Barnstable County, MA Tickology Project - 2018, 20 Sep 2018

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From YouTube: Tickology: Permethrin Treated Clothing

Description

Part 4 of the Tickology video project.

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Hi I'm larry dapsis, I'm the entomologist with cape cod, cooperative extension and in.

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This segment we're gonna talk about the use of permethrin treated clothing in.

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Footwear as one of the most highly effective tactics that you can do to.

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Protect yourself from tick bites and prevent tick, borne illnesses. There's.

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Some confusion about permethrin to some people that I talk with they're under.

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The impression you know larry, this is a really dangerous insecticide and for.

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Other people larry, isn't this the stuff that's kind of a natural product, so.

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Let's start out with what is this ingredient, we call permethrin. Well, let's.

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Start out with natural pyrethrum, okay, this is the extract of a type of.

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Chrysanthemum grown in africa, but today, mostly grown in tasmania down under in.

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Australia and the insecticidal properties of natural pyrethrum has been.

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Known about since 1002 present-day iran- and it has a couple interesting.

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Attributes one is, it has extremely quick knockdown against insects, okay, and this.

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Is what made it ideal for things like fly control? You can basically knock.

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Those things out of the air, however, what we do know is that there's no residual.

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Control natural pyrethrum breaks down in a matter of hours, upon exposure to.

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Sunlight so chemists took a look at the chemical architecture of natural.

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Pyrethrum and they tried to figure out and eventually did figure out all right.

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Where is sunlight breaking this thing down and what can we do to stabilize.

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This molecule and get a little bit more residual control out of it and what they.

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Did was they added a cup of chlorine atoms to one end and they added this.

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Structure a benzene ring to the other, and this gave us now a product that has.

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About four weeks of residual control, and thus we get permethrin okay, this is a.

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Repellent that you use to treat clothing; okay, it's not for.

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Exposed skin you would use other products like d dorper keratin. For that.

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Application, but you treat pants your socks, treat footwear and treating.

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Footwear, I consider to be mission-critical because during the summer months deer ticks the stages out. There are the nymph.

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Stage ticks and that stage is responsible for 85% of all tick borne.

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Diseases, so we have to be vigilant year-round, but particularly on our game.

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During the summer months and those nymph stage, ticks are down in the leaf litter.

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So the first place they attach to are your shoes and what I found in my.

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Initial research on this product 7 years ago, is if a tick is on an extruded.

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Surface for 60 seconds it is guaranteed to die. It might take five minutes. It.

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Might take ten minutes a little bit longer, but the outcome is certain. This.

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Is the most effective tool in the box to prevent tick bites hands down? You do.

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This you're reducing your risk exposure of tick bites by upwards of 90%, alright,.

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It keeps its activity through six washings or 45 days. Whatever comes first.

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Because, eventually, sunlight will break down this product. There's a number of.

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Different formulations out there on the market different brands, so you have.

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Sawyer here a water-based pump spray and you have these aerosol products, but.

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They're pretty much they're, basically all the same they're. All one-half of 1%.

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Permethrin and I tell people, treat your footwear about every four weeks, all.

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Right, you can also buy pre treated clothing from a company called insect shield and they've been around for a number of.

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Years they invented this technology and you can buy insect repellent clothing.

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Under different brands, like orvis or being but insect shield they're in the.

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Private label business, so if you bought it from ex-officio, it came from insect.

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Shield there's a fairly recent player. That's shown up in the market, no fly.

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Zone very similar technology, both of these products epa registered, have.

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Activity through 70 washings, basically the life of the garment, the.

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Where you can skin this cat, you can send your clothing to insect shield. They will.

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Treat it and send it back to you with the 70 washings claim and it's a nominal.

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Fee it's about ten dollars, the garment, all right.

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The elephant in the room, I get questions from people and pushback directly.

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Particularly parents that larry you're telling me to put my kids in clothing.

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Treated with a synthetic chemical pesticide and I nod my head, I and I tell.

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People that you know kids under age 10 have the highest incidence rate of lyme.

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Disease in massachusetts, so whatever we've been doing up to this point in.

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Time clearly is not working. We got to rethink the game plan, okay, so what I do.

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Is I spend as much time as necessary to walk people through this psychological.

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Barrier about permethrin toxicity. So let's do that here. For starters, a basic.

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Tenet of modern toxicology, it's not the molecule, it makes the poison.

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It's the dose that makes the poison how much you're exposed to and what was the.

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Route of exposure was it aural, was it dermal? Was it inhalation.

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Those all make a difference as far as permethrin goes extremely low, mammalian.

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Toxicity, with the exception of kitty cats, for some reason, they can't.

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Metabolize this, but for mammals in general, very, very safe to the point.

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Where it's over 2,000 times more toxic to a tick than a person, people at big.

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Takes a little doesn't take a whole lot to knock them off. Epa's position is that.

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Permethrin treated clothing poses no harm that infants, children, pregnant.

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Women and then they extended that to nursing mothers and their criteria.

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Certainly would be conservative and the reason for this is very interesting and.

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And people should understand this. It's because permethrin has very low dermal.

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Absorption and whatever small amounts absorbed is metabolized in a couple.

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Hours in comparison to other classes of insecticides say like the phosphates, a.

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Product like malathion, that touches your skin. It's pretty much.

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Instantly in your bloodstream and it's on its way to your nervous system. But.

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Not so with the pyrethroids, like permethrin national research council,.

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This is a heavyweight group and they posed a question. What about long-term.

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Exposure because permethrin treated clothing was originally developed for.

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The military, so they were wondering about okay, we're gonna, have people.

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Exposed to this for very long periods of time, so in their assessment study they.

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Assumed that people wearing permethrin treated everything head-to-toe and they.

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Were wearing these clothes 18 hours a day every single day for 10 years and.

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When they rolled at that aggregate exposure, they saw no reason for an.

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Adverse effect- and the last thing I point out to people is that this is the.

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Active ingredient that you would slather on an infant for scabies mite and a much.

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Higher concentration and it's the active ingredient, that's used to treat head.

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Lice, so when I look at what I think is very low risk up exposure and I weigh.

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That against the consequences of one of these tick borne illnesses. For me, that's.

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Pretty easy math, so let's go outside and see how easy it is to apply this product.

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I'm here with sarah colvin cape cod, community media center and sarah, we have.

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Talked for a number of years about ticks and the importance of permethrin treated.

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Clothing and footwear- and I know you understand how effective this is, but.

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You're, not a member of the franchise, yet I'm not, and we have done multiple.

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Interviews- television, radio talking about this promethean, but I've never.

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Applied it and I've actually been a little scared to do so sure I mean.

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You're, like a number of other people, is that there must be some mystery to how.

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You properly apply the show clothing because you're handling a chemical.

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Insecticide, exactly I don't know us what we're doing is handling a chemical. Insecticides actually has very low, been alien.

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Toxicity, so you notice that we're not using rubber, gloves or masks, because our.

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Exposure risk is quite low when he says mammalian toxicity. By the way it means.

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It's not harmful to people exactly so. What we're gonna do is demonstrate an.

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Application premiere into these pants, these socks and these boots and you're.

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The person is actually going to do the application and I'm going to coach you.

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Along the way, excellent, so these are the clothes that.

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One would wear outside, so I'm not going to put it on my news uniform unless I'm.

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Going to go out and talk tix with you in the woods, but you know typically the.

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Clothes you would wear outside and from what I understand this lasts. Quite a.

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Long time, so how long between applications do I need to go sure this.

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Will keep its activity against ticks four through six washings or 45 days.

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Whatever comes first because eventually sudden-like will break this down and.

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It's recommend that you wash these clothes separately from your other.

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Clothing, great no matter just mix it together and you're. Just gonna want to.

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Get back about this far and spray, these totally visibly damn okay, and so what.

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Does this do what tell me a little bit about what the from a friend does for me.

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Permethrin is a neurotoxin against ticks and it's very effective. What I found in.

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My research is that a particular it's guaranteed to die. You did this alone.

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You've reduced your chances of getting a tick bite by 90 percent.

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Great, so I've sprayed it until it's visibly damaged and then do the other.

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Leg: yep and then how long larry do I have to.

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Wait before I can put these pants on, can I wear them right away? You want to spray.

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Up to about the mid side, okay- and these will probably be dry in about an hour so.

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Okay, then, you can just put them on and you are good to go out into your.

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Favorite outdoor places, I mean you, don't have to go to the woods in the state.

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Park, you get a tick bite, two-thirds of the people that submitted ticks for.

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Identification and testing got them from activities in their own backyards. Play.

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Ticks and gardening go hand in hand, so this is the aerosol spray. Let me try.

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This water-based spray on the sock, so you want to treat your pants. Your socks.

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And your shoes exactly because the ticks live down there on the ground.

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Yeah, the nip stage ticks are out there right now. They're the size of a poppy.

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Seed and they call it 85% of all tick borne diseases mike.

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So little tiny thing you can barely see could completely derail your life. It.

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Could one bite can change your life, that's what they say. So I'm gonna spray.

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These on my socks and again wait about an hour before I put the socks on now. I.

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Don't have to spray the bottoms of my feet, no, you don't have to spray it for.

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The part of the sock- that's inside your shoe, but certainly anything above that's.

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Visible and- and I actually turned my pants inside out and treat from below.

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Here, down in case, ticks come in from underneath great, so you in my business.

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You gotta think like a tick and so you're, probably gonna want to buy some.

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Of that product on your way home today, right, I am so. Where can I get a shirt? I.

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Mean seven years ago you could hardly find it, nobody was selling it. So I.

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Convinced all the major garden centers on the cape to carry this product so.

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They they have product in stock and and they're selling a lot of it. The word is.

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Getting out about how effective this is, and, overall, it's providing a great.

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Benefit to our community because we're in a ground, zero area for things like.

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Lyme disease, but these these deer ticks now are packing five different pathogens.

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Okay and we see a certain number ticks or co-infected, meaning they're carrying.

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Two pathogens, three, sometimes four, so we got to be serious about this year-round.

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Certainly, and so I feel a little bit safer now, I'm gonna grab some promethean.

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On my way home, so I can go for walks in the woods.

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Great, so this is my contact information. I always look forward to speaking with.

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You or addressing your emails and we'd certainly like to thank cape cod.

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Healthcare for their financial support for this project.