Mapping the Sheltowee

CNSTARS · cub Joined: 30 Mar 2011 Posts: 5 Location: Lexington

I participated in the challenge hike in March and it appeared that everyone picked up ticks on the trail, except me. I pretreated my clothes with permethrin and it was effective in keeping the ticks and chiggers at bay.

Here's a youtube link to the product I used, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwBeZIZFwzc

I found this product at the Walmart camping department for a reasonable price but I'm sure there are other vendors with similar products so do your research too. One big caveat is that the active ingredient is potentially lethal to Cats and Fish when its first applied.

If you're worried about the ticks on the trail, give this a try, it worked for me.

Traildust · Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 11:36 am Post subject:

Thanks for the suggestion. Please folks if you are heading to the Sheltowee Trace or any part of the DBNF, treat for ticks. I had over 10 when I sectioned with the STA in early March and even got two the other day when walking less than a mile in the woods down in the Heidelberg area.

MuddyBoots · on trail Joined: 25 Oct 2011 Posts: 31 Location: kentucky

CNSTARS

My wife and I were on the ST this weekend in Pickett State Park. Following your suggestion, we treated our boots, packs and clothes with permethrin a couple of days before the hike. We still flicked two or three crawling ticks off our pants and my wife had one latch onto her. Who knows what we would have experienced without it. So not sure if it helped or not. But at least it made us feel a little less helpless over those vile creatures! <smile>

By the way, I flicked off at least 10 ticks and had four bites on the March hike without using any repellent. So I was much relieved with this weekends results.

Thanks for posting the suggestion!

CNSTARS · cub Joined: 30 Mar 2011 Posts: 5 Location: Lexington

MuddyBoots,

I'm sure as the summer months come we'll see more of the little pests. For extra protection I'm going to bring some deet along on the April challenge hike to apply on exposed skin. I'm interested to see how long the treatment stays effective having washed my clothes once already; they claim it lasts up to 6 weeks or up to 6 washings. Hopefully I can go all year without getting bit, we'll see...

JC · cub Joined: 01 Feb 2012 Posts: 4 Location: Wilmore, Ky

Through the advice of this thread I treated my clothes for the first time before hiking for a 4 day stretch and got good results. As a comparison while staying 2 nights and hiking around Pickett State Park without treated clothes I found 1 on me and my son got a total of 3. After treating our clothes and heading out we picked up a combined total of 1 after the four days and that was on my lower leg after converting the pants to shorts.
First time I've ever used this product and I think it did help. Thanks for the advice!