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Greenhorn
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Hello all, haven't been here in awhile. just curious, what does everyone use for tick repellent? got lyme disease several years ago and have been using deet and permethrin. any natural stuff out there? Thanks
 
Posts: 18 | Registered: 14 February 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Well I've seen about a dozen formulas, and they all contain Pennyroyal, plus some have tar, and some have citronella oil, and some have all three.

I think the pine tar or "Canadian Balsam" one finds in early "bug dope" gives off phenol, which is another recommended bug AND tick repellent.

Based on the recipes in Camping and Woodcraft by Horace Kephart, I'd suggest this...,

You'll probably need three 2 oz. generic tins, . Then get a tin of Petroleum Jelly and Carbolic which isn't made by Vaseline any longer so you have to use the other brand. Scoop out the contents into a metal bowl and add 1 ounce Oil of Pennyroyal, and since you might as well ward off flying insects, add 1 ounce of citronella oil. Stir this together, and then spoon the product into the three new tins, and seal.

Apply on wrists, neck, and ankles above and below where your sock tops end. You can ALSO wear knee high women's hose under your clothes along with your socks, which helps defeat ticks.

The Vaseline alone tends to clog the tick's breathing holes on the sides of their body, so they shy away a bit from petroleum jelly alone, and the carbolic (camphor) they don't like, plus it also makes the concoction antiseptic for minor cuts or scrapes. Ticks don't mind the pennyroyal and the citronella oil as much as skeeters but the two aromatic oils don't hurt. The pennyroyal and the citronella oil wards off skeeters and flies, so your salve gives you triple duty..., ticks, skeeters and flies, and antiseptic.

Now it's not as effective as permethrin..., so you do have to also inspect yourself, and you need to have a good Tick Removal Tool, since getting off the ones that bypass the salve if you remove them after only a few hours you really drop you chance at infection, AND you're guarding against more than Lyme when it comes to ticks.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I consider the diseases caused by ticks to be so devastating that I always use the most effective deterrents I can possibly acquire. Permethrin, since it does not go on the skin, cannot be beat. One simply sprays it on clothes, lets it dry, and it's good for quite a few washings, and hunting trips. Exposed skin is treated with DEET.

In all my hunting and rambling about in the woods, I have yet to find a tick on myself. Around the house where I don't wear treated clothes, I have found an occasional tick (rare), possibly from the doggies - who are treated, themselves, with the proper doggie tick/flea repellent.

Rather than buying expensive spray cans of permethrin, I ordered a bottle of concentrated permethrin. A small cap full mixed into a gallon of water produces the strength of most spray cans. I usually up the amount a little and get about twice the strength. There is enough in the bottle to last possibly a lifetime.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
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I know this is totally irrelevant to personal body protection, but after acquiring 6 guinea hens to my flock around my 6 acre place in the woods, have not been troubled with those darn ticks!
 
Posts: 197 | Registered: 15 January 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by Cranbrook:
I know this is totally irrelevant to personal body protection, but after acquiring 6 guinea hens to my flock around my 6 acre place in the woods, have not been troubled with those darn ticks!




Now that is interesting! Where I presently live, guinea fowl is probably not legal. Also with all the foxes around they probably wouldn't last long. This is good information, Cranbrook; thanks.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
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Those Guinea's also make darn good watchdogs too! Big Grin
 
Posts: 197 | Registered: 15 January 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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NOISY!!!


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I used to buy Repel at Wally World, it used to contain Permanone. I was put on it by a game warden who was riding a 4 wheeler through the heavy brush. A friend of mine also used it when fishing, the ticks would jump off of him onto his friend. Unfortunately I can no longer find it, the only Repel I can find now has permethren . I hope it works as good as the permanone.
 
Posts: 353 | Location: Pocono Mts. in PA | Registered: 12 June 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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It works absolutely great. I rely on it and also rub DEET on exposed skin.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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thanks everyone for the responses. Loyalist Dave, thanks for the suggestion. but I thought that there was something that I could spray on. base on the ingredients, how would you use this if you were hunting. wouldn't the scent scare away animals? Thanks
 
Posts: 18 | Registered: 14 February 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Well, you asked for tick repellent, and for something "natural" although I confess, I don't think anything is natural about carbolic or camphor...,

Pennyroyal oil and Citronella and even the camphor may be applied in liquid form, the problem is any sweat, and the stuff is thinned or gone. The balsam or tar in some of the century old bug-dopes not only adding more odor, but probably helping the bug "dope" to stick to the skin.

The other answer back in the day to the problem of perspiration messing with the bug-dope was petroleum jelly, and I mentioned that since I've used it (just plain) to good effect to help ward off ticks (well at least when I found them they had not bitten me yet). I also remember that Indians used bear grease smeared over the exposed part of their skin, which probably warded off poison ivy and a whole host of biting insects and arachnids. The other nice thing about camphor or carbolic is that if you get a scrap or such..., it's a disinfectant.

Scent? Sure all natural bug repellents smell, as well as DEET, that's what causes the bugs to go the other way. Wink Trust me, the DEET can be smelled by the deer. Big Grin I hunt from the ground, often from a blind and often in period attire, and I work on hunting with the breeze at 90 degrees from my front. If the breeze is from my back, then my scent is pretty much going to cause the deer to avoid me (but sometimes they don't take a wide enough course change and I can still get a shot.) If the wind is in my face, the deer seem not to like that since it would be from their back. I think that would carry scent away from them and they wouldn't feel safe that way. But if the wind is coming from my right or from my left, and the deer are heading into the wind (well a very slight breeze - they don't seem to like moderate or heavy wind due to the noise) they will pass by my location and I will get a broadside shot....and venison.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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This thread is about tick repellant and I don't want to hijack that. However I just have to comment about scent.

All these commercial cover scents and special soap to remove your scent, etc., are just marketing hype!

A narcotics dog can detect a kilo of cocaine that is hidden under tons of onions. A deer's nose is as good as a dogs, maybe better.

Just think how ripe a long hunter was after months in the wilderness. They still got their deer.

Like L.D. said, the key is the wind. Always hunt into or crossways to the wind.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Think about it. If a deer can smell your bug repellent, it can smell YOU, anyway.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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The very first deer I ever bagged with a flintlock, I was wearing a capote that my buddy's wife had laundered in TIDE. Eeker

I leant him the capote the weekend before deer season. He brought it back to me opening day, and we went hunting. I had told him NOT to clean it, just bring it back because I have special procedures for cleaning my hunting clothes..., mostly just plain, home made lye soap, and some wood smoke when done drying on the line.

So my buddy pulled a groin muscle and had to leave, but gave me the capote and I went back out in the woods that afternoon. I put on the capote since it started to drizzle, and I forgot my cow's knee, and I held the lock and rear portion of the stock under the capote. When I got to my spot, the wool capote was a bit damp but the lock on the rifle, up under my arm and further protected by the capote, was fine.

then I caught a whiff of myself.....very potent "spring fresh" scent. Behind me, in the direction the wind was blowing was thicket..., and sure enough I heard the WHEW WHEW of a group of does objecting to the "spring fresh scent". They thundered away without my seeing more than a tiny glimpse of them.

An our or so later, moving into the tiny breeze and sideways to me, and young buck tip toed into range and I bagged him. The drizzle and the wind kept him from smelling me..., had he been walking into the area where the doe had departed, he'd have smelled me for sure.

Back to bug dopes.....

Another technique some folks like is to treat stocking garters with the permethrin, and use those to keep their stockings up in bad tick situations. The stuff doesn't touch the skin, though I can't say about what perspiration will do. On the same idea the cuffs of the outer garment, be it a hunting coat or hunting shirt (assuming you wear another shirt below) the collars, and the tails, might also be treated.

I have to be careful about stuff like permethrin due to my wife's health, so I do citronella, PLUS I have a diet high in B vitamins and cider vinegar..., been a long time since I was bit by a skeeter. It helps that I take the vitamins, plus I take some cider vinegar each day for health reasons AND I like me some pickles too. Big Grin

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Interesting tale, LD. I've killed deer that have followed my trail into the woods and some that have crossed it but weren't concerned. And while I would sometimes put fox scent on my boots, I didn't do it every time. Deer are strange critters; sometimes they act very smart and sometimes they act very dumb.

I take vitamins and "B" as well. My wife has type "O" blood which draws skeeters. When I'm with her they leave me along.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I put raccoon pee on my boots one year.

THEN Charlie Brown bit me in the shin, and drew blood.

Charlie was the landowner's beagle. He was a rescue, AND had spent about a month in the woods prior to being caught and taken to the shelter, and then became part of the landowner's family. He was wary of me but had come to a state of indifference to my walking into and out of "his" 80 acre "back yard".

Charlie came over to give me my standard departure tongue lashing..., reaffirming that I understood that this was HIS property and I was merely a guest, when he got a whiff of my boots..., he stopped and with that expressive face that dog's often have..., looked up at me with his head cocked, and a sort of "Hey Dude do you know you have a raccoon up your leg?" Then he fanged me good! Eeker

So I got him to turn me loose and made it to my car without another bite..., the landlady was very upset and worried that I was going to report Charlie, and then she mentioned to me that the only thing that Charlie would ever attack was a raccoon, because of his tenure in the woods before being rescued. Wink

AHA! Mystery Solved. Maybe I'm old school but I'm not going to report somebody's dog for what amounted to a deep pair of scratches that bled a lil' bit on my shin bone, when I'm on the dog's property, AND I know why the dog who never bit me before decided I needed a bite that day. PLUS I'm telling you the look he gave me said it all..., pretty sure he thought I had an evil critter inside my pants and was trying to defend me and his home from one of "them". Big Grin

Back to Bug Dopes...I got the idea to look into them after seeing Northwest Passage and the character tells Robert Young "I use rancid bear grease" when asked about skeeters. I found a lot of different formulas in Camping and Woodcraft by Horace Kephart.

OH and I've never tried rancid bear grease..., I figured that was Hollywood, not a real repellent.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Thankfully I've never been taken for a raccoon or fox by any dog. The best and most amusing "cover" scent I ever have used was something that was pure skunk odor, whew! Haven't seen it in decades but it was great stuff. It came in two squeeze bottles and neither had any smell. But a major caution was on the bottles. One would simply put a drop or two on something (I used cotton balls) with one bottle and then, carefully put a drop or two from the second bottle; and then JUMP BACK!

The stuff was very persistent and I could easily find my stand in pitch black dark just by smell. It lasted for days. Of course the cotton, tissue paper or whatever was placed downwind or one simply couldn't sit there.

The funniest thing I experienced with the scent was when I sat on the ground with my back against a tree. Nearby was a 12" or 15" stump and it was there that I placed the scent. I was watching squirrels scampering around - as they usually do when you're deer hunting. One approached the stump from up-wind and decided to hop up on top. He never made it. The squirrel jumped; and without even touching the top, did a backflip you wouldn't believe. Did I say that scent was powerful?

I haven't seen it for a long time and don't even know if it is still being made. If I could find it I'd still use it. That stuff, one never, NEVER gets the caps switched, was the cover scent for ALL cover scents.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Question? I once chewed and swallowed aclove of garlic and had two mosquito bites in two days. Would that work for ticks? The problem was my hiking partner couldn't stand me.


pistuo deo lalo
 
Posts: 3714 | Location: Acatlan de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico | Registered: 22 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Never heard anything about cloves being a skeeter or tick repellent.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Sorry, garlic. I called the individual pieces on a 'head' of garlic a clove. My mistake. What do you guys cal those naturally formed pieces of garlic?


pistuo deo lalo
 
Posts: 3714 | Location: Acatlan de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico | Registered: 22 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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