Hot Tip! Spray This Little-Known Chemical on Your Shoes to Prevent Bug Bites

I love being outside in the warm months—with one small caveat. While I genuinely appreciate each species’ role in the beautiful dance of ecosystem balance, I admit that I’ve grown to hate mosquitoes and ticks. It isn’t that I don’t think they should exist—after all, even mosquitoes pollinate certain plants. But every year seems worse than the last in terms of tick and mosquito-borne outbreaks and illness, and I am sick of it.

I want to enjoy a camping trip with my family without the stress of thinking about mosquitoes and West Nile. I want to hike with my dogs without worrying about Lyme disease, which is carried by infected blacklegged (deer) ticks. That’s not too much to ask, right? The thing is, there’s a simple solution to warding off ticks and mosquitoes, and it’s basically been hiding in plain sight since 1973. Or maybe it hasn’t been hiding, but I certainly didn’t know it could be this easy.

Continue reading to learn more about permethrin, written by Ryleigh Nucilli.