The Wirecutter Show Episode 42: Bug Repellents That Work

DOUG: So the symptoms of Lyme are very tricky. They’re just these sort of general flu-like symptoms, muscle stiffness. Personally, I feel it in the neck. I get a really stiff neck.

CAIRA: Can you get it more than once?

DOUG: Yeah, I’ve had about five… I’ve been treated about five times for it.

CHRISTINE: So basically there are no limits to how many times you can get it?

DOUG: Unfortunately, no.

CHRISTINE: I am Christine Cyr Clisset.

CAIRA: I’m Caira Blackwell.

ROSIE: I’m Rosie Guerin. And you’re listening to The Wirecutter Show.

CAIRA: This episode is called ”Bug Repellents That Work”

ROSIE: Hi pals.

CAIRA: Hey there.

CHRISTINE: Hey.

ROSIE: So I’m really excited for this episode. Today is all about how to repel ticks and mosquitoes.

CAIRA: Weird thing to be excited about Rosie.

ROSIE: I know, but it’s going to be practical.

CHRISTINE: That’s right.

CAIRA: We’re doing the good work here.

ROSIE: Mosquitoes are annoying. They keep us inside sometimes in the summertime. They can ruin an evening on the patio, but honestly they also transmit diseases like malaria, dengue fever, Zika. These are problems that exist in this country. And they’re getting more prevalent year after year. So while this is not terribly sexy stuff I think with our guest today, our friend Doug Mahoney at the helm, I’m going to learn and hopefully walk away with some practical advice from him.

CAIRA: Absolutely. This is actually Doug’s third time on the show. He’s a Wirecutter senior staff writer who previously schooled us on how to fireproof your home and how to get rid of mice and rats. So you can go back and listen to those episodes if you haven’t already. They’re really riveting.

CHRISTINE: That’s right. Doug is a wealth of information. He also happens to live on a hobby farm in the woods of New Hampshire. So testing insecticides and repellents is not just part of his job. He’s really living it day in and day out with his family. He actually has to really deal with these bugs all the time.

ROSIE: Method acting. It’s his lifestyle.

CHRISTINE: That’s right. He’s a true method actor.

CAIRA: But you don’t have to live on a hobby farm to know that everybody can be tormented by mosquitoes at one time or another. And many of us have had to check ourselves, our kids, or our pets for ticks. Spring is here and summer is on deck, which means this is the time we spend outside. And it’s going to need to include sunscreen and bug repellent.

ROSIE: So after the break, we’re going to get all the tea from Doug, the difference between a repellent and an insecticide, which repellents work, which ones frankly don’t, plus the one cheap product hack that works every time. Stay tuned. We’ll be right back.

CAIRA: Welcome back. Our guest today is Doug Mahoney. He’s a staff writer on the home improvement team who specializes in reporting on tools, plumbing, outdoor power equipment, and pest control, and we always love having him on the show.

CHRISTINE: Doug, welcome.

DOUG: Hi, how is everybody?

CHRISTINE: Great.

ROSIE: We’re great, Doug. We’re always happy to have you back. My first question and statement is that I hope Wirecutter pays you $600 million a year to test mosquito and tick repellents. Because that sounds like masochism or sadism. I think it’s sadism.

CAIRA: It’s sadism.

ROSIE: Yeah, is this testing ruining your life?

DOUG: It’s actually, it’s not. Thankfully, I’m not required to do any field testing. I’m not sticking my arm in a box of mosquitoes like they do at the EPA or anything like that.

CAIRA: Or like Fear Factor?

DOUG: No, nothing like that. It’s mostly research.

CHRISTINE: Let’s step back a sec and talk about how you can prevent mosquito and tick bites in the first place. So from your reporting, we know that how you treat mosquitoes and ticks is similar, but I kind of want to know what can you do in the first place to just prevent having mosquitoes and ticks in your yard, in your environment? Are there things you can do around the house basically?

DOUG: Yeah, definitely. So the first thing you want to do as far as mosquitoes go is you want to get rid of any standing water that’s around. The problem with standing water is that’s the breeding ground for mosquitoes. So if you have a tarp and it has sort of like a puddle-y area on it, you want to get rid of that. If you have a birdbath you could put these little products in it that actually change the pH of the water. You can also change out your outdoor light bulbs. They’re called bug bulbs. It’s a slightly different hue that doesn’t necessarily attract insects. As far as ticks go, keeping your lawn mowed fairly short can help. They prefer the tall grass over shorter grass.

CHRISTINE: So basically you’re trying to create a very uninviting environment around your home for bugs. Make the mood lighting terrible. No, nothing to drink. Please leave.

ROSIE: Only overhead lighting.

CHRISTINE: Yeah, right. Okay, great. So once you’ve kind of taken care of some of those things around the house, you’ve changed your lights, you’ve gotten rid of the standing water, you’re keeping your lawn nice and mowed. Let’s talk about the other options for dealing with these bugs. Repellents and insecticides. Repellents first, how do they work?

DOUG: So repellents, that’s like DEET and picaridin. They can be applied to your skin, they can be applied to your clothing. And the way that they work basically is that a mosquito, they see the world through this huge array of receptors. Somebody described it to me once as all of the microphones that would be in front of a politician from 20 years ago. They don’t have [them] anymore. And that a repellent will block a wide number of those receptors. And so it’ll basically confuse the insects so they won’t really understand that you’re a food source.

ROSIE: Okay. Doug, so you’re not field testing. That’s a relief, but how are you actually testing these products?

DOUG: In general we don’t test for efficacy with really any bug-related gear. We actually rely on all the studies that are out there. And there are a ton of them. As far as testing ourselves, there’s just too many variables. There’s all these different types of insects. I think there’s over 200 types of mosquitoes. Things depend as far as what season is it, where are they living. So performing any kind of comparative test would be very, very incomplete. Ultimately, it really wouldn’t tell us much. What we do test for is we always get our hands on the products and we test more for usability. So for mosquito repellents, we look for how well they spray, if they have an extra safety cap, what sizes they’re available in. That sort of thing.

ROSIE: I know a lot of folks who are concerned about spraying chemicals on their skin. Are essential oils an option? Is that a thing that will actually work or are you sort of just perfuming yourself?

DOUG: Yeah, essential oils, they actually do not work very well as repellents. There are essential oils that certainly have repellent characteristics, but getting back to those receptors we were talking about, they only block a limited amount of those receptors. There are other problems with them. They’re also extremely volatile. So as soon as you put them on your skin they could be gone within a half an hour or so or 40 minutes. They don’t provide very long-term protection. There’s also very minimal oversight from the EPA. So there’s no efficacy testing. Looking at different products you really have absolutely no idea what you’re getting. You have no idea how long it’s going to last. You have no idea how strong it is. So it’s just too much of a mystery. It’s just not a category that we have any comfort in at all. And we don’t recommend any of those products.

ROSIE: So essential oils don’t necessarily work. What are the repellents you’ve tried and tested that actually do work?

DOUG: The reliable repellents are the ones that have been approved by the EPA. The chemical repellents approved by the EPA. And there are really four as far as products you can get on a shelf. … There’s DEET, picaridin. There’s one called IR3535. And then there’s oil of lemon eucalyptus.

CHRISTINE: Okay. So let’s break those down, because I feel like I’m familiar with most of those names. But I’m not really clear on what the differences are. Let’s start with DEET. What is it and why do you recommend it?

DOUG: Well, DEET is a synthetic chemical repellent. It was developed in the 1940s. It is very effective against ticks. It’s very effective against mosquitoes. And it is used on a global scale. And it’s considered a safe repellent.

ROSIE: I remember as a kid, my mom was concerned about us using mosquito repellent with DEET. I always thought it was because of that Joni Mitchell lyric about putting away the DDT. And that someone at some point conflated DDT with DEET. Is that why DEET has a bad rep or what’s the deal?

DOUG: Well, there are a couple of things. One is that it is often confused with DDT. DDT was an insecticide developed around the same time, ended up being associated with a number of adverse effects. So it’s no longer used. It has the similar name. So I think it’s confused. And DEET is… These are considered safe, but there’s no guarantee that there won’t be some reactions at some point with some people. So that has been the case with DEET, I believe that most of those have involved the misuse of it. If used properly these should be safe products.

CAIRA: Repellents like DEET can come in different potencies. So how do you know which one to choose is DEET, I don’t know, 100% better than 25%?

DOUG: They do come into different percentages. And it’s the percentage of the active ingredient. But it does not equate with effectiveness. So 100% DEET is not twice as powerful as 50% DEET. The case with DEET is once you get to about 25% or 30%, the effectiveness levels off. But just the duration of protection gets longer. So 30% DEET gets you about seven hours where 100% DEET gets you about 10 hours of protection. But the 100% DEET is not more repellent than the 30% DEET. If you go with less than 25% DEET then you’re not getting the maximum amount of protection that DEET can afford.

CHRISTINE: So let’s say you are camping and you’re going to be out in the woods a lot. Maybe it would be worth wearing that 100%, because you might want a little bit longer coverage or something? Why would you ever go for 100% when you could just be fine with the 25%?

DOUG: Exactly. It just would relate to how long you’re planning on being out.

CAIRA: Well, I’m like, why wouldn’t I wear 100% all the time?

DOUG: As safe as these are, I think it’s a common sense thing to just stick with just as much as you need and that’s it.

CAIRA: Okay.

CHRISTINE: All right. So we’ve covered DEET. It is not DDT. It is fine. You’re going to be safe using it, but DEET is not our top pick. We actually prefer repellents that have picaridin. Talk about what that is. Where does it come from and why do you like it?

DOUG: Picaridin was developed in the 1980s by Bayer. And it’s based on a compound derived from the pepper plant. And it has about the similar repellency as DEET, but it doesn’t have a lot of DEET’s drawbacks. For one, most people find the smell to be a little more pleasant. It doesn’t have the oiliness of DEET. And it’s also, it’s not a plasticizer. So DEET, one major drawback of DEET is that it can actually melt certain plastics and synthetics. So if you have a camera lens, you don’t want to get DEET on it. Certain outdoor clothing you may not want to get DEET on it. Sunglasses, DEET can damage those. So picaridin does none of these.

CAIRA: If DEET melts plastic, why should we feel okay putting it on our skin?

DOUG: Like I said, DEET has a long track record of safety in studies with people. I mean, I think that question is certainly one of the reasons why we would choose picaridin over that.

CHRISTINE: Well, and picaridin 40 years newer. So it has 40 years less research on it, right?

DOUG: Correct.

ROSIE: So repellents with DEET, picaridin, the things that you have tested, how long are they meant to stay on your skin? How long are they meant to actively be working?

DOUG: Well, a 20% concentration of picaridin, which is what we recommend, that provides about I think about 10 hours of protection.

CAIRA: Oh wow.

ROSIE: Okay.

DOUG: For ticks and mosquitoes. And it also, it’s notable that it works for both ticks and mosquitoes. They’re very different sensory systems. So like essential oils, they may work pretty well for mosquitoes, but they may not work very well at all for ticks.

CAIRA: So Doug, another repellent that you already mentioned before is IR3535. And I’ve seen that combined in sunscreens sometimes in the past, but can you just talk us through that product and what is it?

DOUG: That’s definitely probably the most little known of the EPA approved repellents. And like you said, it typically is sold in sort of an all-in-one product with a sunscreen, which generally isn’t a great idea. Sunscreen and the repellents have different application rates. So you’re probably always going to be in a position where you’re either not protected by one chemical or you’re over-applying the other one.

CAIRA: Yeah, I have noticed in sunscreens you have to apply so much to get the right application of anything else that it’s combined with.

CHRISTINE: Also IR3535 does not roll off the tongue.

CAIRA: Doesn’t sound like something you want to put on your skin, I don’t know.

ROSIE: Is IR3535… Does it exist outside of the sunscreen combination?

DOUG: Yeah, I’ve seen one or two products.

ROSIE: It’s just not that common?

DOUG: It’s really not. DEET and picaridin are really the main movers. And then also oil of lemon eucalyptus.

ROSIE: Right. So that’s the last one that you mentioned, which I would’ve assumed was an essential oil. So explain just what oil of lemon eucalyptus is and why it works.

DOUG: Yeah, this one, it’s commonly confused with an essential oil. Because there’s oil of lemon eucalyptus and then there’s lemon eucalyptus oil. And they’re very different things. So oil of lemon eucalyptus, OLE it’s called, is not an essential oil. It’s actually an extract from the lemon eucalyptus tree. Oh, you can also find it under the name PMD, which is the synthesized version of it. So as similar as they are it is not an essential oil and it is not lemon eucalyptus oil.

ROSIE: Does it work similarly in terms of repellency where it’s also blocking receptors on mosquitoes?

DOUG: Yep, it has very good repellent capabilities. The repellency duration is typically less than that of DEET or picaridin. DEET and picaridin can do the full 8, 10, 12 hours, whereas oil lemon eucalyptus is typically a little less. Some people do like it. They feel it’s a more natural product. It has a very, very strong odor. It’s an unmistakable odor, which I know some people don’t like. Some people do like it, but it’s certainly a consideration when putting it on.

CHRISTINE: Are there common brands that use this that people might recognize?

DOUG: Yeah, Repel is probably the most well-known one.

CHRISTINE: Okay.

CAIRA: Does it work for both mosquitoes and ticks the same?

DOUG: It does, yeah.

CHRISTINE: I’m curious because you have oil of lemon eucalyptus. It is coming from a tree. You have picaridin comes from a pepper plant. So these are plant-based, right? I’m just curious what the difference is between those and an essential oil.

DOUG: These are based off of plant… Like picaridin is based off of a compound found in the pepper plant. So it’s not an essential oil. It’s not extracted the same way as an essential oil is extracted from a plant. DEET and picaridin, they are synthetic chemical repellents. Whereas oil of lemon eucalyptus is not. But oil of lemon eucalyptus also has a synthesized form, which is called PMD, which may also be in products.

CHRISTINE: And that’s opposed to something like an essential oil. Which is a chemical, but it’s a naturally derived chemical, right?

DOUG: Yes.

ROSIE: Okay. So there’s some good news in here. There are in fact ways to repel mosquitoes and ticks. We’re not doomed.

CHRISTINE: That’s right. There are four options that you recommend Doug. DEET, picaridin, IR3535 and oil of lemon eucalyptus.

CAIRA: Right. Not to be confused with eucalyptus oil.

CHRISTINE: That’s right.

CAIRA: So we’ll be right back after a quick break and then we’re going to talk with Doug about another successful way to keep mosquitoes and ticks at bay. Insecticides. Plus why you might want to stay away from bug zappers. Stick around.

CHRISTINE: Welcome back to the show. Our guest today is Doug Mahoney, Wirecutter staff writer and expert on home improvement and pest control. We’re talking about how to save yourself from the irritation and risks from mosquitoes and tick bites.

CAIRA: You said the repellent options that are most effective are DEET, picaridin, IR3535, and oil of lemon eucalyptus. And repellents are applied right to the skin and clothes. But is there specific guidance for how you should apply these and reapply these repellents?

DOUG: If you’re putting it on your skin you’re going for just a very thin even layer on your skin. There’s no need to overdo it. These are synthetic chemicals and I think it’s just a common sense thing just to have on as little as possible. So just the regular spritz on the arm and then just spread it around. If you’re extremely cautious about these products, you can just spray them right on your clothing. If your shirt is well treated and your hat is sprayed down with picaridin, that should protect your face. And as far as reapplying goes, there’s going to be guidance for that on the bottle. That depends on the concentration. If you have a product that lasts for eight hours there’s no need to reapply after hour three. You also take into account things like if you’re swimming or if you’re sweating a lot, you may need to apply more often.

CHRISTINE: I remember when my second daughter was an infant I went to Mexico. My family went to Mexico. And that was when the height of Zika was happening. And I was freaking out because we’re going to be in mosquito land with a two month old. And our pediatrician recommended using bug spray. And we used picaridin on her clothing. We never applied it to her skin, but that was the first time I had even been introduced to the idea of just spraying your clothes. But that works for adults too.

DOUG: Yep. That works for adults too. Picaridin also comes in a lotion form, which actually provides longer protection. The downside with it is that it takes a little bit to sort of gain its effectiveness. So you can’t just put it on and go right outside and be protected. It takes a little bit to become effective.

CHRISTINE: How long is a little bit?

DOUG: I think it’s about 20 minutes or so, not particularly long.

CAIRA: Do you recommend a specific picaridin lotion?

DOUG: Well, Sawyer has one. Sawyer is sort of a big name in the picaridin world. Their spray is our top-pick spray.

CHRISTINE:
Let’s transition now to insecticides. What should we know about this option for bug control?

DOUG: As far as sort of personal protection goes, the most useful insecticide is called permethrin. Especially if you live in tick country, it’s very, very effective against ticks. So the way that permethrin is used is that you spray it on your clothes and then let it dry, and then that piece of clothing is protected. The things to know about doing that is that if you have cats it’s extremely toxic when it’s wet to cats. So you never want to spray it when there’s a cat around. Once it’s dried, it’s fine. You definitely want to concentrate on protecting your shoes and your pants if possible. One study showed that by just treating your socks and your shoes, you’re 74% less likely to get a tick bite.

CAIRA: Oh, wow.

DOUG: And the protection is long-lasting too. If you apply it yourself, it’s good for about six washes or so, or about six weeks. So personally what I do is I’ll line up everyone’s shoes twice each summer and soak them down. I might also treat specific pants that I wear outside, or if somebody in the family has a particular pair of shorts that they like to wear outside, I’ll treat that. You can also have clothing professionally treated. And that actually lasts a considerable amount longer. Usually about 70 washes. Some people say the lifetime of the article of clothing. Or you can just straight up purchase prefabricated clothes. There’s companies that offer that. I know L.L.Bean has a lot of options.

CAIRA: So when you’re treating the clothes yourself, are you wearing gloves and just dunking them in permethrin outside? How do you do that?

DOUG: Yeah, permethrin comes in a spray bottle. It’s a fairly low concentration of permethrin in the bottle. And you take common sense precautions. You don’t do it in a windy day when the wind is blowing back at you. You definitely wear gloves. And you just spray it down as if you were soaking anything from a spray bottle.

CAIRA: I’m still not really clear on what the difference is between insecticides and repellent.

DOUG: Well, repellents just sort of confuse the insect. They just say, “Look, go away. Find something else to do.” But an insecticide can actually kill the insect. So if you have pants that are treated with permethrin and a tick gets on it, there’s a possibility that the tick is going to be killed.

CHRISTINE: So what we’re trying to do at the end of the day is get mosquitoes and ticks to leave us alone. The repellents we discussed will do that. The insecticide permethrin will do that. But there are other successful ways to get these bugs to leave us alone. What’s another one that you would recommend?

DOUG: If you spend a lot of time outside on your back porch and mosquitoes are a problem, you can look into spatial repellents. There’s really one company that works in this category called Thermacell. And they make little products. They look like little essential oil diffusers. And what it does is it heats up this little bit of repellent, which then sort of vaporizes into the air and theoretically protects this sort of 20-by-20 area around you. It may sound horrifying to enjoy your outside time in a cloud of insecticide, but that’s really not the case at all. It’s such an extremely low dose of this product that’s being put into the air. Mosquitoes, as far as bugs go, are fairly weak. They’re fairly flimsy. And so the amount that the Thermacell dispenses is tailored just to mosquitoes. So it is really not going to work against other bugs. The mosquitoes are going to run into this sort of cloud and then they’re going to turn around.

CHRISTINE: And this category is called a spatial repellent, right?

DOUG: Yeah.

CHRISTINE: So I also got a Thermacell, I think I told you this. I got a Thermacell. I live in a swamp, which is otherwise called Brooklyn. So we tried out the Thermacell a couple summers ago and it did not work at all for us. But I think it might’ve been because it was a little breezy or something. Like what kind of environment is optimal for using these spatial repellents?

DOUG: So a similar product are those little mosquito coils, those little green coils. So if you think about it as smoke or a little vapor, it’s pretty easy to see that a little breeze is going to blow it away. So it could be because it’s windy. It could be possibly that just the mosquito biting pressure was too high. One thing that I’ve learned from all of my insect coverage is that there is no silver bullet with any of these insect products.

ROSIE: What are the green coils you mentioned? I don’t know what those are.

DOUG: It’s a disc that’s about the size of a bread and butter plate that’s in a coil and you light one end of it and it burns down the coil slowly. So they last a number of hours and it’s also the same. It is a spatial repellent. So it just sort of creates the smoke, which has a chemical in it which disperses into the air and theoretically creates a little zone of protection against mosquitoes.

ROSIE: Sounds like incense.

DOUG: It is like incense, yeah.

CHRISTINE: Yeah, it’s outdoor incense. Is it okay to breathe these things in?

DOUG: Well, I wouldn’t recommend putting your mouth right up to it and sucking it in. But in general, in the amount that the chemical is being dispersed you’re not going to have any adverse effects sitting five feet away from the thing.

ROSIE: Do citronella candles work in the same way?

DOUG: No, they unfortunately don’t. Citronella is an essential oil. So any repellency you’re getting from a citronella candle is probably coming from the smoke and not so much the citronella. So no, not really.

ROSIE: So repellents, insecticides, the Thermacell and perhaps the coils are all worth a try. What other hacks do you have?

DOUG: Well, before you get to any of that stuff you could even just get a simple fan. If you’re just enjoying a back porch or a patio, mosquitoes are very weak flyers compared to most bugs. So if you just set up a fan, get a nice breeze going, they will have a lot of trouble getting to you.

CAIRA: What’s the best way to employ a fan when you’re trying to repel mosquitoes outside?

DOUG: Yeah, my recommendation, it would be to keep it low. Mosquitoes tend to fly low, sort of below knee level.

CAIRA: Oh, so you just pop it up underneath your table while you’re eating and you’re probably good to go.

DOUG: Exactly.

CAIRA: Cool.

ROSIE: Are there other fallacies folks should avoid when thinking about repelling mosquitoes and ticks this spring and summer?

DOUG: There are certain products you don’t want to use. You want to avoid anything that’s going to affect a non-target insect. So you’re really after mosquitoes. You’re after biting flies. And you want to be careful with pollinators. So there’s products like foggers, these sort of handheld foggers that you just sort of blast insecticide around your yard. We don’t recommend those. There are bug zappers, which we certainly don’t recommend. The research on bug zappers is really negative. The bug zappers do not attract biting flies really at all. And they do attract pollinators. And there are things like light traps. They almost look like a nightlight. Those aren’t going to really do much outside. They may be a good option inside if for some reason you have a little fly infestation in your house for some reason, you could certainly set one of those up.

CAIRA: So Doug, I’ve been bitten by ticks multiple times before in my life. And I am sure that they were never extracted in the right way. Can you walk me through what you should do if you get a tick bite? Because I know my go-to was lighting a match, blowing it out and pressing it straight to my skin.

DOUG: Yeah, that’s not really what you should be doing. So to take off a tick, there’s a lot of little products out there, little sort of gizmos. And they might work. I’ve actually tried some of them. And I find that they actually don’t work that great. I found that a pair of sharp tweezers is the most effective way to go about it. You want to be really careful. You don’t want to squeeze the body and you don’t want to pull on the body, because if you pull on the body you can pull it out and the head stays.

CAIRA: Yeah, that’s what happened to me. It’s still in my neck.

DOUG: You can’t get rid of the head once it’s in there. It’s like battlefield surgery at that point. And so what I do is I actually maneuver the tweezers kind of under the body and then just sort of grab the head and then you can fairly easily pop it off that way. I’m also pretty good at removing them just with my hands. I seem to be pulling them off the cats all the time. But you’ve got to be really, really vigilant because the ones that carry Lyme, those are the little teeny tiny ones. They can be the size of poppy seeds.

CHRISTINE: And those are deer ticks, right? Those little tiny guys, because I’ve had bigger ones hop on to my kids and to myself. What are those kind?

DOUG: Those are dog ticks.

CHRISTINE: Those are dog ticks. Dog ticks and deer ticks.

DOUG: Yep.

CHRISTINE: Okay. And the dog ticks are the big ones. The deer ticks are the little ones.

DOUG: Yes.

CHRISTINE: Okay.

DOUG: Yep.

CAIRA: So what if you find a tick on you and you don’t know how long it’s been?

DOUG: Well, there’s a couple of things to do. So once they attach, they’re likely to be there for a couple of days. What I recommend is just getting in the habit of checking. We check our kids almost on a daily basis. So then if you find something you know how long it’s been there, roughly how long it’s been there.

CHRISTINE: All right. So if you have been bitten by a tick, Doug — you have a lot of experience with this — what does Lyme present as on your body? How do you know if you might potentially have Lyme?

DOUG: So Lyme can be really tricky. The one fail-safe way to detect it is if you get the bullseye rash, which is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a giant rash that looks like a bullseye centered right on the bite. Unfortunately not everyone gets that, or you may miss it. It could be some place that you’re not… In the back of your leg or something like that and you happen to miss it. So the symptoms of Lyme are very tricky. They’re just these sort of general flu-like symptoms, muscle stiffness. Unfortunately they’re symptoms that can be mistaken for any number of other ailments. Personally, I feel it in the neck. I get a really stiff neck. It seems to be something that presents differently in different people.

CAIRA: Can you get it more than once?

DOUG: Yeah, I’ve had about five… I’ve been treated about five times for it.

CHRISTINE: So basically there are no limits to how many times you can get it?

DOUG: Unfortunately, no. And once you actually test positive once, I believe you’ll always test positive. So it can be difficult to diagnose once you’ve had it once.

CHRISTINE: I had a family member who had Lyme and it presented as mono-type symptoms. They were really, really tired, exhausted. So it can really be any number of things.

DOUG: Mm-hmm.

CHRISTINE: If you are bitten by a tick, you’re not sure what kind of tick it is, what should you do? I’ve thought about, “Should I keep it in a little bag and take it to get tested?” Or what should you do? If you are bit by a tick and you want to find out if you have Lyme?

DOUG: If you want to find out if the tick has Lyme, I would just put it in a bag. Stick in the freezer and there are places you can send it to. Or you maybe even actually to just identify the tick and you can search online or a local extension office might be able to help you.

CAIRA: Okay, so we’re going to switch up our final question for you, Doug. What are three Wirecutter picks that you would take with you if you were cast off to a desert island?

DOUG: Oh man, this is tough. I mean, if I was going for comfort, I would take the Finum, like the little tea brewing basket.

Caira: Okay.

DOUG: I’d take the raincoat.

ROSIE: That’s smart.

DOUG: I would take a kitchen knife.

CHRISTINE: That’s what I would say too, yeah.

CHRISTINE: I would take one of the Victorinox little serrated knives.

DOUG: Oh, of course. I’m the one who covers those.

CHRISTINE: Yeah, come on, man.

DOUG: I would take a multitool. I would take

CHRISTINE: Yeah, a multitool. There we go.

ROSIE: He’s like, “I’m going to take tea and a raincoat.”

DOUG: I would only take one thing and it would be a Leatherman. That’s what I would do.

ROSIE: Doug Mahoney, one of my top 20 favorite New Englanders. You’re the best. Thank you so much for joining us and hopefully saving us some strife this spring and summer. Appreciate it.

DOUG: Sure. Great to be here.

CHRISTINE: Wow, Doug. He is so fun. Even though the topics he brings us are not that fun.

CAIRA: I know, but he makes them fun.

ROSIE: He does his best.

CHRISTINE: I do have a question before we get into our takeaways. The next time you’re at a party and a friend puts out an essential oil bug spray, how are you going to navigate that situation?

CAIRA: I’d slap it off the table. I’m going to tell them that they need to read more.

ROSIE: I’m going to shame them.

CHRISTINE: Do you just say nothing and bring out your own bug spray?

ROSIE: No. I’m going to say stand up on that chair.

CAIRA:
How could you not know this?

CHRISTINE: It’s within certain circles a delicate situation. But in all earnestness, I think my takeaway from this is that I’m going to give spatial repellents another shot. I have this Thermacell. Listening to Doug, it made me realize maybe I was not running the Thermacell long enough before I went outside. Maybe I need to try to create a plume and then go into the plume and see how that works.

ROSIE: Also, maybe stay as close to the plume as possible without huffing it.

CHRISTINE: Yes, just try to be in the middle of the… Yeah, that’s right. I’m not going to breathe it in. I’m not going to try to breathe it in. Right, right, right.

CAIRA: I think my takeaway, I never ever bother trying to wear bug spray in New York City. So I think this summer I’m going to try picaridin. Just spraying a little bit on me before I walk out the door and see how that goes.

ROSIE: Certainly can’t hurt. I’m going real, real, real low budget. And I’m going to get just a kind of cheapie fan, but as high-powered as possible. And hopefully have that just moving the air around to keep the mosquitoes from landing on me and us and hope that that provides some relief.

CAIRA: Yeah, love it.

CHRISTINE: That’s a good, simple solution. I like that.

ROSIE: If you want to find out more about Wirecutter’s coverage or if you want to check out any of the products or tips Doug recommended today, go to our website or as ever, you can find a link in the show notes. That’s it. Caira, Christine, until next time.

CHRISTINE: See you.

CAIRA: Bye.

CHRISTINE: Peace.

CAIRA: The Wirecutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keele. Engineer support from Maddie Mazziello and Nick Pitt. Today’s episode was mixed by Katherine Anderson. Original music by Dan Powell, Marian Lozano, Alicia Boitiepe and Diane Wong. Wirecutter’s deputy publisher is Cliff Meadley. Ben Fruman is Wirecutter’s Editor-in-Chief. I’m Caira Blackwell.

CHRISTINE: I’m Christine Cyr Clisset.

ROSIE: And I’m Rosie Guerin. Thanks for listening.

CHRISTINE: Repellents and insecticide… Insecticides.

The Wirecutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel.
Editing by Abigail Keel.
Engineering support from Maddy Masiello and Nick Pitman.
Episodes are mixed by Catherine Anderson.
Original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Elisheba Ittoop, and Diane Wong.
Wirecutter’s deputy publisher and general manager is Cliff Levy.
Ben Frumin is Wirecutter’s editor-in-chief.
Hosted by Caira Blackwell and Christine Cyr Clisset.