According to the World Health Organization there were an estimated 217 million cases of Malaria worldwide in the year 2017 with a co-occurrence of 435 000 deaths. A notable number of infections occur early at night when people are still outside, and the main malaria vectors in Africa prefer to feed close to the ground favouring the ankles and feet of victims. For that reason, there is a growing focus to provide outdoor protection to the lower limbs. Repellent-containing bicomponent fibers, which make use of sheath-core HDPE - EVA structured fibers, have been successfully employed to prepare mosquito-repelling socks. However, growing concerns of the impact of increased urbanization on waste management infrastructure in African countries and the lack of waste management infrastructure in rural areas, give rise to the feasibility and the need to investigate biodegradable alternative textiles. The objective of the present work was to investigate the influence of melt spinning processing parameters on the properties of biodegradable bicomponent poly(lactic acid) (PLA) filaments. This was achieved by using commercially available PLA and by exploiting the solubility behaviour of DEET in different PLA grades. Sheath-core structured filaments in the micro-range were produced. The production range of filaments with varying sheath-to-core ratios and DEET content were also determined. Generally, take-up speeds higher than 1300 m min-1 and DEET-core contents up to 20 % were achievable. Special attention was given to the processing dependency of filament properties such as crystallinity, DEET content and distribution, radial and surface morphology, sheath thickness and mechanical integrity. This was accomplished by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), SEM and tensile tests.