Consumer Reports - insect repellants

[gsingjane]

As the summer bug season begins again, I thought it might be helpful or interesting to post the latest from Consumer Reports regarding the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of different repellants. I don't believe there is a link to the article (CR doesn't post its magazine content on its site), but overall Off Deep Woods for Sportsmen I was rated the most effective at 92%. 3M's Ultrathon was rated second, at 72%. OFF Skinstastic, which is a brand that you seem to see everywhere, was rated only 33% effective, and Cutter Advanced with 7% picaridin came in at 15%! BTW, the repellants were tested against mosquitoes and ticks.

The article noted that, in general, products containing at least 30% DEET worked the best, while most of the botanicals tested "were middling or worse." The Buzz-Off Flick Tee was also tested, with very poor results: "within 2 minutes, aedes mosquitoes had bitten the lab director at least 35 times through material washed once."

Jane in CT

[Lilred]

Thanks for the info Jane, I get eat up pretty awful, I'll try that deep woods off this time.

[MacGyver2005]

Do you know if they tested Ben's 100? If so, where did it place?

Regards,
-MacGyver
GA-->ME

[gsingjane]

The products that were tested, in addition to those listed above, included (in descending order of effectiveness): Cutter Unscented Outdoorsman (70%), Ben's 30 (67%), Repel Sportsman (55%), Repel Sun & Bug Stuff (54%), Repel Lemon Eucalyptus (51%), Cutter Advanced Sport (40%), Walgreens with Aloe Vera for Family Unscented (33%), Cutter All Family (32%), Skin-so-Soft Bug Guard (24%), Bite Blocker Outdoor Extreme (12%), All Terrain Herbal Armor (4%), Natrapel Plus (4% also), and bugAway Lymonessa (1%). With a very few exceptions, there seemed to be a strong correlation between cost per ounce and effectiveness, except that Off Deep Woods and Cutter Unscented Outdoorsman were very effective relative to price, and Skin-so-Soft and All Terrain were very expensive relative to effectiveness.

Jane in CT

[Jack Tarlin]

I was also curious about whether Ben's 100 was included.

In that Ben's 30 came in 4th (and was actaully quite close to second place), one can only assume that Ben's 100 would have scored much higher.

It is extremely effective, and I wouldn't travel without it.

And yes, I know it's not for everyone. Many folks don't need something this strong and could no doubt get by with something milder. And it should be used sparingly....it's pretty poisonous stuff, after all.

But it works.

[g8trh8tr]

I read that article as well. Consumer Reports also noted that anything over I believe it was 35% Deet(thiry something anyway) was no more effective than the 35% Deet. in other words, 35% Deet was as effective as 100% Deet in their test.

[gsingjane]

Hmmm, I think we read different articles. The one that I quoted appears in the June 2006 issue of CR, and states "Hours of protection correlated with deet concentration. The to-rated Deep Woods Off is 98 percent deet, and several products with 30 to 34 percent deet were very good, protecting for an average of at least five hours. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found deet safe when used according to directions..."

It certainly seems that, ased on the rankings, you can achieve a fairly good level of protection (72% with 3M, which is 34% deet). If there is a concern about using products that contain high levels (i.e. over 35%), then it is true that the 2nd through the 5th-rated products will give fairly decent protection without exceeding the 30% deet level.

Jane

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

Thanks for the info. I eat a ton of garlic before going into the woods and the bugs in general don't seem to bother me as much as others. I also noted something very strange on several recent day hikes - we had dried hummus mix (heavy on the garlic) with pita for lunch and the flies wouldn't go near the hummus. They were trying their best to organize and fly off with my Ezekiel bread (http://bread.allrecipes.com/az/EzekielBread.asp) pita.

Anybody know if bears liike garlic? Does Bonners come in garlic scent? :D

[Mr. Clean]

I've also read, several times, that anything over 30% Deet gives no additional protection. I've used the Deep Woods Off 30% for years with great results. Find the pump for grease-free hands. Another product for those who are terrified of Deet is Natrapel. It is all chemical free and works very well on the kids. I may try it hiking some time (with the Deet as a backup). :rolleyes:

[weary]

....In that Ben's 30 came in 4th (and was actaully quite close to second place), one can only assume that Ben's 100 would have scored much higher. It is extremely effective, and I wouldn't travel without it.
....it should be used sparingly....it's pretty poisonous stuff, after all.
But it works.
I agree with all except the "pretty poisonoua atuff" claim. Long term subtle impacts are impossible to quantify, but having used 100 percent DEET for decades and been curious about what I might be doing to myself, I've read scores of scientific and medical studies over the years. All concluded that DEET is pretty harmless to most people by most of the measurable criteria.

There have been a couple of instances reported of babies drenched in the stuff being harmed. And a few people are reported to be allergic to DEET.

But as near as I can tell, very few have ever been confirmed as having been injured through the use of 100 percent DEET.

Since I like to walk the woods during black fly season and my house fronts a salt marsh with ferocious mosquitoes, I'll continue to apply Ben's 100 and other 100 percent DEET products.

I use mostly liquid versions, just rubbing a few drops on the palms of my hands and then wiping them on exposed skin. Because I find breathing the stuff obnoxious, I don't use spray except to spray the back of a tee shirt to avoid mosquitoes biting through.

A half a spray can and a two ounce container of liquid will last me most years. I tend to misplace or lose more DEET than I actually use.

Weary

[Jack Tarlin]

Don't get me wrong, Weary, I swear by the stuff and have used it for years.

But the stuff has been known to dissolve plastic and some fabrics.

Therefore, I can't say with total confidence that it's good for one's skin.

But used sparingly, and only when absolutely necessary, I think it's the best there is.

[Just a Hiker]

I used to get my bug dope from Mr. Shaw. He mixed Ben's and some other ingredient. I don't remember what the other ingredient was, but it worked pretty good.

[weary]

Don't get me wrong, Weary, I swear by the stuff and have used it for years.

But the stuff has been known to dissolve plastic and some fabrics.

Therefore, I can't say with total confidence that it's good for one's skin.

But used sparingly, and only when absolutely necessary, I think it's the best there is.
Well, DEET certainly dissolves plastic. That's exactly what it was before someone discovered that it also repelled flying insects. DEET in fact, etched the the lens of my reading glasses, making reading impossible as I worked my way through the Whites in 1993. I was saved by a weekend hiker at Lake of the Clouds who saw my dilemma, and as he was leaving to descend, he handed me his drugstore glasses. It was my best "trail magic."

Other than distracting bugs, I haven't heard that DEET provides any useful trail service. But neither does it do any serious harm as near as I can tell.

Weary

[stoikurt]

Back in the early 80's when I used to cruise timber in NW Florida we used a 100% DEET product. I can't recall which anymore but I do know from experience that it would take the paint off a pencil. But, we were mighty proud to have it in some of the place we had to go.

[Dances with Mice]

Well, DEET certainly dissolves plastic. Yeah, sort of. Chemically, DEET is a plasticizer which means it is absorbed into plastics and expands and softens, or weakens, them. Acrylates, a clear hard plastic used in lenses, can be competely dissolved by solvents like acetone, just to illustrate the difference. DEET won't dissolve plastic but the effect of leaving behind a cloudy, marred surface is the same. So be careful with DEET around glasses, sunglasses, watch and compass faces, pens, anything with a keyboard or LCD display like cell phones, GPS devices, radio or MP3 players, and all those other electronic gizmos. Wipe your hands off before handling laminated things like credit cards, bank cards, drivers licenses, and such. And water hoses but you wouldn't want pesticides near them anyway.

For thin layers of plastic, like plastic bags, the paint on pencils, or prophylactics (well, someone had to mention them, though if you're someplace where you need DEET you should really find someplace else to unwrap one) the difference between dissolving and softening becomes rather irrelevant. Assuming it ever was relevant.

[BlackCloud]

I live in the woods off Ben's 100 DEET. I think it' called 100 not for its 90 somthing % of active DEET ingredient but its success ratio.

It is however so greasy that I will not spray it on my hands. Once in Hawaii, the nats were so horrible that I coated my walking stick to use as a shield. I could put it into a cloud of nats & watch them skedaddle!:banana

Overall, Ben's 100 is one of my most important pieces of summer equipment no matter the activity...

[budman5]

I use Amway bugjuice...the best I've found and it's much more pleasant than the heavies( Ben's or Muskol)

[TJ aka Teej]

I used to get my bug dope from Mr. Shaw. He mixed Ben's and some other ingredient. I don't remember what the other ingredient was, but it worked pretty good.

Spruce oil. When I doubted him, he gave me a little brown bottle to try out. I smelled like an air freshener, but the bugs seemed to like me a lot less.

[alalskaman]

I like the Sawyer's stuff that claims to be "encapsulate" or some such, so that despite a relatively low DEET content, it lasts longer than others. Seems to be true. Also, I really like the Permethrin stuff, that you spray on your clothes...it lasts much longer than putting ordinary repellent on your sox or whatever. If the b------'s insist on landing on the treated fabric, it kills 'em.Last year, treating my clothing with the Permethrin stuff, and using repellent, I got thru a canoe trip in Ak with NO bites at all. Amazing.

[refreeman]

DEET is often sold and used in concentrations up to 100%. Consumer Reports found a direct correlation between DEET concentration and hours of protection against insect bites. 100% DEET was found to offer up to 12 hours of protection while several lower concentration DEET formulations (20%-34%) offered 3-6 hours of protection.
Repellents containing picaridin or lemon eucalyptus oil were reported by Consumer Reports to be about as effective as repellents containing DEET, though medical studies have differed on the effectiveness of alternatives. A number of tests have shown DEET to be the most effective and longest-lasting insect repellent available.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEET

[woodsy]

[QUOTE] Overall, Ben's 100 is one of my most important pieces of summer equipment no matter the activity... __________________[/QUOTE
Got mine out already, no bites, plenty of Blackflies. I did pick up some of the 30% formular this year for those quick trips in and out of the shack. That's working very well too.

[LostInSpace]

Anyone have experience using Sawyer's Broad Spectrum Insect Repellent (http://www.sawyerproducts.com/SP464n.htm)? It contains both DEET and R-326, that latter of which is suppose to repell black flies. I think the military uses it.

[Moondancer]

At the risk of being laughed at again I am going to post. I have an allergy to insect bites. I carry Benedryl for that reason. However, when I tried Off, and other store bought inscept repellents, including Avon Skin So Soft I became ill. Does anyone have any ideas on what made me ill or what I can use for insect repellent? Thank you.

[Skidsteer]

At the risk of being laughed at again I am going to post. I have an allergy to insect bites. I carry Benedryl for that reason. However, when I tried Off, and other store bought inscept repellents, including Avon Skin So Soft I became ill. Does anyone have any ideas on what made me ill or what I can use for insect repellent? Thank you.

Have you tried a picaridin based product?

[zelph]

Thanks for the info. I eat a ton of garlic before going into the woods and the bugs in general don't seem to bother me as much as others. I also noted something very strange on several recent day hikes - we had dried hummus mix (heavy on the garlic) with pita for lunch and the flies wouldn't go near the hummus. They were trying their best to organize and fly off with my Ezekiel bread (http://bread.allrecipes.com/az/EzekielBread.asp) pita.







Anybody know if bears liike garlic? Does Bonners come in garlic scent? :D


I'm going to try the recipe for Ezekiel breadsounds yummy.

A few years ago an organic friend of mine gave me a sample of insect repellant he made from 1 part minced garlic to 3 parts olive oil.

Ingredients are put into a sauce pan and brought to a boil and then simmered for an hour or so. Let stand overnight and put into whatever size container of choice.

I tested the sample the very same day. In the back portion of my yard a very large large pile of grass clippings brought in by a local college student doing yard work for the summer for extra bucks, was attracting mosquitos by the millions. Agood place to test the home brew. My upper body was protected by using a gardners netting pullover type garment. I approched the infested areas perimeter, drew back the netting from my arms, applied the oil of garlic concoction to one arm only. The unprotected arm was sacrificed in the name of science. Arms were held out at a 45 degree angle from each other and held there for about 5 agonising min. Some skeeters landed but quickly vacated the garliced arm. The unprotected arm suffered greatly.

It was one of those nothing ventured nothing gained moments. Never used the stuff after the test.
I use 100 percent deet sprayed on my clothing. My skin will not tolerate it!!!! Redens the skin and causes burning sensation big time:eek:

The amount used on my clothing is sufficient to keep the little guys away from my face.

I do a specific search for late in the season closeout sales on the cans of deet. Usually getting them for at least 75 percent off reg. price. I buy whatever I can find. I do alot of field and timber research so I use alot during the course of a year. Did'nt use any while in Maryland on the AT. 2 ticks latched onto me and managed to make their way back to the hotel with me. Of all the nerve!!!!

[cutman11]

this thread can be summed up simply : 100%deet. nuff said.