Technician said:Technician <[email hidden]> spoke thusly...
Quoted message said:Kathleen <[email hidden]> spoke thusly...
Quoted message said:The repellent formulas that work the best, the ones with a high concentration of DEET, can cause
chemical burns.
Just noticed, the other repellant with DEET had only 23%, the new stuff i got has 95%, so i guess
it would be a good idea to use it very sparingly if the other stuff was strong enough to cause
burns under my watch band.
BTW, what is considered a high concentration?
The stuff that burned me was about 35%, IIRC. If it was me, I don't think I'd use the 95%
stuff at all. It'd probably be a good idea to just keep your watch in your camelbak. Even if
you don't wind up with chemical burns, after marinating in sweat and insect repellent even
synthetic fabrics will start to stink.
There's something about being bitten, even by an insect, that's disgusting on a visceral
level. At the last flyball tournament we went to, several of us were walking our dogs around
the hotel grounds. There was a snot-nosed urchin - probably 7 or 8 years old - riding his
bike around the grounds, buzzing past us as close as he could manage and barking at the
dogs, trying to get a rise out of them as his trailer trash father and mother watched from
the upstairs balcony, smiling indulgently. Requests to keep the bike away from the dogs
brought no results, and though we briefly fantasized letting one or two of the more
excitable dogs loose "accidentally", the risk was deemed too high. The dogs were current on
their shots, but you can't vaccinate against everything and god only knew what the little
cretin might have been carrying. I got mine, though. While attempting to obtain the best
possible line of attack, the kid had followed us up a hill on the lawn, then went even
further up, into an unmowed area, with grass and weeds grown maybe 2 feet tall, all the
better to gain speed on his kamakazi runs past the dogs. As we prepared to return to our
rooms, I called up to his mother, all helpful concern... "Oh, hey, you'll want to check your
boy over real carefully before bedtime tonight. He was up playing around in the tall grass,
and it's just *loaded* with ticks."
"OMIGAWD!!!! THEO!!!!! GIT YOUR BUTT UP HERE RAHT NAOW!!!!!! "MAAAAAA!!!!"
Kathleen