It's definitely tick season (shed hunting, morels, turkeys, habitat chores) and thought I'd share my observations of sending my clothing to the Insect Shield company for the "lifetime" permethrin treatment.
Although I do treat my own clothes with permethrin concentrate, it's not always convenient when I don't have clothes that are dry from spraying. Sometimes you just don't plan to be out in tick habitat so it is nice to have factory, pre-treated clothing, grab and go. They claim the factory, lifetime treatment is good for 70 cycles thru the laundry. I'm skeptical that it lasts 70 washings but it does definite last longer than home treatments.
I was wearing an older pair of Insect Shield pants the other day that definitely haven't been laundered 70 times, but they have been thru a lot of rugged use. I wonder if the treatment wears off when clothes are used hill walking thru abrasion of heavy cover? I picked dozens of ticks off those old pants on Saturday.
Now, the main point of this thread... Insect Shield offers 2 options for shipping your clothes to them for the lifetime treatment.
1) Easy Pack option. Prepay them $119 and they send you a UPS postage paid plastic shipping bag that they claim will hold 10-15 items. I'd highly advise against that option. I'm not a large person, 34"waist, x 30" inseam. I packed the bag as carefully as I could, and used thinner clothing and I could only get 6 pairs of pants in it. There was a little more space so I also fit-in 2 shirts. You larger guys wouldn't get close to fitting that many items of your size in that little bag. My 8 items came out to almost $15 each and obviously postage is not "free", it's factored into the price. Never forget that there's no such thing as free shipping, it's always factored into the price.
2)Per Piece option. $9 per item (up to 20 items) and you pack the container of your choice and shipping is not pre paid. My 8 items would have cost me $72 plus shipping. Let's estimate the shipping cost would be +- $20. Seems like I could have gotten around 3 more pair of pants treated for $119.
One more point, if you want to treat things like T shirts or socks, you can probably fit 10-15 items in the Easy Pack bag.
IMO, the most important clothing item to treat for ticks are pants. 99% of the time, ticks latch onto my legs and then work their way up. If pants are treated I seldom have ticks ever latch on.
Ticks are evil. Don't get bit.
Although I do treat my own clothes with permethrin concentrate, it's not always convenient when I don't have clothes that are dry from spraying. Sometimes you just don't plan to be out in tick habitat so it is nice to have factory, pre-treated clothing, grab and go. They claim the factory, lifetime treatment is good for 70 cycles thru the laundry. I'm skeptical that it lasts 70 washings but it does definite last longer than home treatments.
I was wearing an older pair of Insect Shield pants the other day that definitely haven't been laundered 70 times, but they have been thru a lot of rugged use. I wonder if the treatment wears off when clothes are used hill walking thru abrasion of heavy cover? I picked dozens of ticks off those old pants on Saturday.
Now, the main point of this thread... Insect Shield offers 2 options for shipping your clothes to them for the lifetime treatment.
1) Easy Pack option. Prepay them $119 and they send you a UPS postage paid plastic shipping bag that they claim will hold 10-15 items. I'd highly advise against that option. I'm not a large person, 34"waist, x 30" inseam. I packed the bag as carefully as I could, and used thinner clothing and I could only get 6 pairs of pants in it. There was a little more space so I also fit-in 2 shirts. You larger guys wouldn't get close to fitting that many items of your size in that little bag. My 8 items came out to almost $15 each and obviously postage is not "free", it's factored into the price. Never forget that there's no such thing as free shipping, it's always factored into the price.
2)Per Piece option. $9 per item (up to 20 items) and you pack the container of your choice and shipping is not pre paid. My 8 items would have cost me $72 plus shipping. Let's estimate the shipping cost would be +- $20. Seems like I could have gotten around 3 more pair of pants treated for $119.
One more point, if you want to treat things like T shirts or socks, you can probably fit 10-15 items in the Easy Pack bag.
IMO, the most important clothing item to treat for ticks are pants. 99% of the time, ticks latch onto my legs and then work their way up. If pants are treated I seldom have ticks ever latch on.
Ticks are evil. Don't get bit.
Permethrin Clothing Treatment - We Treat Clothing For You
Why try spraying clothes with permethrin yourself when you can use Insect Shield’s clothing treatment service? Just send us your clothes, and we’ll treat them with permethrin for you.
www.insectshield.com