Perimeter Insect Guard FR Clothing FAQs

Permethrin is effective against many species of crawling and flying insects, including mosquitoes, ticks, ants, midges, chiggers, and flies in both adult and larvae stages.

Perimeter Insect Guard™ damages the nervous systems of insects that come in contact with it—causing the insect to drop off and/or die. This man-made insecticide is similar to a naturally-occurring insect-repelling chemical derived from dried Chrysanthemum flowers.

Perimeter Insect Guard™ is a non-flammable insect repellent —meaning it is safe to use with FR clothing because it won’t ignite and continue to burn in the event of an arc flash or flash fire. Perimeter Insect Guard™ keeps insects from bothering workers in the field, preventing insect-borne diseases like West Nile virus, Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain Fever, and others. In addition to preventing diseases, guarding workers against the annoyance and discomfort caused by biting insects allows workers to focus on the task at hand. This is especially important when the risk of arc flash or flash fire is present in the work environment.

Wearing FR clothing pre-treated with Perimeter Insect Guard™ eliminates the hassle of treating clothing with liquid Perimeter Insect Guard™ in the field, and eliminates the risk of employees using flammable insect repellents containing DEET with their FR clothing.

The factory Perimeter Insect Guard™ treatment results in insect protection that is colorless, odorless, and invisible.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires garments with factory Perimeter Insect Guard™ treatment to be tagged with a sewn-in label.

The Perimeter Insect Guard™ treatment is durable through a minimum of 50 launderings. After 50 launderings the treatment may continue to repel insects but with reduced efficacy.

Where allowable by the FR garment’s care label, treated FR garments can be put in the dryer and ironed without impacting the durability of the Perimeter Insect Guard™ treatment.

FR garments treated with Perimeter Insect Guard™ should not be dry cleaned, as dry cleaning can degrade the Perimeter Insect Guard™ treatment. As with untreated FR garments Perimeter Insect Guard™FR garments should not be laundered with bleach, bleach alternatives, fabric softener, or starch.

The EPA recommends that garments treated with Perimeter Insect Guard™ be washed separately from untreated clothing.

Note that pre-treated garments will not shrink during laundering, as any potential garment shrinkage occurs during the treatment process. Pre-treated garments are delivered to the end user preshrunk.

While Perimeter Insect Guard™ in liquid form should be handled in careful accordance with the label, there are no known health risks associated with the use of clothing factory-treated with Perimeter Insect Guard™. The amount of Perimeter Insect Guard™ factory-applied to clothing is low, and EPA studies have shown that human exposure from wearing factory-treated clothing is also low.

The EPA has conducted testing on factory-treated clothing including short-term and long-term health and cancer risks to adults, youth, and toddlers resulting in risk estimates “below [the EPA’s] level of concern.”

Safety testing of Perimeter Insect Guard™ has been ongoing since the 1970s. The US Army has used Perimeter Insect Guard™ uniforms for more than 20 years with a safe track record and the US Marine Corps has issued uniforms factory-treated with Perimeter Insect Guard™ as standard issue across the board since 2007.

The EPA, National Academy of Sciences, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), and American College of Family Physicians all advocate the use of Perimeter Insect Guard™-treated clothing as a method of preventing insect-transmitted diseases.

Based on EPA review of scientific studies, there is no evidence of reproductive or developmental effects to mother or child following exposure to permethrin.

Research shows that clothing factory-treated with Perimeter Insect Guard™ is unlikely to cause skin irritation. In fact, workers generally experience a lower chance of skin irritation with factory treatment of Perimeter Insect Guard™ than in manual application of liquid Perimeter Insect Guard™ in the field.

Perimeter Insect Guard™ pre-treatment technology is brought to Tyndale by Frontline Fabrics (FLF), makers of Tyndale’s exclusive FRMC® inherent FR fabrics. FLF applies the treatment to finished garments following the cut and sew process.

Note that pre-treated garments will not shrink during laundering, as any potential garment shrinkage occurs during the treatment process.

FLF Perimeter Insect Guard™ pre-treatment is offered on the following Tyndale-manufactured inherent FR garments made with FRMC® fabrics:

All above items are made by Tyndale with inherent FR fabric Made in the USA by FLF.

FLF Perimeter Insect Guard™ pre-treatment is also available on any Tyndale garment made with FRMC® fabric, with a minimum order of 100 pieces.

Perimeter Insect Guard™ garments, which protect against insects for 50+ launderings, is available at an additional $20 per garment above the untreated garment price.