this is in response to the posting about SE saying: > I use repellent on the horses; it needs to be something with piperonyl botoxide in it; that's the stuff that makes the Flygone effective against the no-see-ums, I think. I use Repel-Xp... > And I use... Skins-so soft...
Not to "beat a dead horse", but I am now getting around to reading posts from the past weekend and want to clear up a couple of mis-issues about SE treatments. (1) The "magic" ingredient in FlyGone7000 that makes it effective against culicoides is its citronella; its piperonyl butoxide evidently stabilizes the citronella, making it last longer (over 12 hours, versus only a couple of hours for pure citronella oil). But without citronella, the piperonyl butoxide (and pyrethrin) do virtually nothing to deter culicoides, and hence SE. (2) Avon Skin-So-Soft has evidently used different formulations over the years. I have been told that some former ones included citronella, and maybe those were effective against culicoides. However, the Skin-So-Soft I tested not only didn't repel culicoides, it actually attracted them! I did a considerably study of SE treatments [< articles from Eidfaxi available at http://www.maineicelandics.org/html/se.html >] when my first imported Icey came down with a monster case of SE, already less than half way through his first US summer. [And that was despite rigorous spaying with Repel-X, which I had thought would help protect him, but later found it does nothing to diminish culicoides.] Everything that has been written here about decreasing SE by having environs that are inhospitable to culicoides (dry, breezy, etc.) is 100% right. But in the moist, generally non-breezy mid-Atlantic, an effective bug-spray also seems key. For those who are interested, FlyGone7000's ingredients are "0.10% pyrethrin, 1% piperonyl butoxide, 15% butoxypolypropyl glycol, citronella scented". [They don't say how much citronella.] Repel-X has pyrethrin, piperonyl butoxide, and a sticking agent, but no citronella -- and as noted in that study, it does nothing against culicoides. My SE guy stay SE-free, as long as he is sprayed with FlyGone both AM and PM. [And no, I get no subsidy from FlyGone or Jeffers or ValleyVet.] Also, let me note that for horses who already have active SE (which causes a maddening level of itching, so they scratch themselves until the affected area is entirely bloody), the best thing I found to deter the itching and speed healing is the Icelandic lotion formerly called SDS or SD lotion, and now re-named SE lotion. yours, Barbara Barbara Sollner-Webb Professor of Biological Chemistry Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
