Mosquitos!!!

Old Jul 14th 2014, 10:44 am
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Default Mosquitos!!!

I'm having bad reactions to mosquito bites and being bitten far too often. 10 minutes yielded 7 bites one evening!!! If I wear long sleeves, my hands and face get bitten.

I need some sort of repellant spray that is also kind to pets (I get licked to death regularly).

Recommendations please
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Old Jul 14th 2014, 11:42 am
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Default Re: Mosquitos!!!

I wear a bug jacket when I work in my garden, something like that:

http://www.veseys.com/ca/en/images/p.../small/945.jpg
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Old Jul 14th 2014, 1:36 pm
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Default Re: Mosquitos!!!

If you dont want to use DEET (which is the most effective option) then this stuff works pretty well....

Welcome To Bite Blocker - #1 DEET Alternative

Its what we used when the kids were smaller and hands were in mouths all the time.

At home we keep standing water to a minimum, and have a couple of mosquito traps...
SkeeterVac SV-3100C Mosquito Exterminator | Canadian Tire

Amazon.com : Lentek MK-05 "Champion" Mosquito Repeller REDUCED $50 : Patio, Lawn & Garden Amazon.com : Lentek MK-05 "Champion" Mosquito Repeller REDUCED $50 : Patio, Lawn & Garden

This year we have also used mosquito coils and the off lanterns if we are on the deck in the evening.

Its been a bad year for the little bastards, thankfully its not always this bad. The "good" news is that over time your body get somewhat used to the bites and you wont swell up in huge lumps after the first couple of years exposure...

Away from home there are those netting jackets with over the head/face hoods, and the nuclear option is to get a permetherin spray (we've found them at military surplus places) to spray clothing, although thats probably not pet friendly.
Sawyer Premium Permethrin Clothing Insect Repellent Trigger Spray, 24-Ounce: Amazon.ca: Sports & Outdoors Sawyer Premium Permethrin Clothing Insect Repellent Trigger Spray, 24-Ounce: Amazon.ca: Sports & Outdoors


If you have reservations about the health effects of DEET, then be very careful using permetherin as its nasty toxic shit before it dries.

Last edited by iaink; Jul 14th 2014 at 2:40 pm.
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Old Jul 14th 2014, 2:33 pm
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Default Re: Mosquitos!!!

Mix 3 parts vinegar to 1 part lemon dish soap and put it in a spray bottle. Try 2 to 1 to make it stronger.
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Old Jul 14th 2014, 3:30 pm
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Default Re: Mosquitos!!!

Originally Posted by caretaker
Mix 3 parts vinegar to 1 part lemon dish soap and put it in a spray bottle. Try 2 to 1 to make it stronger.
Seriously? Sounds like a recipe for cleaning windows!
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Old Jul 14th 2014, 3:46 pm
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Default Re: Mosquitos!!!

Originally Posted by scotdownunder
Seriously? Sounds like a recipe for cleaning windows!
Have you ever seen mozzies settle on the windows?
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Old Jul 14th 2014, 4:39 pm
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Default Re: Mosquitos!!!

The Globe and Mail Metro (Ontario Edition) · Globe Life & Arts · 14 Jul 2014 · ANDRÉ PICARD [email protected]

These natural born killers are no joke


· ·

In the coming years, as deadly diseases carried by mosquitoes move closer to our borders, the annoying flies will move from being a summer nuisance to being a public-health threat. In Canada, we like to joke that the mosquito is the national bird.

But in most of the world, mosquitoes are no joking matter.

They are, in fact, the deadliest creature on the planet, responsible for about 725,000 deaths a year. By comparison, sharks kill about 10 people annually, and snakes are responsible for 50,000 deaths.

Mosquitoes are lethal because they are very efficient carriers of pathogens that cause deadly illnesses like malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, West Nile, Rift Valley fever, chikungunya fever, and various forms of viral encephalitis – Japanese, Eastern equine, St. Louis, La Crosse, to name a few.

Malaria is, by far, the most dangerous mosquito-borne illness. Female Anopheles mosquitoes pick up parasites – there are four kinds, but Plasmodium falciparum is the most deadly – by feeding on human blood and infecting others when they inject saliva as part of the feeding process. (Only female mosquitoes bite.)

Malaria alone kills an estimated 630,000 people a year, and incapacitates 200-million others for various lengths of time. That’s actually good news, because mortality rates have fallen by more than 40 per cent in the past decade, thanks to determined campaigns by groups like Roll Back Malaria and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

There is no malaria transmission in Canada; the temperate form of the disease that was here has been controlled for about a century and was eradicated in the 1950s with DDT spraying.

But, at one time, it was a common illness here: In the 1820s and 1830s, about twothirds of workers digging the Rideau Canal between Kingston and Ottawa contracted malaria, and there were an estimated 1,000 malaria-related deaths.

Today, malaria is a threat principally to overseas travellers; about 15 Canadians develop a life-threatening case each year.

There is no vaccine, but there are medications that can be taken to reduce the risk of infection.

Another tropical illness that is a growing threat to travellers is dengue fever (also known as breakbone fever), the most dangerous form of which is hemorrhagic dengue fever.

Dengue infections – spread by Aedes mosquitoes – have risen dramatically in recent years, estimated to affect 100-million people annually.

Like malaria, dengue can be incapacitating, and kills about 25,000 people a year.

Dengue fever has become a growing problem in the Carribean, a favourite destination for Canadian tourists, so it is getting a lot more attention.

There is no vaccine or medication to protect against infection, and no specific treatment for the infected, other than relief for the pain.

Chikungunya fever is another mosquito-borne illness, one that is spreading at an alarming rate in the Americas, particularly in tourist hotspots such as Cuba and St. Martin.

It is very similar to dengue, causing high fever and joint pain, and is also spread by Aedes mosquitoes.

In a temperate climate like Canada’s, mosquito-borne illnesses are far less common.

The greatest domestic danger is West Nile virus, which is spread by Culex mosquitoes who feed on the blood of infected birds, then subsequently bite humans.

The first human cases in Canada occurred in 2002, and there were 14 deaths that year, causing a great deal of alarm.

But only one in every 150 people infected with West Nile virus will develop serious symptoms. There have been few deaths in recent summers; physicians have become more adept at spotting and treating the illness.

There has also been a large die-off of infected birds, and many people have developed immunity after suffering a mild case of West Nile.

The other mosquito-borne illness known to spread in Canada is St. Louis encephalitis but, after large outbreaks in the 1970s, the number of serious cases has been minimal.

What all these illnesses have in common is that they are largely preventable with some pretty simple measures.

Mosquitoes breed in stagnant water, so the key is to eliminate or minimize standing water near where people live.

That means storing flower pots, watering cans, wheelbarrows and the like upside down; routinely replacing water in bird baths and wading pools; aerating and cleaning swimming pools; cleaning gutters; and landscaping to get rid of puddles.

During mosquito season – May to September in Canada – it’s a good idea to use insect-repellent containing DEET, and wear long sleeves and pants, especially at dusk when the most pesky mosquitoes are active.

There are 2,500 species of mosquitoes worldwide, and 82 species in Canada.

Only a small fraction of them feed on humans. While we tend to think of mosquitoes as bloodthirsty, their principal source of nourishment is sugar from the nectar of flowers.

However, there is nothing sweet about the growth and spread of mosquito-borne disease, which is largely a byproduct of climate change.

In the years to come, as deadly diseases like dengue and Chikungunya fever – and maybe even malaria – move closer to our borders, mosquitoes will shift from being summer pests to a real public health threat.

Canadians may have to start taking the little buggers more seriously.
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Old Jul 14th 2014, 6:54 pm
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Default Re: Mosquitos!!!

Avon Bubble Bath is a good mosquito repellant. I've used in in Edmonton where we had hordes of mosquitoes all over the city.
You should also watch out for tics and mosquitoes getting at your animals. Mosquitoes may carry heartworm parasites which are very nasty indeed. Tics can attach to the relatively hairless areas of your pets such as inside the ears and in the groin area. You are also a target for them. Among other things, they can carry not only Lyme Disease but Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. A good insect repellant for your pets is eucalyptus oil - mix a couple of drops in a cup of warm water and rub into vulnerable areas while taking care not to get it in the animal's eyes or on its genitals. By the way, do not have your dog injected with Ivermectin to keep heartworms at bay - this chemical has terrible effects on animals.
We don't have any mosquitoes here on coastal Vancouver Island, perhaps because of the salt air but fleas are common. If you ever have a problem with these, use dilute lemon juice or lemon oil as a repellant. Chemical flea repellants or collars have very bad side effects on animals.
Hope this helps.

Last edited by leith; Jul 14th 2014 at 6:55 pm. Reason: couple of punctuation mistakes
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Old Jul 14th 2014, 7:25 pm
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Default Re: Mosquitos!!!

The bad news

there is no real alternative to DEET, many suggestions but none that realy work....

Suck it up, the choice is ;

- west nile and many other mosquito born dieases

- toxcitiy of DEET

the DEET is the least of your worries... by a long margin
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Old Jul 14th 2014, 7:48 pm
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Default Re: Mosquitos!!!

Originally Posted by MikeUK
The bad news

there is no real alternative to DEET, many suggestions but none that realy work....

Suck it up, the choice is ;

- west nile and many other mosquito born dieases

- toxcitiy of DEET

the DEET is the least of your worries... by a long margin
You are perhaps overstating the case for DEET.

DEET is the most effective in properly conducted scientific trials, but other products have been shown to be effective, just not as effective or not effective for as long.

The US CDC says to look for the following active ingredients;

DEET
picaridin
IR3535
plant-based oil of lemon eucalyptus

of which DEET is the longest lasting and most effective.

Things like bounce sheets however have been shown to be not at all effective. Avon skinsosoft is partly effective, but not great. So my advice to those that dont want to risk DEET exposure, cant use it on young kids, or worry about pets licking it off them (I had a cat that was loopy for DEET!) is to do your due diligence.

Its also worth pointing out that "all natural" does not mean "non toxic", Anthrax is after all an "all natural product"



This article compares "herbal" alternatives to DEET. Some are useless, none are anywhere near as effective as DEET, but some are effective to some extent, for shorter times (One of which is the soy oil based "bite blocker" that we bought for our kids when they were younger)
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa011699

To quote the highlites...
In our study, a formulation containing 23.8 percent DEET provided an average of five hours of complete protection against A. aegypti bites after a single application. Depending on the formulation and concentration tested, DEET-based repellents have been shown in other studies to provide complete protection against arthropod bites for as long as 12 hours, even under harsh climatic conditions.20,21
The most recent addition to the synthetic insect repellents on the market in the United States is IR3535,22 which is classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a biopesticide because of its structural similarity to the amino acid alanine. This repellent has been used in Europe for more than 20 years and was approved for use in the United States in 1999. In our tests, this repellent fared poorly, yielding a mean complete-protection time that was one quarter that of the lowest-concentration DEET product we tested (22.9 vs. 88.4 minutes).
Skin-So-Soft Bath Oil, which consumers commonly claim has a repellent effect on insects, provided only a mean of 9.6 minutes of protection against aedes bites in our study. This extremely limited repellent effect has previously been documented in other studies.15
Thousands of plants have been tested as potential botanical sources of insect repellent.23-25 Most plant-based insect repellents currently on the market contain essential oils from one or more of the following plants: citronella, cedar, eucalyptus, peppermint, lemongrass, geranium, and soybean. Of the products we tested, the soybean-oil–based repellent was able to protect from mosquito bites for about 1.5 hours. All other botanical repellents that we tested in our initial studies, regardless of their active ingredients and formulations, gave very short-lived protection, ranging from a mean of about 3 to 20 minutes. Preliminary studies suggest that the oil-of-eucalyptus products will confer longer-lasting protection than other available plant-based repellents.


There is a list of potentially useful citations at the end of this article....
http://www.bcmj.org/article/mosquito...on-skin-so-sof

2 more handy links...
snopes.com: Mosquito Repel Lore
http://www.cdc.gov/westnile/faq/repellent.html


Also, to keep things in perspective, quoting the NEJM study again....

"Despite the substantial attention paid by the lay press every year to the safety of DEET, this repellent has been subjected to more scientific and toxicologic scrutiny than any other repellent substance. The extensive accumulated toxicologic data on DEET have been reviewed elsewhere. DEET has a remarkable safety profile after 40 years of use and nearly 8 billion human applications. Fewer than 50 cases of serious toxic effects have been documented in the medical literature since 1960, and three quarters of them resolved without sequelae. Many of these cases of toxic effects involved long-term, heavy, frequent, or whole-body application of DEET. "

Last edited by iaink; Jul 14th 2014 at 8:32 pm.
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Old Jul 14th 2014, 10:50 pm
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Default Re: Mosquitos!!!

Originally Posted by MikeUK
...there is no real alternative to DEET...
Hibernate through the busy months.

Don't go out except for that 5-minute window when they're not around.
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Old Jul 15th 2014, 5:07 am
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Default Re: Mosquitos!!!

Originally Posted by leith
Avon Bubble Bath is a good mosquito repellant. I've used in in Edmonton where we had hordes of mosquitoes all over the city.
You should also watch out for tics and mosquitoes getting at your animals. Mosquitoes may carry heartworm parasites which are very nasty indeed. Tics can attach to the relatively hairless areas of your pets such as inside the ears and in the groin area. You are also a target for them. Among other things, they can carry not only Lyme Disease but Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. A good insect repellant for your pets is eucalyptus oil - mix a couple of drops in a cup of warm water and rub into vulnerable areas while taking care not to get it in the animal's eyes or on its genitals. By the way, do not have your dog injected with Ivermectin to keep heartworms at bay - this chemical has terrible effects on animals.
We don't have any mosquitoes here on coastal Vancouver Island, perhaps because of the salt air but fleas are common. If you ever have a problem with these, use dilute lemon juice or lemon oil as a repellant. Chemical flea repellants or collars have very bad side effects on animals.
Hope this helps.
Re: Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever; In 1957 when my then OH and I came to Canada and located 50 miles south of Medicine Hat, in ranching country with a lot of sage brush, we were warned about RMSF. In the Spring of '58 the Health Unit came to the school where we taught, to give the annual shots for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I am very pain tolerant, but this was excruciatingly painful. It happened again the following year.
However, at one point, I did have a tic which had burrowed into my leg.. Our nearest neighbours, and good friends, were the local RCMP constable and his wife. I showed them the tic and he lit a cigarette and put the burning end at the head of the tic which then backed out of my leg( because of the heat) and was then killed. I was told never to try to pull out a tic using tweezers. I don't know whether this information is still relevant, but it certainly helped me though that was over 50 yrs ago

Last edited by Largo; Jul 15th 2014 at 5:35 am. Reason: wanted to point out the problem with tics
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Old Jul 15th 2014, 5:13 am
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Default Re: Mosquitos!!!

I have been told by my vet that we don't need to worry about heartworm in crntral Alberta but if we were to spend lots of time in BC the dogs would need vaccinations.
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Old Jul 15th 2014, 10:25 am
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Default Re: Mosquitos!!!

Thanks off all of your replies. This helps a lot and I will be trying some out.

Very relieved to hear my body will adapt and react less to the bites over time!
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Old Jul 15th 2014, 12:44 pm
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Default Re: Mosquitos!!!

My family has been using OFF Deep Woods, which has been working really well. DEET insect repellent spray for long lasting outdoor protection | OFF!® Insect Repellents (our Costco sells it for a good price).
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