this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2025
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A reminder that DEET insect repellant will destroy your Lycra/technical apparel. (lemmy.ca)
submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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If you ride in during the summer (who doesn't???), there may be times when you're putting bug repellent spray on.

DEET-based products harm synthetic fabric, so opt for a DEET-free bug spray if you don't want any surprises.

I've used picaridin-based products, and they seem to work as good, if not better, than DEET.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

MAYBE. That sounds like a possibility.

Edit: looked it up https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEET and looks like it's a solvent and not great for fabrics. It's also been heavily studied and while LOTS of it gets into your body, when used with the government limitations and not for long periods of time, is said to be fine.

It isn't great for the environment, but isn't actually terrible, as it isn't a forever chemical, as it does break down, it just takes a long time to do so.

Wikipedia (on environmental impact):

Though DEET is not expected to bioaccumulate, it has been found to have a slight toxicity for fresh-water fish such as rainbow trout[34] and tilapia,[35] and it also has been shown to be toxic for some species of freshwater zooplankton.[36] DEET has been detected at low concentrations in water bodies as a result of production and use, such as in the Mississippi River and its tributaries, where a 1991 study detected levels varying from 5 to 201 ng/L.[37]

A 1975 study analyzed the effects of DEET on communities of freshwater organisms native to Chinese waterways and found that DEET was moderately toxic to aquatic organisms compared to other commercial insect repellants. The most-at-risk organisms were algae colonies which often experienced "significant biomass decline and community composition shift[s]" when exposed to DEET at 500 ng/L.[38]

DEET is biodegraded by fungi into products less toxic to zooplankton.[36] It degrades well under aerobic conditions, but poorly and slowly under anaerobic conditions.[39]

Also, in 2002 Canada banned concentrations higher than 30% for adults and higher than 10% for kids.

But yeah, I think I was conflating DEET and DDT.