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A Low-Tech Mosquito Deterrent
- sadkingbilly 13y agoOr put a dryer sheet in your pocket. Have it hang half-way out. Skeeters hate the stuff. And you smell good.
- michael_h 13y agoI've tried this and it didn't work for me at all. Mosquitos love my wife, so she rubbed the dryer sheet on her exposed skin. Result: completely covered in mosquito bites.
- npsimons 13y agoThat's nice; get back to me when you find something portable, ie something good for hiking.
- VLM 13y agoLocally most of the nature trails are built thru swamps (aka eco warriors holy wetlands). They're economically worthless, so they make nice parks and trails. The point of the article is they can't fly faster than 2 mph or so. Simply move faster than 2 MPH. I've ridden my bicycle thru swamps and not gotten bit. I also hike and between walking and a bit of wind there is not much problem as long as I don't stop. A bug in the eye still hurts... wear sunglasses.
- uptown 13y agoGot any solutions for horse flies? Those things are brutal.
- chrisgd 13y agoRun!
- maxerickson 13y agohttp://www.deerflypatches.com/ http://www.deerflypatches.com/ I haven't tried them.
- kruipen 13y agohttp://bugasalt.com http://bugasalt.com
- drhodes 13y agoI staple a blue plastic cup to the top of a walking staff and coat the cup with a layer of tanglefoot. It's like a fly magnet. In the thick of the season I might catch 75 in an outing. This guy had it figured out years ago, http://nfrec.ifas.ufl.edu/MizellRF/deer-fly-testimonial.htm http://nfrec.ifas.ufl.edu/MizellRF/deer-fly-testimonial.htm
- arethuza 13y agoWhat about anti-beastie head nets and jackets? http://www.purpleturtle.co.uk/acatalog/Protective_Clothing.html http://www.purpleturtle.co.uk/acatalog/Protective_Clothing.h...
- devb 13y agoOnly hike into a head wind.
- andrewflnr 13y agoCamp at the end until the wind turns?
- sethammons 13y agoAvon Skin So Soft. The oil. Works so well that they turned it into bug spray. Never tried the bug spray, but I swear by the oil.
- phaemon 13y agoAs used in Scotland for midges. I was wondering if it would work for mosquitoes too.
- ronaldx 13y agoMidges in the Scottish Highlands are so sensitive to wind that the act of hiking itself creates enough of a breeze to prevent them from biting. As I found out first-hand this week: just keep walking. [Additional: Avon Skin-so-Soft seems to prevent midges from surviving a landing, but I didn't find anything to beat larger clegs/horseflies except a good slapping - they will bite through clothing]
- mixmastamyk 13y agoI learned this on a trip to Nepal many years ago. Turn on the overhead fan in your room and the mosquitos never get a chance to land. Of course you wake up with cotton mouth and eyes, but it was worth it.
- hsuresh 13y agoThis has been fairly common knowledge, at least here in India, where mosquito menace is common. Another really popular product is what is known as mosquito bats (swatters) like here: http://www.hunterbat.com/mosquito-swatters.html#rechargeable-mosquito-swatter http://www.hunterbat.com/mosquito-swatters.html#rechargeable...
- mataug 13y agoI would say this has been common knowledge for at least a generation or two in India. It also helps to remove sweat and the salt residue from the skin, i.e take a bath in the evening and stay cool.
- anonymuse 13y agoWow, really love that electronic mosquito bat! My girlfriend is a human version of a (mosquito-killing) HK-Aerial, and this seems like a good way to avoid some of the handprints-on-mirrors and bloodsplats-on-the-walls that can at times plague our pint-sized apartment. I have a feeling she'd have a blast with this weapon. Thanks!
- fnordfnordfnord 13y agoI used to look at those as if they were some kind of joke, but they are no joke. They will make you the annoying-insect-executioner.
- Vivtek 13y agoThe electric swatters are the bee's knees! They work great. Popular in Puerto Rico.
- biot 13y agoIs the electric thing a gimmick, or is there science behind it? I sometimes dispose of annoying houseflies using a racquetball racket. No electricity, but fast moving nylon strings take care of the flies nicely.
- ericabiz 13y agoThey're great fun. I live in Austin, TX and we have several in the house. They obliterate mosquitoes with a satisfying "POP" noise. The mosquitoes literally explode into tiny pieces when you hit them with the bat. It's awesome (especially when you are like me--I can get 20+ bites on a single night while wearing insect repellent, where everyone else around me is fine, and I use the bats as revenge. :)
- eksith 13y agoThis is the standard procedure in Sri Lanka as well, when people aren't lighting those poison coils (because some people still don't have indoor fans) or putting on the mosquito net when sleeping.
- chrisgd 13y agoMy wife figured this out, though both of us should have known. We visited my in-laws in rural Georgia and our 17-month old son was covered in gnats and mosquitos when we went outside so we limited his time. When we went to the beach, there were no insects and my wife said, "must be the breeze. We should get a fan for our porch when we get home" Luckily she is smart or my son would suffer a lot!
- rwfilice 13y agoDoes anyone have a recommendation for a good outdoor fan - something you could leave out on your deck and that would be weather resistant? Does such a thing exist?
- jvanderwal 13y agoI've just used vanilla extract before.. it doesn't take much, treat it like cologne. It smells much better than bug sprays and you don't have any weird residue.
- yaddayadda 13y agoI wonder if it's the vanilla or the alcohol suspension agent they don't like?
- huhtenberg 13y agoI always assumed mosquitoes are going by the IR/heat emissions, but apparently they follow smell. They also have very rudimentary olfactory system, which is easy to confuse by filling the area with a smell "override". It could be a bug spray or a citrus smell (citronella, etc) or it could be a smell that humans don't even pick up. Latter is weird, but it works really well - it's a small plastic dispenser bottle with a wick and heater element on top, just like an oil-based air freshener, but it has no smell whatsoever.
- andrewcooke 13y agowhat is "Latter?" in your post above? not being pedantic - trying to work out what this thing is to see if i can buy it...
- vivin 13y agoI've known this trick for years. Whenever I visit India, especially during the monsoon season, you always turn on the overhead fan (especially when you sleep). That's it - no more trouble from mosquitoes! It also keeps you cool because sometimes the nights can be warm.
- Aardwolf 13y agoPersonally I'd love to have an auto-aiming laser that detects and fries any nearby mosquito. The poor critters wouldn't stand a chance.
- Ives 13y agoI've thought about that, but mosquito's are small and hard to detect. You'd need quite a high resolution camera (or realistically two, to compensate for the parallax between the camera and the laser) combined with some serious software to spot mosquitos at the other end of the room.
- heliostatic 13y agoIV did develop this... http://intellectualventureslab.com/?page_id=563 http://intellectualventureslab.com/?page_id=563
- toomuchtodo 13y agoMAKE did an article on this as well: http://makezine.com/2010/08/30/make-23-how-to-shoot-mosquitoes-wit/ http://makezine.com/2010/08/30/make-23-how-to-shoot-mosquito...
- Ives 13y agoYes, but apparently by limiting the detection area to a rectangular segment of a plane (or a photonic fence, as they call it). Don't get me wrong, what they did is pretty cool and I could imagine placing something like that near a window, but it's still less useful than a system that has a 360 degree field of view.
- PeterisP 13y agoUltrasound sonar should work, since many animals efficiently detect insects at range that way.
- cobrausn 13y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser Oddly enough, Intellectual Ventures invented this.
- yaddayadda 13y agoThis has been used for at least 25 years in Paris Island, SC chowhalls. The doors to the chowhall stay open throughout the meal as recruits stand in formation and slowly make their way through to the actual foodlines. As a recruit making your way through, there's a period where you are the meal for lots of no-see-ums. Then there's the divine fan period (I was there during the dead of summer, and it was flippin' hot!). Then there's the "see and smell the food" period. Ah, the memories...
- adolgert 13y agoMosquitoes in the US used to be mostly Aedes, but now there are a lot of Culex, which fly twice as fast (120cm/s, or about 2.7 mph) and are better hunters. The Aedes come into a room, find a wall, and eventually eat, while Culex go straight for the bite. Both of them tend to fly upwind toward meals. I wonder whether fans blow the close mosquitoes away but draw lots more to the area, in search of that good human-food smell the fan disperses.
- div0 13y agoWhen I was in college dorm (in China), I used to put a table lamp on the floor, turned toward my feet and legs, which was fairly effective. Mosquitoes don't like lights.
- notatoad 13y agoMosquitoes in China must be different to mosquitoes in northern canada, because they certainly are attracted to light here.
- grecy 13y agoSpend a summer up in the Yukon or Alaska if you want to see solid walls of ravenous mosquitoes. I get bitten while riding my bike, bitten while my arm is out of the car window driving at 30km/h, and bitten through jeans. 100% DEET (you can get it in Alaska) does the trick for about 30 minutes before you have to re-apply - and it's nasty stuff. This past weekend I was camping at a music festival and slapped my arm casually, and killed 14 mosquitoes with the one slap..... A fan? That will do nothing. The mosquitoes will mostly be gone in another month, then it's No CM and black fly season, until it gets below freezing in ~September.
- maxerickson 13y agoIs No CM a specific choice? I've always used no-see-ums.
- grecy 13y agoI'm an Australian living in Canada.... I'm not good with "local" words and references... I have seen it written both ways though.
- ultimoo 13y agoWow, this is not something I knew about Alaska. I did a simple google image search for 'Alaska mosquitoes' and that is plain scary.
- eksith 13y agoNot living North enough ;) This is mostly a problem further South and West in Alaska. The higher up you go, the colder it is to the point you don't get that many insects at all.
- grecy 13y ago> The higher up you go, the colder it is to the point you don't get that many insects at all. My experience doesn't completely agree with that. Everything up to and including the Brooks Range was horrendous for mosquitoes in summer, same over on the Dempster Highway in Canada. Once you get within ~60 miles of the Arctic Ocean the temperature does drop enough to get rid of them, but before that it's a nightmare.
- cageface 13y agoThe Vietnamese figured this out long ago. Here all the cafes and outdoor restaurants have fans. They help with the heat too, of course, but also cut down on the bites.
- eddyystop 13y agoI found 95% concentrations of DEET effective during multiple trips paddling in northern Canada. The alternative was to come back with inflamed skin easy an inch thick. Buy the 05% DEET in the USA as Canada no longer allows concentrations over 30%.
- michael_h 13y agoMy friend never gets mosquito bites, ever. His secret? _Be incredibly hairy_
- djKianoosh 13y agothat doesn't work for me. they love my blood too much to stop at the hair!
- DanBC 13y agoI was expecting something that could be used in the developing world. It seems that solar power fans could be provided reasonably cheaply, maybe even made locally (apart from the solar cells) from "recycled" (dumped) materials from the west. Would it have any useful benefit over bed nets?
- shreeshga 13y agoNever knew this is a "method" worthy of an article. Every one in India[AFAIK] knows this.
- lonetwin 13y agoheh, you bet ! When I read the article, I was like FFS ! You've got to be kidding me ! Is this really on the NY-effing-times ! ...but then I read the comments ...ah well, first world ignorance of ^low-tech^ solutions. Next thing you know somebody would be 'discovering' water is good to fight dehydration ! :)
- dllthomas 13y agoWell, clearly we know what's next, then: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/8897662/EU-bans-claim-that-water-can-prevent-dehydration.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/8897662/...
- vacri 13y agoI thought it was strangely higher-tech than the suggested alternatives.
- StavrosK 13y agoDidn't someone come up with a blend of things (poison and flower scents) that claimed to eradicate every mosquito in a X mile radius? Whatever happened of that? Why haven't we been able to make something that'll attract large amounts of them and kill them?
- ChikkaChiChi 13y agoBecause mosquitos have one of the most powerful cabals of blood sucker lobbyists in Washington. They tend to just swarm anyone left out in the open and drain them of any resolve.
- symstym 13y agoIt was fruit juice and boric acid.. not sure what came of it. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/health/27mosquito.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/health/27mosquito.html
- StavrosK 13y agoYep, that's the one! Hmm, I might give it a shot.
- pikewood 13y agoThis article in MotherEarthNews had a commenter who stated that this trap also attracted other insects, including bees (which the boric acid is also fatal to). So, even if it is effective, unfortunately it seems that it's too indiscriminate. http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/homemade-mosquito-trap-zm0z12jjzhun.aspx http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/homemade-mosquito-trap-zm...
- zwtaylor 13y agoThis is a godsend, and so blatant an alternative. It will be nice to not spend the rest of the summer duking it out with these buggers for control of the porch.
- mbateman 13y agoEstate design in the colonial and antebellum Southeast, where malaria was a huge problem until the 20th century, was arguably designed to maximize breezes and drafts: be on hilltops, surrounded by mostly open lawns without much shade, with tall, open windows.
- eksith 13y agoMaximizing breeze was actually more about keeping cool than getting rid of mosquitos. Besides, sometimes the breeze would die down and you've got the same old problem. Mosquito nets were available back then : http://www.nottoway.com/html/nottoway-plantation-history.htm http://www.nottoway.com/html/nottoway-plantation-history.htm http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i3101.html http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i3101.html
- Alex3917 13y agoAlthough it isn't common knowledge, the recommended best practice for avoiding ticks and other bugs is soaking your clothes in Permethrin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3sGvZE3rh4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3sGvZE3rh4 It isn't very well absorbed through the skin so it has an extremely low toxicity when used in this way, as long as you don't breathe it in or let it get on your skin while it's still wet. It's much more effective and less toxic than DEET, and the CDC recommends it to prevent tick infections. Also don't ever mix it with DEET, because the combination is neurotoxic. The military actually pretreats all of their combat uniforms in this stuff to prevent malaria and other diseases.
- pinko 13y ago> Also don't ever mix it with DEET, because the combination is neurotoxic. Holy crap. I must know 100 people who regularly wear Permethrin-treated clothes and then spray on DEET repellent. I had no idea it was dangerous. (FWIW, I avoid them both due to general conservatism when it comes to toxic chemicals, especially when the stakes are low -- i.e., the worst-case is itching and not malaria.)
- Alex3917 13y agoI started doing it only because I've already gotten bitten by two ticks this year and have found another half dozen on me. I'm only outside a few hours a week collecting mushrooms though, I'm not lying with it pressed against my skin for ten hours straight in a hunting blind or doing anything that would cause me to sweat excessively. But yeah, at least in the Northeast it's gotten to the point where going out into the woods wearing shorts is probably far more dangerous than having unprotected sex with random people, at least as far as we can tell based on the limited tick infection statistics.
- raamdev 13y agoThe tick problem in the Northeast USA seems to vary wildly every year. I've lived here my whole life (31 years, in the southern New Hampshire area) and I've seen tick populations fluctuate drastically from one year to the next. A few years ago it was particularly bad: I went camping on my dad's land in northern New Hampshire one weekend and we had literally a dozen ticks crawling up our legs within five minutes of arriving. When I awoke in my tent the next morning, the outside of the tent had dozens of ticks clinging to the outside netting, trying to get in. It was impossible to walk anywhere without getting several ticks on you. None of us, including my dad who has lived here 60+ years, has seen it that bad. In contrast, we were up at the same area a few weekends ago and we spent three days walking through the woods, camping out, and wearing shorts the whole time. The three of us had a total of 2 ticks the entire weekend. I'm very curious to know what's influencing their numbers.
- retr0h 13y agoYears ago my buddy took a tour of the Amazon. His guide took them to a tree, ripped the bark off, exposing a den of termites. The guide instructed everyone to grab a handful of termites, smash them up, and wipe the resulting guts on their exposed arms and faces.
- san86 13y agoawesome stuff NY TImes. You just wrote an article about something every 4 year old in India (and every other tropical country) is well aware of
- whatshisface 13y ago4 year olds from India are not the target audience of the New York Times. It's a good thing when something known to one culture is shared with another.
- san86 13y agoyeah.. but I'd expect a publication of such reputation to dig deeper than that. The ideas mentioned don't even scratch the surface. Hence the reference to "4 year olds".
- imissmyjuno 13y agodeeper where? comparison of fan types? a study into which species are the weakest flyers?
- mgcross 13y agoI'm in Alabama, and I didn't know this despite the huge summer mosquito problem we have in the deep south. But I'm also lucky enough to have A+ blood.
- deadreturns2 13y agoThe part where he emailed Dr. Genius about the solution was hilarious. LMAO!
- joshdance 13y agoWhen I lived in Africa for 2 years we always had a oscillating fan going near our beds. Sometimes I would wake up and hear no fan. I knew the power had gone out and sure enough the mosquitoes would come attack.
- prawn 13y agoSounds like the makings of a mild horror film for those who mosquitoes target!
- johnthealy3 13y agoI always thought using fans to repel mosquitoes was common knowledge, but thinking back it was a trip to China where I learned about it. In fact, it was the same trip where I discovered the plug-in hormone packs AND the electric fly swatters. The rest of the world, where mosquitoes carry disease and there aren't spraying programs, seems to have figured out how to repel the bugs better than we have, and for lower cost. I'm lucky enough to have an air conditioner that points right at my bed. While the main purpose is to keep cool, I haven't been bitten in bed this summer (unlike in the spring when the aircon was off).
- revelation 13y agoI wonder what the impact of completely eliminating mosquitoes from the ecosystem would be. If we could quantify that, and the outcome was enticing, we could release a bunch of genetically modified sterile mosquitoes that would quickly erase whole populations.
- tokenadult 13y agoI wonder what the impact of completely eliminating mosquitoes from the ecosystem would be. A scientist has considered that issue, and the conclusion is that we could all live quite happily without any mosquitoes in the world. http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html
- sliverstorm 13y agoJanet Fang is an intern in Nature's Washington DC office.
- NoPiece 13y agoThat is an incomplete summary of her credentials... Hello! I’m a freelance science journalist living in New York with my ball python, Agamemnon Fang. I spent the last few years as a marine geochemist by day, contributing editor for CBS SmartPlanet at night. Before that, I was a news intern for Nature in Washington, D.C., an editorial intern at Discover in New York, and a reporter for the infamous Point Reyes Light in West Marin, California. In 2008, I graduated from the Earth & Environmental Science and Journalism dual-master’s program at Columbia University. I conducted my Earth Science master’s research on, broadly speaking, Climate Change and Human Evolution at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where I used geochemical analyses to understand paleoclimatic changes in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. And for my Journalism master’s project — “Salamander Eggs and Hyena Phalluses” — I narrated the discoveries of two novel life histories (or biological oddities). At the University of California, Berkeley, I studied Integrative Biology (evolution and natural history) and English literature (19th-20th century novel and experimental fiction). I spent a couple years at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology as a georeferencer, a curatorial/field/research/lab assistant, and I skinned and stuffed birds and rodents. (You can also find my immortalized birds at the American Museum of Natural History, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, and Yale Peabody Museum.) http://janetfang.wordpress.com/about/ http://janetfang.wordpress.com/about/
- jlebrech 13y agobill gates needs to know about this, those to be blowing around african villages.
- squozzer 13y agoMy barely-finished-high-school friend figured this out a few years back. He'll enjoy showing me up. Thanks NYT :P
- jusben1369 13y agoNow you know why, when entering certain stores, you get that insane burst of wind from above the door (Hairstyle killer) That's their way of keeping bugs out of their store.
- NicoJuicy 13y agoI have 2 windows in my room... and i open them both which makes some wind. The mosquito's don't get up. I seriously hope, when you try something in Alaska, it helps to, otherwhise you'll have a big problem :P (PS. We don't have a mosquito problem here, i have seen thee the last month... It was worse last year)
- corresation 13y ago>The mosquito's don't get up. I've noticed when in the trampoline that the safety net seems to block the overwhelming majority of insects from getting in -- you can lay on the trampoline enjoying the stars without harassment. Of course the top is completely open, but most insects don't seem to make the choice to fly up (perhaps because of the curving walls) and never discover that.
- WestCoastJustin 13y agoThere is a guy on Youtube [1] that builds large DIY Mosquito fan traps. Well worth a watch if this is an issue for you. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU2kbghz85I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU2kbghz85I
- darkarmani 13y ago7:58: "I don't know why you'd want to collect mosquito legs, but if you ever enter a contest, you'll win"
- gallamine 13y agoI purchased one of these devices that clips onto a box fan and traps the mosquitos. It works ok, but the best results are from having the fan blow away from you, which isn't all that cooling: http://skeeterbag.com/ http://skeeterbag.com/
- everettForth 13y agoThis thing works amazingly well. It's basically just adding a net to the box fan. I seriously think that it could fight malaria around the world. http://skeeterbag.com/ http://skeeterbag.com/ I bought a mosquito magnet that cost hundreds of dollars, and it basically did nothing. The skeeterbag started catching mosquitos in minutes. I am not a shill, and have no affiliation with that company.
- nikster 13y agoThis is pretty good - I especially like the page where they explain how mosquitoes move; once you know that placing a few fans strategically should be pretty simple.
- raamdev 13y agoMy low-tech deterrent? A lifetime of avoiding deterrents. My body seems to have developed a natural resistance to them. I grew up in New Hampshire, not exactly as extreme as Alaska but a place where there are certainly plenty of mosquitos in the summer. I went camping a few weekends ago in the White Mountains and had 10 mosquitos biting my arm as soon as I stopped moving. So what's my deterrent? My body. It seems to have developed a natural resistance to mosquitos, or at least to what they inject into me. When mosquitos bite me, I genuinely don't get itchy or have "bug bites". If I remember correctly, the itchy welts that most people get are caused by the body's response to something the mosquito injects into your skin to prevent the blood from clotting. My body seems to have adapted in such a way that it doesn't react anymore. I haven't always been this way. When I was little, I got mosquito bites just like everybody else. The difference was, I always refused bug spray (I hate chemicals on my skin). I don't care how bad the bugs are. If it's 100F outside, I'll wear a long-sleeve shirt and long pants to cover my skin (and yes, they still bite through, so heavy clothes help). EDIT: Also relevant: my grandmother discovered that dryer sheets--those scented things that people throw in the dryer with their laundry--work as an excellent mosquito deterrent. I didn't believe her until I tried it. Hang one out of your hat or on your shirt collar and watch how few mosquitos come near your head!
- mmanfrin 13y agoI was a summer camp counselor and every week we'd have a 'staff hunt' where we'd basically play hide-and-seek with the staff all hiding out in the woods at night and then the kids coming through in flashlight-laden packs to find us. I chose a small little nook in the ground surrounded by bushes as my hiding spot. When the horn sounded for the beginning of the game, I started to feel a slight itching sensation on my back (I was wearing a tshirt) and was unsure of what it was. I had to be still and quiet, but I managed to swat the lower half of my back (and only the lower half). The itch began to grow, but I couldn't do anything else risk being caught. After 12 minutes the horn sounded again and I was able to get up and out of the nook. I made my way to the buildings and found a mirror, and saw that 70% of my upper back was swollen with mosquito bites. There were so many that they simply globbed together in to masses of bite. After about 20 minutes I checked again and they all had disappeared. Now, whenever I get bitten, I will notice it, but within 20 minutes the bite will be gone. Natural immunity is neat.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- yeezus 13y agoThis is not news to anyone living in SE Asia.
- ricardobeat 13y agoTalk about cultural contrasts, I was astonished to read this "news". I'd assume such a simple thing was common knowledge everywhere.
- brianbreslin 13y agoHere in Florida Mosquitos are a huge issue. We had a few cases of dengue fever last year. There has been a movement to breed genetically sterile Mosquitos to basically wipe out huge portions of the population. http://keysmosquito.org/modified-mosquito-release/ http://keysmosquito.org/modified-mosquito-release/
- cynwoody 13y agoThis is the principle of the air curtain†. The local Whole Foods Market operates air curtains as invisible exterior doors. When you walk through, you feel a strong down-rushing air current. Flying insects can't negotiate it. †http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_door http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_door
- Sami_Lehtinen 13y agoGreetings from Borneo rainforest, 23% Icaridin did the trick, no bites. Except on the areas that weren't sufficiently protected. Yes, this is also nasty stuff, it burns ons skin when you apply it, even if it's on top of sunscreen. Icaridin doesn't melt plastics like DEET does. I was surprised how well it protected me, even if I was sweating like a monkey. Btw, we were only ones on that hiking trip who used this stuff, most used citronella, because they didn't like these chemicals. Also some areas ban these chemicals for environmental reasons.
- kragen 13y agoI learned about this a couple of years ago visiting a friend of mine who lives in the Tigre Delta. It's sort of like a suburban version of Venice, except with a jungle, and lots and lots of enormous black mosquitoes. After a while sitting in her living room talking to her, I wondered aloud why we weren't getting bitten by mosquitoes, and she pointed out the electric fan overhead and explained it discouraged the mosquitoes. Very useful! And despite the danger of fan death when it gets hot enough, I think fans are more certain not to have long-term toxic effects than mosquito spirals or DEET.
- imissmyjuno 13y agoI hope you're joking about fan death
- kragen 13y agoNope! http://askakorean.blogspot.com.ar/2009/01/fan-death-is-real.html http://askakorean.blogspot.com.ar/2009/01/fan-death-is-real....
- PebblesRox 13y agoThat's a neat blog, thanks for the link!
- SmokyBorbon 13y agoTexas mosquitoes laugh at your feeble attempts. Might work on sissy New York mosquitoes though.
- 6ren 13y agoInteresting and cool, but burning cow crap is still lower-tech than an electric fan.
- sytelus 13y agoFan doesn't work everywhere. In my hikes, I've found the most effective "safe" (aka DEET free) repellent is Repel Lemon Eucalyptus Pump-Spray.
- ankit84 13y agoWhatever this American science have proved, we Indians use it for ages. A slow `Fan` to get of mosquitoes. It's in public domain here :P
- nikster 13y agoHere in Thailand people here have been using fans to deter mosquitoes probably ever since fans were invented. If you sleep in a non-aircon room with the windows open, your options are a fan, or a mosquito net. Both work really well. For outdoors I have a big industrial 18" fan that works pretty well too. It all depends what time of the season it is and how many mosquitoes there are.
- snambi 13y agooh no fan does nothing. Back when I was in india, We used used sit only under a large ceiling fan that goes at full speed. Still mosquitoes will bite.
- AnonOfTheYukon 13y agoAs a Yukon resident, I can safely say the only way to avoid the mosquitos is to hole up in your house, and utilize your arctic entrance as an airlock for when you need to refill your groceries. This is a guide to entering your house with the airlock system: Step 0: Open outside door to arctic entrance Step 1: Run inside with your groceries/supplies Step 2: Close outside entrance Step 3: Nuke the arctic entrance, RAID Wasp Killer is the recommended chemical Step 4: Open inside door and walk the through ``Magic Mesh''[1] to reduce amount of nuke-immune mosquitos entering your house. Step 5: Go take a shower to ensure your skin won't corrode I've been using this system for 8 years now, and love it. Another method I see my neighbours employ, is beekeeping suits laced with uranium. This method is great, because the mosquitos that attempt to land on the suit become fertile 8 out of 10 times. The suits can be purchased for around $10 outside the local Canadian Tire. __________ [1] http://img.hisupplier.com/var/userImages/2012-03/23/164222861_MAGIC_MESH_HANDS_FREE_SCREEN_DOOR_AS_SEEN_ON_TV_s.jpg http://img.hisupplier.com/var/userImages/2012-03/23/16422286...
- gruseom 13y agoGood lord.
- yaix 13y agoIsn't it common knowledge that mosquitos don't like wind? They make it sound like some great discovery.
- mnazim 13y agoWe, in Indian subcontinent, have been using fans to disperse mosquitoes as long as I can remember. I have never tried it outdoors but it works like a charm for indoors.