The best mosquito repellent spray. The best mosquito repellents in apartments and outdoors

As the sun sets, every person in Southeast Asia realizes how freely not only he, but also all kinds of creatures live here. In particular, to our microscopically smaller brothers - mosquitoes. In hot climates, vampiric insects cause us not only annoying itching of the skin, but sometimes even bigger troubles - Dengue fever, for example, from which no vaccinations for today. Or, Buddha forbid, some kind of Japanese.

Therefore, everyone has to struggle and look for the best mosquito repellents in warm countries, but not everyone succeeds. Therefore, we poison ourselves every day with chemical repellents that are undoubtedly effective, but unsafe for health, and contain real poisons.

I write a lot about the safety of cosmetics, and Lately I am increasingly looking for truly natural and harmless alternatives to conventional industrial creams, lotions, etc. Mosquito repellents are not considered cosmetics, but their toxins successfully penetrate the body through the skin, and there is no telling what they can do to it. This is especially true in relation to children.

Last winter, I firmly set myself the goal of finding the safest natural and effective substance that would reliably and all night scare away bloodsuckers from the tender and his ancestors sleeping nearby. I report on the research results.

Cloves and lime. Effective, but not for long.

Not the best repellents based on natural oils - essential oils

If it seemed to someone now that I am a bored housewife who, out of nothing to do, is engaged in dubiously practical research, then in vain, citizens. We have to keep up and , and travel, and work out for my son, and leave a place in my life for my favorite hobby. Time, therefore, is priceless for me. And there is no time to perform alchemy: the first thing that comes to mind when looking for harmless repellents is to use industrial bottles, in which, however, the active ingredient is vegetable oils.

Diethyltoluamide (DEET) is the most popular active substance modern means from mosquitoes. Pesticide. Its effect on the human body and environment little has been studied, but it is known that its small concentrations in fresh water lead to a reduction in the population of trout, tilapia, and the destruction of zooplankton.
It has been recorded that Bolivian anacondas began to decline in numbers when tourists on the rivers began to actively use DEET-based repellents...

In life-saving In Thailand, I have long noticed anti-mosquito products with citronella essential oil. The cost is about 50 baht. The smell is fresh-warm-citrus, not very pleasant to my sense of smell, but we are interested in the result. But it was unsatisfactory: in order to even begin to repel mosquitoes, it was necessary to spray a huge amount of product. And then the effect lasted no more than half an hour. Expensive, ineffective, smelly.

Aroma candles with citronella - creative and practical

Citronella, or lemongrass, is an Asian herb. Its essential oil is widely used in perfumes and cosmetics and has powerful healing effects and aphrodisiac properties.

Later, I noticed that a thick mass of similar products with citronella oil is sold in stores in Southeast Asia - different brands, consistently higher prices than regular repellents and ineffectiveness. We happily forget about them and move on.

Clove-lemon homemade mosquito bomb

Forums and social networks are a scary thing. In our Thai women's group, one participant shared a household life hack. Cut a lemon or lime in half, stick clove buds into it, which , we place the whole thing at the head of the bed at night. Supposedly not a single mosquito should fly up. Like, reinforced concrete and pacifist defense.

Repellent based on natural essential oils - not only safe method protection from mosquitoes, but also a pacifist method that would approve. 🙂 Suitable for vegetarians.

I checked. It works, but not for long - maybe for two hours the insects really don’t arrive, and then they continue their bloody raids on the sleeping human body.

It’s not good, because I’m not ready to wake up every two hours at night to go cut off a new lemon and build a clove-citrus anti-mosquito bomb out of it.

However, this experiment led me to a truly perfect weapon against peddlers. and all kinds of malaria.

Clove oil - a nuclear mosquito repellent for children and adults

What works for us when we scare away bloodsuckers by sticking a clove into a lemon? Smell. And it forms its essential oil in spices, which under the activating influence citric acid, probably begins to be more actively released into the atmosphere. If so, we urgently need to find glove essential oil and check whether we are thinking correctly.

Attention! Essential oils are a very aggressive substance that should never be applied to the skin in its pure form to avoid burns, severe irritation and allergic reactions.

Further - as according to Coelier: as soon as I thought about it and really desired it, the whole universe sent me a funny friend Jerry from London. He was so imbued with sympathy for our family that one day he brought me a sack of expensive, unopened Western cosmetics and at the same time a bottle of the purest clove essential oil made by Great Britain. I pay so much attention to this point only because find natural oils good quality very difficult. Perhaps in some . Besides coconut, of course, at least drink that.

In fact, as the not very advanced me later found out, clove oil is of quite good quality on Aliexpress - about 400 rubles. Delivery almost all over the world. For those who prefer stability and solidity to the somewhat lottery quality of goods from a Chinese site, go directly to the product on iHerb. Always excellent quality, everyone's favorite store!

1. You take a few drops of ether, mix it thoroughly with base oil or regular cream, and apply the resulting mixture to your body. I used ordinary coconut oil as a basis - it is much lighter than others and is absorbed faster, without leaving greasy marks on the skin, without staining clothes and bed. You sleep all night without any bites or ringing above your ear!
2. You drip essential oil onto the aroma lamp, turn it on in the dark - not a single mosquito flies into the house!

Summary: Clove essential oil is truly natural and safe against vampire insects. If you dilute it in a vegetable oil base or high-quality organic cosmetics, we have nothing more to wish for. Because a perfect mosquito repellent, mega-effective and completely harmless even for babies and older children, has been discovered.

The only possible disadvantage is individual intolerance, allergic reactions to a specific oil. But there is room for maneuver here, gentlemen. After all, there are...

Other essential oils which mosquitoes are afraid of

Esters have a similar effect:

• lavender;
• sandalwood;
• geraniums;
• the notorious citronella.

I have ranked them from strong to weak repellent properties. But other than natural clove and citronella spray, I haven’t tested it personally yet.

However, it turned out funny with Organique hand cream with essential oils of lavender and pelargonium. Remember in the review I told you that the Thais lightly mixed oils with oils, and it turned out very fragrant? So, thanks to this imperfection, the anti-mosquito effect of the cream was noticed, and I successfully used it, including as a repellent. Worked flawlessly! 🙂

By the way, famous brand on natural basis Abhaibhubejhr also makes a repellent made with citronella essential oil. After writing this article, I tried it and found that it still works well. Perhaps it's a matter of different manufacturers...

There is some problem with buying high-quality essential oils: a huge number of them are sold “de-watered” with chemicals and fragrances, and high-quality ones, by definition, are not cheap. When my bottle from Jerry ran out, and in It turned out to be very difficult with stores, I got used to making my own light clove oil specifically for the purpose of repelling ringing and biting insects. I will definitely tell you about this next time!

With wishes good night no mosquitoes, sincerely yours, meticulous lover of natural remedies, Asian Marta.

Still water - favorable place for mosquito breeding. This is where insects lay their eggs. Add coffee grounds into standing water, then the eggs will rise to the surface and be deprived of oxygen. This way they will die and you will prevent the bloodsuckers from multiplying.

Mosquito bites itch just as much as horsefly bites. Scratching a swollen area can cause infection. Folk and home remedies will help you avoid the consequences.

How to prevent mosquitoes

There is an opinion that mosquitoes do not carry yellow. If wearing yellow clothes does not help get rid of annoying insects, try effective home methods for getting rid of mosquitoes.

Tightening the openings

A simple way to prevent mosquitoes from appearing in your home is to cover the vents and windows with mosquito nets. Balcony doors cover with curtains and the ventilation holes with gauze.

The advantage of this method is that mosquitoes will not enter the house. But if you tightened the openings at the moment when mosquitoes were in the room, you will have to get rid of them in other ways.

Using smells

Mosquitoes cannot tolerate the smells of elderberry, bird cherry, geranium, chamomile and basil. Place branches and bunches of herbs with a repellent smell throughout the rooms, then mosquitoes will not fly into the room.

The smell of tomato seedlings also helps get rid of bloodsuckers. They cannot tolerate the aroma of tomato tops. Place the seedlings under the windows, on the balcony or on the windowsill - the mosquito’s desire to fly into the room will disappear immediately.

Turn on the electric fumigators

The active substance of fumigators can be dry - applied to a plate, or liquid - in a bottle. When the active substance evaporates, toxic fumes are released. Mosquitoes stop biting after 15 minutes, and after 2 hours they die.

The disadvantage of this method is that toxic fumes are harmful to humans, so electric fumigators can only be used with windows wide open.

If the liquid in the electric fumigator has evaporated, add eucalyptus extract - the effect will be the same.

A quick way to get rid of mosquitoes

The smoke of camphor will help to quickly expel incoming mosquitoes from the room. Pour camphor into a heated frying pan and mosquitoes will quickly leave the house. The smoke is safe for humans, but deadly for mosquitoes.

Carnation

1. Add 1 sachet of dried to 1 glass of water.
2. Boil for 3 minutes.
3. Cool and mix with cologne.
4. Process open areas mosquito repellent skin.

Clove oil is effective. Drop it on your clothes, stroller, treat your tent - mosquitoes will not get close to the smell.

woodlouse

Rub the exposed areas of the body with woodlice. According to experienced summer residents, after the procedure, mosquitoes do not fly close.

How to get rid of mosquitoes at home

Folk remedies for mosquitoes are harmless to humans. This explains the popularity of their use.

Garlic

1. Crush 4-6 cloves of garlic and boil them in a glass of water for 5-7 minutes.
2. Pour the product into a spray bottle and spray in the room.

Lavender oil

Mosquitoes hate the smell of lavender oil. There is a way to get rid of mosquitoes at home: spray the oil in the room, and the mosquitoes will leave the room in 30 minutes.

We found out how to choose an effective mosquito repellent and what to pay attention to in the composition so as not to poison yourself along with the insects.

In the bracelet - don't bite!

The first thing we did was go to stores and pharmacies and buy all the available repellents - remedies for blood-sucking insects. Among them were: sprays, dry lotion, and an “anti-mosquito” bracelet. “There are almost no creams and gels on sale anymore,” the saleswoman threw up her hands, “they are less convenient to apply, the products are sticky, but the effect is the same as that of sprays.”

Afterwards, the journalists made a collective foray into nature, where everyone used one of the purchased products. The results of our subjective test are in the table. The most ineffective products we found were Mosquitall, Picnic and the disgusting smelling Komarex, which, by the way, guaranteed that when sprayed on clothes it would repel insects for up to 30 days (!). The most expensive French product, Moustidose, approved even for infants, fought mosquitoes well, but left yellow spots on white clothes. In addition, the importers did not bother to translate into Russian what exactly the spray is made of.

Gardex products, Off dry lotion and the Mosquitall anti-mosquito bracelet, which smells very strong, so it’s better to wear it on your leg rather than your hand, managed a solid B. Not for the 4-5 stated hours, but for 1-2 with them we really forgot about the mosquitoes.

Directly to the liver

The packaging of most products says that you can spray them 2-3 times a day, not more often. But doctors do not advise using repellents systematically. The point is that they active substances- poisons that are absorbed by the body and absorbed into the blood, after which... they “hit” the liver.

“The higher the concentration of chemicals in the product, the greater the chance that the liver will be damaged,” says Elena Vovk, clinical pharmacologist, associate professor at Moscow State Medical and Dental University. - Prolonged high concentrations of toxins require a supply of essential phospholipids, antioxidants and enzymes for recovery cell membranes. Otherwise, steatosis and fibrosis of the liver develop.”

Similarly - devices that are inserted into an outlet and kill insects using pyrethroid poisons. It is generally accepted that they are harmless to humans, however, if used for more than 3 hours per indoors excess poison enters the blood through the respiratory system. Allergy sufferers even have Quincke's edema.

Ultrasound for a mosquito

Ultrasonic mosquito repellers and biotraps that imitate...humans are widely available on sale.

“Female mosquitoes react to exhaled carbon dioxide, body heat, and skin odor,” says Lyudmila Petrozhitskaya, senior researcher at the Insect Ecology Laboratory at the Institute of Animal Systematics and Ecology. “There are traps that recreate such an environment, lure mosquitoes and destroy them, but these are complex and, as a result, expensive devices.” According to the majority of scientists we interviewed, less than 30 thousand rubles. Such a device cannot cost, and those numerous “catchers” that are sold in metro passages for 1-2 thousand rubles are a hoax.

The situation is similar with ultrasonic repellers. We tried three free programs for Iphone: both mosquitoes and dogs were indifferent to their ultrasound (the developers also promised to scare them away). But the participants in the experiment had a headache.

“There are more than 100 species of mosquitoes in Russia,” the Institute of Systematics and Animal Ecology explained to AiF, “their alarm sounds may differ, so there is no universal ultrasound that protects against all mosquitoes.”

What mosquito repellents should you choose?

Repellents for use on clothing and skin

Active ingredients: pesticides. The most common are diethyltoluamide (DEET), toluene ethyl ester, carboxide, oxamate and rebemide.

How they work: chemicals kill body odor pleasant to mosquitoes and repel insects. They come in the form of a spray, bracelets for arms and legs, lotions, gels and creams, but the latter are no longer popular.

Important: The concentration of the chemical is indicated on the packaging. More than 40% - may be hazardous to health, 20-30% - protection for adults for 2-3 hours, 10-15% - low protection, but only such products can be chosen by allergy sufferers, pregnant and lactating women, children under 3 years old .

Fumigators indoor and outdoor

Active ingredients: insecticides are volatile poisons that are safe for people in small doses.

How they work: when heated, the poison (may be in a plate, gel, liquid) begins to evaporate, and its microdoses kill insects.

There are two types of fumigators:

1. Pyrotechnics - spirals and candles. The release of a toxic substance begins 10-15 minutes after ignition. They are used only in nature.

2. Electric - those that operate from an outlet. Their effect in a room of 20 m² is evident within 1 hour, so there is no need to keep the fumigator plugged in all night.

Important: You should not be near an active fumigator.

Ultrasonic repellers

How they work: portable - on AA batteries or rechargeable batteries, stationary (installed on site), powered by solar panels or from the network.

Active ingredients: The device produces a sound of the same frequency that mosquitoes hear from males during an alarm and, when frightened, fly away from the source of the sound.

Important: The idea of ​​a repeller is very popular with scammers - there are hundreds of fakes for ultrasonic repellers. Determining what works and what doesn’t is no longer possible even for professionals.

Folk remedies

Essential oils of clove, basil, anise and eucalyptus. They must be diluted with vegetable oil and apply to exposed parts of the body every 20-30 minutes.

If you are a tasty morsel for mosquitoes, but do not want to use various chemicals, these natural mosquito repellents are especially for you! Read on for the most interesting...

Why are natural mosquito repellents better?

Natural mosquito repellents are considered the most harmless to the human body. Of course, modern industry offers a lot effective means to combat mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects. But I don’t really want to spray them in the bedroom and breathe them all night.

This is especially unsafe for children and those who suffer from allergies.

Therefore, the best and safest protection against bloodsuckers is still the proven methods of grandparents.

• One hundred grams of camphor, evaporated over a burner, will rid even very large rooms of flies and mosquitoes.
• In the old days, a decoction of wheatgrass roots, one of the most common weeds, was used to repel mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects.
• You can use finely chopped fresh leaves and flowers of bird cherry or basil.
• The smell of cloves, basil, anise and eucalyptus also repels mosquitoes. Any of the oils of these plants can be used for protection - just lubricate exposed skin, or drop the oil into cologne (5-10 drops), as well as on a fire source - in a fireplace, fire, on a candle or a heated frying pan. Moisten a cotton pad with the oil of these plants and place it on the windowsill.
• Oil tea tree can also be used as a repellent¹, it also helps against bites.
• Plant under your windows country house elderberry or a bed of tomatoes. Bring fresh elderberry branches into your rooms; they repel mosquitoes in the same way as the smell of tomato leaves.
• If you decide to sit in nature, boil a samovar on pine or spruce cones, or throw lightly dried juniper needles into the fire.
• Old folk remedy against mosquitoes - Persian, Dalmatian or Caucasian chamomile (aka pyrethrum). Dried inflorescences, stems and leaves of these types of chamomile, crushed into powder, are amazing nerve cells insects It is enough to place a few bouquets of chamomile around your apartment or house, and you will be free from mosquitoes for a week.
• The smell of cedar oil repels not only mosquitoes, but also flies and cockroaches.
• Not a single insect will touch your face if you wash your face with a decoction of. It’s easy to prepare a decoction: a handful of chopped roots are poured with one and a half liters of water, brought to a boil and left to infuse.