DETROIT LAKES, Minn. — For years, obnoxious party-crashers seemed to ruin summertime gatherings for Barb Owen-Boerger.

There were the trips to the beach in International Falls, Minn., with black flies. Or the lakeside yoga classes she taught on summer evenings, which went from zen to zilch when mosquitoes arrived.

The Detroit Lakes woman thought there had to be a better way to deal with summer insects during outdoor events. So she created Getaway Kimonos. The garments are sheer and lightweight as any other swimsuit cover-up, but contain fabric treated with a safe, EPA-approved insecticide that kills mosquitoes, flies, ticks or fleas that lands on them.

The garments are odorless and retain their bug-busting powers for at least 70 washes, Owen-Boerger said.

No wonder the tagline for her business is “Our kimonos make you drop-dead gorgeous … to mosquitoes.”

“It’s the existing kimonos that are pretty ubiquitous with summer fashion. But we’ve just turned it into something that has a really useful purpose,” she said.

A buzz-worthy invention

It was at a beach near her hometown of International Falls, with her kids that she came up with her kimono idea. As the bugs came out, she didn’t want to apply a layer of mosquito repellent on everyone when they already had on sunscreen.

She could cover herself with a towel, but it was still 80 degrees outside.

“Initially, my idea was towels that were treated with insect repellent. And it really started to evolve,” Owen-Boerger said.

After some research she discovered Insect Shield, an online company that sells insect-repellent apparel.

The company treated their clothing with permethrin, an insecticide so potent that bugs that touch it die.

‘I don’t want to look like Gilligan’

Despite the insecticide’s toxicity to insects, permethrin has been researched thoroughly by the EPA and deemed safe for humans, Owen-Boerger said. “The amount of permethrin allowed in clothing is very low, and scientific studies indicate that human exposure resulting from wearing permethrin factory-treated clothing also is low. Available data show that permethrin is poorly absorbed through the skin,” reads information on the EPA’s website.

In addition to Insect Shield’s own clothing line, the company also will treat clothing which customers bought elsewhere for a fee. After bouncing her towel-treatment idea off a company representative, Owen-Boerger learned it wasn’t cost effective, as the thick, absorbent cloth would require much more costly permethrin to repel bugs.

From there, she pivoted to the idea of a thinner, more beach-ready garment, like a kimono or sarong. The loose fit of a kimono also deters bugs because it keeps them from getting close to the skin. And it would add more feminine options in the world of insect-repelling apparel.

Through her research, Owen-Boerger noticed that most insect-repelling items out there seemed designed for males, often for hunting clothing. The female options that existed essentially seemed like downsized versions of men’s fashion.

“I don’t want to look like Gilligan,” she quipped. “I want to look like Ginger.”

‘Boot-strapping’

Her next step was finding a manufacturer that could produce kimonos and sarongs affordably, as the permethrin process is expensive at the lower volumes she could afford as a fledgling business.

She chose a Chinese e-commerce company that produces a wide range of wholesale products, including apparel.

“When you’re boot-strapping, you just kind of figure things out,” she said. She ordered three styles of kimonos, then had them treated by Insect Shield. She sold every kimono in her first order.

The garments now sell for $78 on her website, getawaykimonos.com.

‘A public health issue’

As someone whose weekdays are filled working full-time as an optician, Owen-Boerger found her ability to grow her start-up has been limited by both money and time.

Her business received a boost last year when she was selected to be one of four finalists for a local “Shark Tank”-style event in which new businesses pitched their concepts to a panel. She won $1,000, which happened to be what she needed to place another order for kimonos.

While the fashionable aspect of her product is important to her, Owen-Boerger said the insect-repellent apparel market has been growing for more serious reasons. They can act as protection against West Nile virus, Lyme disease, dengue fever and other insect-borne illnesses.

“People think it’s just a summer thing because of where we live. And mosquitoes can ruin a good barbecue in a heartbeat,” she said. “But in other parts of the world, it’s really a public health issue. You know, mosquitoes really are the killer of more people every year than any other animal.”

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