No side effects for 2 reasons.

1 you don’t spray it on your skin, you spray it on clothes and let it dry.

2 if you do spray it on your skin your skin deactivates it within a few min.


It’s used for head lice in kid’s shampoo.

It’s a safe product.

Can they actually get through the zipper on zip offs or do they just kind of huddle up under the flap and sneak out Trojan Horse like later or ?

i've counted more than 10 lined up - on each side, under the cover flap of the upper part of the leg - and waiting for a sneak attack later!

whoda thunk to look for them there?

Blouse up your pants.

It will keep any female paintballers away too...

Yikes! That kind of pest will really take a big bite ... out of your wallet! As my brigade commander once said, "women aren't tactical."