DailyDirt: Keeping Mosquitoes Away...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Tue, May 3rd 2016 5:00pm — Michael Ho

The Zika virus has highlighted how much some of us hate mosquitoes. These biting insects aren't just annoying. They also spread horrible diseases. Previously, we've mentioned some plans for destroying all mosquitoes, but that's probably not the most environmentally-friendly way to go about preventing the spread of mosquito-borne infections. Also, some people seem to attract more bites than others, but how well do mosquito repellents actually work, anyway?

DEET (aka N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide) is the standard mosquito repellent, but there are a few other active ingredients that work about as well (or better in some cases). Products with picaridin and IR 3535 work about as well as DEET, and the oil of lemon eucalyptus (PMD) is a natural insect repellent that the CDC recommends. [url]
Another natural mosquito repellent comes from sweetgrass, a plant native to northern North America. Sweetgrass has been tested to work about as well as DEET for at least a few minutes, and researchers are trying to isolate the active ingredients that may keep pesky insects away. [url]
The use of DDT is controversial for preventing the spread of the Zika virus. The Zika virus doesn't kill adult humans, so the use of DDT and its effect on human health needs to be considered carefully before spraying it in an untargeted fashion. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: cdc, ddt, deet, disease, health, ir 3535, mosquitoes, picaridin, pmd, sweetgrass, zika virus

8 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Pixelation, 3 May 2016 @ 6:03pm

What ever happened?
I'm still waiting for the mosquito laser to come on line. I think Intellectual Ventures screwed the pooch on this one and needs to give the patent away. So much for the Intellect part.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mick Hamblen, 3 May 2016 @ 6:17pm

Keeping mosquitos away
Mosquitos don't like sulfur (MSM). I take sulfur supplements to keep the bugs away.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Digger, 3 May 2016 @ 7:21pm

2 other good repellents
Avon's Skin so soft and pure vanilla extract both work phenomenally well.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
psiuuuuuu (profile), 3 May 2016 @ 9:18pm

If you can, stop them before they hatch
Been using the Mosquito Bits/Dunks for a couple years now. They use a bacteria that kills the larvae in the water. Best approach is to get it out there before the first big wave of them hit - less breeding going on the better.

Been using other natural (but effective!) solutions for other pests - milky spore for Japanese beetles (bacteria kills the grubs in the soil), neem oil as a short lived and natural pesticide for aphid control.

Unleashed some monster earthworms here though. Hmmm....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ninja (profile), 4 May 2016 @ 7:31am

They are using malathion here to control the mosquitoes. It's almost like setting the crop on fire to control some plague. There are plenty of other approaches that don't involve using some dangerous substance but they would need better environmental practices. Too expensive.

I've seen some data in this field for São Paulo city and simply increasing green areas and generally lowering temperatures (paint roofs white!) has a big impact on the proliferation of the mosquito because it increases the length of its reproductive cycle.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2016 @ 7:33am

Thermacell's work shockingly well at keeping mosquito's at bay.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2016 @ 10:07am

Re: 2 other good repellents
Avon Skin So Soft was one of the products studied in the first link... looks like "phenomenally well" is a bit less effective than DEET both after initial application and 4hrs later?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Stacy Z, 4 Aug 2016 @ 12:24pm

I agree with "psiuuuu" that mosquito dunks work well to prevent larva from hatching. A propane mosquito trap works really well to eliminate a populations as well.
[ link to this | view in thread ]