Gosh, why do people hate mosquitoes so much? After all, they just want a little blood.
Actually, giving blood is the easy part. It's what mosquitoes leave behind that causes all the problems-a little bit of their saliva containing an enzyme to make your blood flow faster. And it's our allergic reaction to the saliva that makes this little insect such a big nuisance.
To understand what works in preventing bites, it helps to learn something about how the mosquito operates. First, males don't bite. The females are the ones causing all the problems. They need the blood to produce eggs, and they're well-skilled in how to find it. A mosquito can home in on a human by smell, sight and, at close range, body temperature.
Of those three senses, its ability to smell is greatest. A mosquito can detect the carbon dioxide from your breath and skin from up to 100 feet away.
Second, mosquitoes need standing water in which to lay their eggs. Just a little bit-in an old tire, tin can, stump or stopped-up gutter-for a few days is all the mosquito needs to lay several hundred eggs. After a few days, the eggs can hatch, and the cycle repeats itself.
Playing defense.
A logical place to start in defending yourself is to get rid of places that collect water. Simple, perhaps, but a thousand eggs here, a thousand eggs there, and pretty soon you're talking some real numbers.
Folklore has spread plenty of rumors on how to kill mosquitoes and avoid their bites. Most don't work-at least to any real effect. But here's something that does: a combination of DEET and permethrin.
"It's still the gold standard," says Dr. Mark Fradin, a dermatologist in Chapel Hill, N.C. "It's what the military uses."
Fradin became interested in the subject after his patients kept asking for advice on insect repellents. "When I tried to answer their questions, I realized there wasn't good information readily available," he says. "The data was out there, but it was never put together in one place."
DEET (short for N, N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide) is what most people already use in the form of OFF! and Cutter's sprays and lotions. Available in several concentrations, the repellent works by blocking the mosquito's ability to smell its prey-the stronger the concentration, the longer the protection will last. For most cases, 10% to 35% will be adequate.
But can something created by USDA way back in 1946 possibly still be safe today? Repeated studies show that if used correctly, DEET is indeed an extremely safe product.
For added protection, spray the insecticide permethrin (brand name Permanone, found in the hunting section of Wal-Mart) on the inside and outside of your clothes, and allow it to dry. Unlike DEET, it does not repel insects. Instead, it kills any that happen to land or crawl on treated fabric. It too has low toxicity.
How powerful are DEET and permethrin together? In a field trial in heavily populated mosquito areas in Alaska, persons using the combination had 99.9% protection-one bite per hour. And those unprotected? They got 1,188 bites per hour.
And if, by some chance, you're one of those people who say mosquito bites aren't a bother, keep your eye on news of the West Nile virus. First reported in New York in 1999, the deadly virus carried by mosquitoes was found in 12 states the very next year. Fradin believes it's probable that the virus will spread to most of the rest of the nation.
"It's just a matter of time," he says. "It's almost a guarantee."