PMedMoe said:
This is also an important concept. The permethrin also protects you from crawling arthropods such as ticks, chigger mites, fleas and lice as well as the mosquitoes and biting flies as mentioned. All of these things carry a number of diseases you just do not want to deal with.
As an aside, there is one way to screw up the permethrin Individual Dynamic Absorption (IDA) Kit (pouch system). One of the concepts is that the permethrin will bind to the uniform back of the fabric blend allows it to bind. We know it does bind very well to the combat tunic and pants. It does not bind well to the issued underwear, parts of the combat wide-brimmed hat, and various issued and non-issued combat t-shirts. As such there would be a risk if someone (who obviously was not supervised by a PMed Tech) tried to treat these items as the petroleum solvent would evaporate and the permetherin may not be totally fixed to cloth item because of the fabric absorption qualities of the item. As such, you then put on your combat undies and absorb the permetherin into your balls. This is bad.
The moral. The permethrin pouch system works, the risk is when applying it to the combat uniform, it is safe if used correctly, it saves lives and grief from vector-borne illnesses, and only treat your combat shirt (tunic) and pants as authorized. Use this product under the supervision of a PMed Tech who can answer all of your questions or concerns and you are good to go.
Oh, and use this product as part of an overall personal vector-borne exposure reduction strategy such as DEET, sleeves down, aerosol permethrin arthropod repellent, bug nets, tick checks, etc, etc. It is only part (yet a big part) of the overall solution to the biting bug problem.
MC