I keep all of my day use gear in a small day pack. I leave it in the garage during the season and (usually) bring it in when the paddle season is over. Last fall I forgot. I went to get something out of it last week and found that the pump spray bottle of deep woods off leaked in the pack over the winter. Probably froze. It made quite a sticky mess of things, dissolving the surface markings off of the plastic base of my Silva compass and soaking a number of other items, as well as the pack. I was able to scrub out the pack after hitting it a couple of times with spray-n-wash, then scrubbing with a brush and detergent. I had two knives in leather sheaths - a Buck 110 and another large pocket knife. The pocket knife sheath was natural leather, oiled with a clear polish over it. I was able to remove the repellent from that one by scrubbing a couple of times with detergent followed by saddle soap. The only outcome was that it significantly darkened the leather which I can live with. Treated it with Red Wing shoe oil. At least it's not sticky any more. The Buck sheath is a different story. It was a stock black leather buck sheath. I tried the same routine on that to no avail. All it did after numerous scrubbing was to remove some of the black color. I tried mineral spirits and lighter fluid (ronsonol type) and the stickiness remained. As a last resort I tried a little lacquer thinner, again to no avail. All of those resulted in lifting a bit more of the black color but it still feels sticky.

Any advice on any other treatments?

Ya the Deet will ruin stuff pretty easily. Nothing else you can really do other than burn the stuff or throw it out. I had a bottle leak two years ago and ruined a stuff sack, a headlamp and several other items. Had to throw all of the stuff out as it was ruined.

quote OldFingers57: "Ya the Deet will ruin stuff pretty easily. Nothing else you can really do other than burn the stuff or throw it out. I had a bottle leak two years ago and ruined a stuff sack, a headlamp and several other items. Had to throw all of the stuff out as it was ruined. "

Unfortunately, this has been my experience with DEET on my gear too.

The stickiness never went away and I ended up throwing a lot of plastic stuff away. Straps, bags, buckles and material were all shot.

Double check the pack before using it again. After cleaning mine up, it was weakened to the point where I was able to push my fingers through the material.

You might try "Dawn Dish Soap" - that is what they us to clean oil off of animals for an oil spill. - or, have a sticky knife.

quote Grandma L: "You might try "Dawn Dish Soap" - that is what they us to clean oil off of animals for an oil spill. - or, have a sticky knife. "

Oil doesn't dissolve the plastic though like Deet does. Oil just sits on top of the material. Whereas Deet breaks the plastic down and it never seems to be able to go back to normal again.

Actually, dawn dish soap is what I used. The pack cleaned up well and seems to be ok. Some of the plastic coating on the inside is gone. I was able to clean off the compass and it's ok. The deet dissolved some of the map scale on one side but it is still usable. The compass dial itself was not involved. The natural leather sheath came out fine other than the darkened color. As a last resort I’m letting the buck sheath sit in a bowl of garage floor oil absorbent for a couple of days. If that doesn't work it'll get tossed. The deet was pretty well contained in the outside pocket. It did soak into the pack material pretty well but the stuff in the adjacent pouches was untouched.

Thanks for the comments.

You must have not had too strong of a % of Deet in the insect repellent. Mine no matter what I used stayed tacky and so I had to throw the stuff out. Mine was a liquid insect repellent.

Success. Letting the sheath sit in the garage floor oil absorbent for a couple of days took out the remaining stickiness. I had filled the inside of the sheath with the stuff also. Cleaned it off and blew out the inside. A little shoe polish and oil and it's all good.

BTW: The deep woods off bottle says 98.5% deet. Pump spray bottle.

quote jhb8426: "Success. Letting the sheath sit in the garage floor oil absorbent for a couple of days took out the remaining stickiness. I had filled the inside of the sheath with the stuff also. Cleaned it off and blew out the inside. A little show polish and oil and it's all good.


BTW: The deep woods off bottle says 98.5% deet. Pump spray bottle."

Wow! I'm impressed. Well I guess I threw out a perfectly good dry bag, and some other equipment that could have been salvaged. Good to know for in the future. Although now I triple bag any insect repellent just in case of a leak.