what to put on your clothes to repel ticks

A couch. While a couch was on my clothes I have never picked up a tick.

We have started to use a lint roller during and after time in the bush/trails. Rolled one off my 5 yr olds pants this morning, and they stick right to it to show the kids, they love it!
 
i was also thinking about a the idea of a wax or a silicone base spray to put on the clothes. so the ticks dont have a chance to cling onto them .idea would be they slide off.
 
Some good info here: ht tp://www.tickinfo.com/repellents.htm

And here:

Tick Off
The most effective tick repellents

By Matt Heid

AMC Outdoors, October 2012

Deer ticks are pernicious, nasty little critters. Common throughout the Northeast, these parasitic bloodsuckers are the primary vector for Lyme disease, an unpleasant and potentially serious illness that is well worth avoiding. Your goal is to prevent deer ticks from enjoying their sanguineous feast and possibly transmitting the disease-causing bacterium. Here are the best, most effective repellents and techniques.
LEARN MORE
For more information, including tips on tick identification and removal, visit the Tick Education Resource Center at tickencounter.org.

The Deer Tick Life Cycle
First, understand your enemy. Deer ticks have an unusual three-stage, two-year lifecycle, which begins during the summer when their eggs hatch as larvae. Once a larva obtains a blood meal from a host, it molts and becomes a nymph. Nymphs are tiny—about the size of the period at the end of this sentence—and spend winter underground before emerging in late spring; their populations typically peak during June and July. Once a nymph successfully feeds on another host, it transforms into a larger adult, which then seeks a final blood meal to provide the sustenance needed to mate and reproduce. Adult deer ticks are most abundant in October and November, with a secondary period of activity in April and May.

Deer Ticks and Lyme Disease
Deer ticks do not hatch as carriers of Lyme disease, but if a larva or nymph feeds on an infected host (typically a deer or mouse), it will become a disease-carrying nymph or adult, respectively. Nymphs represent the greatest threat due to their near-microscopic size; they cause most cases of Lyme disease in humans. (The majority of victims never see the tick that bit them.) Once an infected tick attaches to a person, it takes a minimum of 24 hours before it can transmit the bacteria that cause Lyme disease.

Repel Ticks: Use DEET
Of all the various insect repellents available, DEET has been shown to be the most effective at repelling ticks. “There is pretty good data that DEET works against ticks,” confirms Durland Fish, professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. Other repellents, including those that contain picaridin, are simply not proven to fend off the blood-suckers. “We’re pretty confident that DEET works,” agrees Dr. Tom Mather, director of the Center for Vector-Borne Disease at the University of Rhode Island and its Tick Encounter Resource Center. “Those other repellents have just not been effectively tested against ticks.” My translation: "No one has paid us to test them yet."

Kill Ticks: Use Permethrin
DEET may work at repelling ticks, but Mather advises it only as a second line of defense. His top recommendation: Wear tick-repellent clothing treated with permethrin, which kills ticks after only five to 30 seconds of exposure. “Permethrin is dried into your clothes,” Mather explains, “and if you purchase treated clothing or have it commercially treated, it can last 70 washings.” (Insect Shield, which produces its own line of insect-repellent apparel, will treat clothing for $8 to $10 an item.) Alternatively, you can treat clothing yourself, though home treatments last for only about four to five washings, Mather says.

Where to Protect Yourself
The most important areas to defend are your feet and ankles. “Your shoes are the primary interface with nymphs and larva, which crawl up from the leaf litter,” Mather explains. Apply permethrin and/or DEET to your shoes and socks and you’ll establish a powerful barrier against your Lilliputian foes. Adult ticks, on the other hand, will climb up on tall grass and low-lying bushes, allowing them to latch on at the calf or above. Wear treated pants and shorts to fend them off, and apply DEET to your legs if they’re exposed. For maximum protection, wear treated clothing from top to bottom.

Tick-Fighting Fashion Tips
Wearing light-colored garments makes it easier to spot a tick crawling on you. Ticks latch easily onto coarser weaves, such as those in heavy canvas pants; opt instead for smoother, tightly woven fabrics. Another standard recommendation is to tuck your pants into your socks to prevent ticks from crawling out of sight underneath your clothing, though Mather wryly notes that this is a “fashion statement that never went anywhere. Why even push a health message that few people will follow?” he asks. Whatever your fashion sense, taking some or all of the precautions outlined above will greatly reduce the odds of an unpleasant tick encounter. But keep in mind that ticks are tenacious and capable of finding even the smallest gap in your defense—always check yourself thoroughly after any outing into tick country, especially in those warm dark corners below the belt where ticks love to hide.

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Some good info on Permethrin on Wiki: ht tps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permethrin Mind you don't kill the family cat, or you may end up in the doghouse! :)
In agriculture, permethrin is mainly used on cotton, wheat, maize, and alfalfa crops. Its use is controversial because, as a broad-spectrum chemical, it kills indiscriminately; as well as the intended pests, it can harm beneficial insects including honey bees, and aquatic life.[4]

Permethrin kills ticks on contact with treated clothing. A method of reducing deer tick populations by treating rodent vectors involves stuffing biodegradable cardboard tubes with permethrin-treated cotton. Mice collect the cotton for lining their nests. Permethrin on the cotton instantly kills any immature ticks feeding on the mice. It is important to put the tubes where mice will find them, such as in dense, dark brush, or at the base of a log; mice are unlikely to gather cotton from an open lawn.

Permethrin is used in tropical areas to prevent mosquito-borne disease such as dengue fever and malaria. Mosquito nets used to cover beds may be treated with a solution of permethrin. This increases the effectiveness of the bed net by killing parasitic insects before they are able to find gaps or holes in the net. Military personnel training in malaria-endemic areas may be instructed to treat their uniforms with permethrin, as well. An application should last several washes.

Permethrin is the most commonly used insecticide worldwide for the protection of wool from keratinophagous insects such as Tineola bisselliella.[5]
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Essential oils will work for shorter periods. In a pinch you could use mothballs too probably, tucked into the tops of your socks for example. If I had nothing else, I'd soak rags in something like naptha and tie them around the top of my boots. Stinks, but better than Lyme.

If you get bitten, save the tick if you can and send it into the CDC for Lyme testing. The CDC will not give you your blood test results, only a "positive" or "negative" answer. Lots of interesting politics around Lyme. Good documentary called "Under Our Skin" for those interested.
 
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I hose my pants and boots with good old Watkins spray. We've had ticks around here since I was a wee lad, so am used to watching for them. The Qu'Appelle and Pipestone Valleys are famous for ticks. I live near both!
 
I use Sawyer brand permethrin,not the aerosol one,the one in the spray bottle. Lay your clothes outside,including socks and your boots and spray them all thoroughly and let them dry up. You will be good to go for a long time,I think they say 6 washes or something. Ticks are horrendous where I hunt and so far with the Sawyer , I have been ok.
Another vote for the advantix for dogs here.
 
I bought a gallon of concentrated permethrin about 3 years ago on amazon.

I mix it in a spray bottle with water in a 1% solution and spray it on my clothes so that they're wet and hang dry them until there's no moisture left in the clothes.
This will work for approx 2 months without having to reapply so long as you don't wash the clothes too often (6 times) or get them wet.

I normally don't risk it and re-apply every 5 weeks. It works wonders. The ticks normally cling on my clothes for about 15 seconds before dying and rolling off, they don't climb more than 2-3 inches from where they attach before dying.

As for my dog, I use Advantix II (which is also permethrin) and I apply it once a month. With this treatment the dog averages about 10-15 ticks in a weekend. If I don't apply he gets in the HUNDREDS (no exaggerating one bit) per day.


EDIT: For applying to your clothes, make sure you do this outside or in the garage and never in your house. When you are applying it, it stinks to high hell but once it dries it is virtually odorless.

We bought some guinea hens a few years ago to try and keep the ticks at bay around the camp but it didn't take long for the dozen hens to turn into a dozen feather covered #### piles.
 
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I do the same as thebaron, although I mix to about .055 % strength instead of 1 %, and my results are not as dramatic, but still effective.

I treat my clothes outdoors and hang on a fence until dry. A quick low heat tumble in the dryer with a Bounce sheet, and you'll never know the clothing is treated at all.
 
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