"Don Foreman" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 24 May 2010 17:43:48 -0700, "Michael Koblic"
wrote:


"Bob Engelhardt" wrote in message
...
I have a couple of 1 oz bottles of 100% DEET, which I'm not going to
use.
But I thought I could just dilute it to 30% and have 6 or so oz to use
in
a spray bottle.

I looked up the MSDS for the 30% variety & found the solvent to be
ethanol. I went on & looked up the MSDS for ethanol & found that it is
a
skin irritant! WTF - a solvent for repellent that is a skin irritant!?
Well, that's crazy, but it's never bothered me, so what the hell.

Now, as far as the ethanol to use: is it even available? I'm assuming
that denatured is out because of the methanol in it. How about
isopropyl?
Is it such a different animal that it wouldn't work?


Why do you want to dilute it? The trials I have seen showed that nothing
is
as effective as the 100% variety. In fact I like to bring it from the
States
as it is not available he There were some problems when it got rubbed
on
babies and such.

Trials I've seen indicate that there's no difference in effectiveness
between about 25% and 100%. The higher percentage repellents remain
effective longer before re-application is necessary.

Precisely.