Kill mosquitoes with Listerine

[snopes]

Comment: I was just wondering if this had any truth to it. I didn't find
it on your site. Thank you!

An interesting idea!

Mosquito spray.....

I was at a deck party awhile back, and the bugs were having a ball biting
everyone. A man at the party sprayed the lawn and deck floor with
Listerine, and the little demons disappeared. The next year I filled a
4-ounce spray bottle and used it around my seat whenever I saw mosquitoes.
And voila! That worked as well. It worked at a picnic where we sprayed the
area around the food table, the children's swing area, and the standing
water nearby. During the summer, I don't leave home without it.....Pass it
on.

------------------

OUR FRIEND'S COMMENTS: I tried this on my deck and around all of my doors.
It works - in fact, it killed them instantly. I bought my bottle from
Target and it cost me $1.89. It really doesn't take much, and it is a big
bottle, too; so it is not as expensive to use as the can of spray you buy
that doesn't last 30 minutes. So, try this, please. It will last a couple
of days. Don't spray directly on a wood door (like your front door), but
spray around the frame. Spray around the window frames, and even inside
the dog house

[rlobinske]

More "homegrown" mosquito control measures. The menthol and eucalyptus in the solution most likely will provide some repellency, but it will probably be fairly short-term and certainly not last "for days".

Since Listerine contains a fair amount of alcohol, spraying it directly onto mosquitoes will likely kill them, but not very efficiently. The alcohol could kill either by excessive intoxication, dehydration, or the fact that an alcohol solution has lower surface tension than water, which could wick through an insect's spiracles into the trachea and drown them.

For long-term efficacy and safety, stick with the CDC's recommendation for products containing DEET, Oil of Lemon/Eucalyptus, or Picaradin. For shorter-term exposure, many of the botanical-based products are also effective, they just don't last as long. Wear long sleeves and pants when practical, avoid activity at dusk, and take measures to reduce mosquito breeding in and around your house. In the vast majority of cases, daytime active mosquitoes like the Asian Tiger mosquito are breeding in containers on site.

[rlobinske]

Late addition:

CDC recommendations for repellent use

[Singing in the Drizzle]

Q. How does mosquito repellent work?
A. Female mosquitoes bite people and animals because they need the protein found in blood to help develop their eggs. Mosquitoes are attracted to people by skin odors and carbon dioxide from breath. The active ingredients in repellents make the person unattractive for feeding. Repellents do not kill mosquitoes. Repellents are effective only at short distances from the treated surface, so you may still see mosquitoes flying nearby.

I have never seen a study or any scientific source that said insect repellent makes up unattractive. Most everthing I seen said to make it hard for the insects to find you. The stuff messes with their means of finding you. I have hike up to lakes were the mosquitoes were so thick it looked like black fog around the lake. Even with a fresh coating of Jungle Juice they were still finding me and biteing me after accedently running into me. I could not imagin how bad it would have been without the stuff.

[rlobinske]

Originally Posted by Singing in the Drizzle

I have never seen a study or any scientific source that said insect repellent makes up unattractive. Most everthing I seen said to make it hard for the insects to find you. The stuff messes with their means of finding you. I have hike up to lakes were the mosquitoes were so thick it looked like black fog around the lake. Even with a fresh coating of Jungle Juice they were still finding me and biteing me after accedently running into me. I could not imagin how bad it would have been without the stuff.

That is bad editing on the CDC's part. While the mode of action for DEET is not fully understood, but the current hypothesis is that it works like you said, by disrupting the chemoreceptors in the mosquito's antennae. The same is believed for picaridin. The mode of action for oil of lemon/eucalyptus is currently undetermined.

[snopes]

It may be great stuff, but DEET (short for N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide) has also been a great mystery since it was developed after World War II. No one has known why it does what it does. All researchers really knew, said Leslie B. Vosshall, a researcher at Rockefeller University in New York, “is that it had something to do with insect smell.”

Now Dr. Vosshall, with her colleagues Mathias Ditzen and Maurizio Pellegrino, has uncovered DEET’s secret. It does indeed have something to do with smell: it jams odorant receptors in insect nervous systems, in effect masking odors that would ordinarily attract the bugs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/science/18obdeet.html

[snopes]

Comment: I have been told many times that a lot of garlic in your diet
will repel Mosquitoes. True or false?
Recently I was informed that Mosquitoes have an aversion to RH- blood.
True, or false?

[Not_Done_Living]

I just returned from a week long camping trip. I did not use repellent, and in 6 days, received 2 bites.

Other family members using DEET were getting eaten alive.

I don't know WHY they didn't bug me, but the family was coming up with inventive ideas (ice water instead of blood, secretly a vampire etc etc)

[Brad from Georgia]

Mrs. from Georgia is a skeeter magnet. I get occasional bites, but they double-team her. If there is a mosquito in Augusta (175 miles away) and she goes out onto our deck, the Augusta skeeter packs his bags and hops a Greyhound for our neck of the woods. DEET seems to protect her. I generally spritz some on in the spring and summer when I'm out walking on the nature trail, concentrating on my socks and calves...not so much for mosquitoes, but because it seems to discourage ticks from creeping up my limbs. Ain't nothin' more off-putting than getting in the shower and discovering you got a great big ole grape-sized tick clinging to you.....

[DawnStorm]

Originally Posted by Brad from Georgia

Mrs. from Georgia is a skeeter magnet. I get occasional bites, but they double-team her. If there is a mosquito in Augusta (175 miles away) and she goes out onto our deck, the Augusta skeeter packs his bags and hops a Greyhound for our neck of the woods. DEET seems to protect her.

I'm the same way: if I don't put repellent on myself, expecially my legs, the local skeeters know it and come after me yelling DINNER TIME!!! and rubbing little knives and forks together.
Thanks Snopes, for posting that link--I've often wondered how repellent works. Sounds like a chemical clothespin on the skeeter's probosis.

Dawn--so how on earth could I forget to spritz myself last evening prior to walking the dogs??--Storm

[KaiTheInvader]

Originally Posted by snopes

Comment:
Recently I was informed that Mosquitoes have an aversion to RH- blood.
True, or false?

my experience has been the other way... my blood type is A-, and I seem to get bit by more mosquitos than anyone else. they seem to love me!

[Heavy B]

Living in Minnesota, I'm quite interested in this topic!

A bit off topic, but another question: can anyone comment on the effectivenss of those "mosquito traps" that put out carbon-dioxide, which is supposed to attract the little buggers and then a fan sucks them into a trap?

Stores here in Minnesota have a bunch of them...some run off of propane and others just plug into an outlet. Their adds (of course) make great claims of range and effectivenss, but I don't know anyone who has one, so I can't tell if it's something I should invest in for our cabin.

BTW, I HATE mosquito spray-on repellent! In my experience, it doesn't work well at all and it just makes your skin all nasty. But of course, YMMV.

[RCIAG]

Hubby's cousin had one of those CO2 traps & it worked in her yard because usually I am the mosquito repellent because generally they all eat me & leave others alone!

But I also wonder if it isn't a bit like those japanese beetle traps that sometimes attract MORE beetles to your yard since it puts out CO2. From what I can gather, the trap puts out CO2 which is what attracts mosquitos & they hit the trap & they're history. Wouldn't that mean it would just attract more skeeters?

[rlobinske]

Comment: I have been told many times that a lot of garlic in your diet
will repel Mosquitoes. True or false?

False.

Recently I was informed that Mosquitoes have an aversion to RH- blood.
True, or false?

False. The reasons some people are more attractive to mosquitoes than others is a complex subject currently undergoing a lot of investigation. The reasons are not yet understood, nor is it understood how a person's attractiveness can change over time.

A bit off topic, but another question: can anyone comment on the effectivenss of those "mosquito traps" that put out carbon-dioxide, which is supposed to attract the little buggers and then a fan sucks them into a trap?

This is complicated. They can attract and trap a lot of mosquitoes. In trials where they have been used in groups as a barrier or area denial (such as on a small island), they have been very effective. Studies that look at individual traps set in a residential yards found that they didn't significantly reduce mean mosquito activity. Factors like ambient wind, proximity to larval habitat, the local mosquito density and species (plus more) can influence the efficacy of the traps. It is possible for the traps to effectively reduce the local population if it is light, but if the local population is high enough, the trap can fill up every night and not make a dent in them. Different mosquito species react to attractants in different ways, so some will be more attracted to the trap than others. Addition of things like lights and other lure chemicals like octanol can alter the trap effectiveness for different species.

Overall on the traps, caveat emptor. They might work for you or they might not.

[Heavy B]

Originally Posted by RCIAG

Hubby's cousin had one of those CO2 traps & it worked in her yard because usually I am the mosquito repellent because generally they all eat me & leave others alone!

But I also wonder if it isn't a bit like those japanese beetle traps that sometimes attract MORE beetles to your yard since it puts out CO2. From what I can gather, the trap puts out CO2 which is what attracts mosquitos & they hit the trap & they're history. Wouldn't that mean it would just attract more skeeters?

Yeah, that's a good question. I've read the following claim: Since mosquitos generally stick around the area where they are hatched, a device like the CO2 trap will actually lower your mosquito population over time.

Now, that's assuming a number of things, but if those things are true (such as mosquitos not "migrating") then it seems to make sense to me.

Anyone know? thanks!

[Brad from Georgia]

Originally Posted by rlobinske

False.

.... In trials where they have been used in groups as a barrier or area denial (such as on a small island), they have been very effective. Studies that look at individual traps set in a residential yards found that they didn't significantly reduce mean mosquito activity....

Podner, Ah sez that any activity of any dang critter bent on suckin' mah precious blood is de facto mean.

[DawnStorm]

Originally Posted by RCIAG

But I also wonder if it isn't a bit like those japanese beetle traps that sometimes attract MORE beetles to your yard since it puts out CO2. From what I can gather, the trap puts out CO2 which is what attracts mosquitos & they hit the trap & they're history. Wouldn't that mean it would just attract more skeeters?

I mentioned the Japanese beetle paradox to my brother once and his reaction was 'but isn't that the point? To kill them?' I had no idea how to answer that question and I still don't. The best I can do is say that the traps attract more critters but isn't going to kill them all. What are those survivors going to do? Eat me alive, that's what! I find that eliminating standing water from my yard is the most effective way of control.

Dawn--but the skeeters still find me--Storm

[RCIAG]

But on the way to that beetle trap they hit my grape arbor & roses first.

[snopes]

Scientists at Rothamsted Research in the U.K. have been making headway at understanding why some people can end up with dozens of bites after a backyard barbecue, while others remain unscathed. The researchers have identified a handful of the body's chemical odors — some of which may be related to stress — that are present in significantly larger concentrations in people that the bugs are happier to leave alone. If efforts to synthesize these particular chemicals are successful, the result could be an all-natural mosquito repellent that is more effective and safer than products currently available.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...761528214.html

[rlobinske]

Originally Posted by snopes

Scientists at Rothamsted Research in the U.K. have been making headway at understanding why some people can end up with dozens of bites after a backyard barbecue, while others remain unscathed.

The research was done on biting midges, flies that belong to the family Ceratopogonidae and not on mosquitoes (family Culicidae).

Good first report of an effect, but there's been a lot of promising repellents that haven't panned out.