Be Careful With This

[Ron61]

Be careful if using any of these things around your new car.

https://www.yahoo.com/autos/how-some...334848277.html

Ron

[Snake2998]

Thanks for pointing this out - might save someone lots of money

[Snake2998]

Thanks for pointing this out - might save someone lots of money

[DanEC]

Thanks - I wouldn't have guessed that would happen. Looks like about the only safe place to apply that stuff is out in the middle of the back yard - at least safe for everything but maybe yourself(?)

[mdross1]

Thank you a very good fact to know. Deet has been around for a lot of years here is new fodder for the lawsuit crowd.

[keezling]

Me thinks there is a Chuck Norris joke lurking here somewhere. Sneezed on car?

[DAVID GAGNARD]

During the fall a buddy had been working outside his house and had used a bug spray with deet and not realizing he still had a lot on his hands he got in his Nissan truck to run some errands, by the next morning 50% of the factory steering wheel wrap was dissolved!!!!!!!!!!

that stuff is powerful.........

David

[Ron61]

David,

that is interesting. I haven't seen any cars or people that were directly affected by this but it sounds like something to try to avoid. Thanks for posting that.

Ron

[Mark IV]

One of our Superformance customers found this out the hard way......he had to have his MK III repainted. When it happened he called after doing some net research and found out it was the bug spray and that this is not an uncommon occurrence. I for one had never heard about it before he had it happen.

[mtrain2000]

Thanks for posting this. Probably saved me some trouble down the road.

[xb-60]

Several years ago I conducted some environmental testing on polyurethane sheathed cables.
One of the 'contaminants' I used was a readily available spray on insect repellent containing 40% DEET, labelled as "HEAVY DUTY".
This is what gradually happened (after one application) over a period of four weeks:



Good reason to check the labels, yes?

Cheers,
Glen

[Jaydee]

I think deet was banned in Australia a long time ago. Nasty stuff. In areas where crop dusters were using it, a lot of people got sick.
JD

[xb-60]

I don't know whether it was banned or not, but Bushman currently lists Coles, Woolworths, IGA, National Pharmacies, AMCAL and a whole lot more as stockists of its insect repellants.
The Bushman variant I tested had 40% DEET content, but their Bushman Repellent Ultra, Bushman Heavy Duty and Bushman Plus all have 800g/kg Diethytoluamide, or 80% DEET
Their published MSDS only reports on how effective their product is; it provides no information on the properties of any hazardous chemicals and how they can affect health and safety (which is what an MSDS should be doing).

As I said, check the label.

Cheers,
Glen

[gunkk]

DEET (di-ethyl meta toluamide) is a highly polar, small molecule solvent/oil, and an incredibly effective plasticizer. translation: it soaks into plastic things really well and then turns them to mush. keep it away from anything plastic/varnish/paint that you care about.