Carpe Insectae founder Randy Cross (Enterprise photo — Glynis Hart)

SARANAC LAKE — Hand sanitizer is in short supply these days, as store shelves and even warehouses across the country have been emptied by people stocking up to ward off the coronavirus. But a local bug repellent-maker, enlisted by Franklin County, is producing dozens of gallons of the bacteria-fighting liquid to supply local municipalities with enough for their employees, and his product will be hitting store shelves in the near future.

Randy Cross, who runs the Carpe Insectae line of bug repellents from his shop behind Nori’s Village Market on Woodruff Street, said Franklin County Legislator Lindy Ellis, D-Saranac Lake, approached him around two weeks ago to ask if he could produce hand sanitizer. He had never made the stuff before, had never signed a contract with a government agency before and was in the midst of bug spray production season, but he agreed.

“If I can help, I want to help,” said Cross, who is also pastor of the Adirondack Alliance Church.

Cross said he will still produce bug repellent, too.

Ellis said she had been thinking of what the county can do to keep people healthy and realized county workers on the front lines of prevention — people in emergency services or the department of public health — needed the increasingly rare resource.

“I was recognizing, perhaps about a month ago, that hand sanitizer was no longer on the shelf at stores,” Ellis said.

Cross found the formula and material he needed from his supplier and has been busy ever since. He said the county ordered 320 32-ounce bottles and 500 2-ounce bottles, and the first batch of Mountain Air Clean is set to be delivered Friday.

“I think we were ahead of the curve,” Ellis said. “Randy helped make that happen by being so responsive.”

She said Cross is doing a public service.

“He has had to interrupt his production of bug repellents in order to take time to do this,” Ellis said.

Cross said he feels like the boat manufacturers who were contracted by the U.S. military during World War II to build Higgins boats, like the ones Allied troops used on the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

Now he has orders from other villages and towns.

Tupper Lake Mayor Paul Maroun said his nearby village has ordered $400 worth of the hand sanitizer. The village of Saranac Lake, the town of Franklin and Home Health Services in Saranac Lake are also working on contracts. Other counties in the area have been told of Cross’ sanitizer.

Coakley Home and Hardware’s Saranac Lake manager Brittany Sternberg said the stores in Saranac Lake and Canton are going to split a shipment of around 250 three-packs around March 27. Each three-pack will have a 12-ounce bottle and two 2-ounce bottles and cost $20 to $25.

Cross said he may sell it on his website, too.

However, he said raw supplies are low in the U.S., too.

“I don’t see an end to the fear and the panic buying,” Cross said. “It’s unfortunate. I wish cooler heads would prevail, but as long as I can get the material, I’ll (keep making it.)”

Cross said he does not use additional chemicals, like name-brand sanitizers. His recipe uses isopropyl alcohol, glycerin and aloe vera. The other chemicals in hand sanitizers are meant to keep the liquid clear and act as drying agents.

Cross said his has a milky, cloudy look. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend sanitizers that don’t dry as fast because the longer it sits on a surface, the more it disinfects.