Why can’t there be an “Advantix” for humans?
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I would think that maybe because this stuff is bad for us. It is poison.
Imidacloprid:
http://ace.ace.orst.edu/info/extoxnet/pips/imidaclo.htm
Permethrin is already used for bug juice for humans:
http://www.permethrin-repellent.com/
but is poison and “binds to the receptors of the male sex hormone”:
http://www.safe2use.com/poisons-pesticides/pesticides/permethrin/cox-report/cox.htm
I think the question is, how can we give this to dogs when it is poison for us?
Lance
Sorry for writing so big…I don’t know what happened.
Doesn’t look big to me.
Good questions; WAG: Rover’s already had worse things happen wrt sex hormones. :eek:
The imidacloprid doesn’t kill the dog because it isn’t ingested internally- it’s a topical treatment.
It’s also much less toxic to animals than insects, especially in the quantities we’re talking (which are relatively very small to a dog but large to an insect like a flea)
Frontline (with Fipronil), a similar anti-flea topical product, has been used (off-label of course) on human children with head lice to reported good effect.
Thanks for the info!
I think we are looking at different things. A mosquito which comes and bites you is not a “parasite”. This is meant to prevent parasites like fleas which would live on the dog for a long time, not just come in, bite and leave.
Astro, do you have fleas and ticks? 
well, the product claims also to repel flies and mosquitos…
Not since Harts come out with that new E-Z Comfort collar. One around the neck and one around each ankle and I’m flea free!
Actually, this begs a different question. Assume that we have different body chemistry from dogs. (We do, of course. Witness what happens to them when they eat lots of chocolate. And they are susceptible to bacteria that we are not, and vice versa). Perhaps we already do ingest things that protect us from certain insects and predators that do bite and prey on dogs. Does anyone know if this is the case?
Our body chemistry is not that dissimilar AFAIK. The lack of one liver enzyme (which is why chocolate is toxic to dogs and paracetamol to cats and some humans), or the lack of an appropriate environment for some bacteria are not the likely reasons why dog parasites don’t always live on people.
All parasites are adapted to their hosts to some degree (it allows them to be more efficient/safe). This is the reason why we don’t often get dog parasites to the degree dogs do.
We are, however, susceptible to dog parasites, and the results of infestation with dog parasites are different diseases to the ones dogs would get much of the time (for example, worms that migrate through the skin or the eye rather than living happily in the gut and lungs and causing relatively little trouble). Fleas and lice, for instance, have special “combs” to help them stay in the fur. Human hair and dog hair are not the same follicle diameter (this is also the reason that pubic lice and head lice are not interchangeable), therefore fleas would rather stay on the relatively safer environment of a dog than on a person, although they will resort to people.
IMHO, the reason that humans don’t get dog parasites so often is that
- the parasites would often prefer to live in or on a dog
and - humans have better hygiene than many dogs, and don’t expose themselves to dog parasites.
A few years ago, after a lifetime of being the first one bitten by mosquitos every time, I suddenly stopped getting bitten. I remarked on this to some friends, having no idea why the sudden and amazing change.
One of my friends said, “What are you taking, Citronella?”
Unbeknownst to her, I had started taking a medicine called “Polycitra”, which is a syrup of citric acid and two citrate salts. I didn’t connect the medicine with the change until her remark, but now I have noticed that if I go off the medicine the bugs start biting again.
Polycitra is arguably more a dietary supplement than a drug, depending on how you define these. Its purpose is to provide more citrate ions on the theory that kidney stone formation is often thwarted when there is an excess of citrate ions - and in my case it appears to help.
This is just a speculation, outside of any consideration for health: I just assume we can’t use Advantix, or Frontline, or Bio Spot, or any of those types of oily topical treatments because we simply don’t have enough hair. Since, the chemicals in the treatment are stored in the oil glands of the dog or cat and then gets “pulled” out to the surface by the hair follicle. I know that some of us do have plenty of body hair, but I don’t think I’ve seen a person who’s body hair density compares to that of a dog or cat. It’s a good question and I’ll prolly ask my vet and pharmacist next time I see them.
astro, in perhaps an overabundance of caution, I’ve truncated your excerpt and added a link to the page it comes from.