There’s new evidence to support a decades-old strategy for preventing the tick bites that lead to all sorts of nasty diseases, including Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
The remedy involves spraying your clothing with permethrin — a pesticide that’s chemically similar to extracts of the flowering chrysanthemum plant.
Back in the 1980s, the U.S. military conducted several tests on a synthetic version of the plant-derived pesticide. When it was shown to be effective in preventing the bites of insects and ticks, the military began to purchase uniforms for soldiers that are factory-treated with permethrin.
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