Wherever you turn during mosquito season you’ll hear an endless buzz of advice (zing!) about the best ways to protect yourself from the dreaded bites. My sister swears by A… I heard from a friend that mosquitoes hate the smell of B… That nice young man on Fox was talking about a new C that keeps ‘em away…
Shush. Just… shush.
Old wives’ tales and folksy wisdom have their place in healthcare, sure. That place, though, is strictly limited to giving you an excuse to drink whisky at midday to cure a cold. Mosquitoes, on the other hand, are serious business. West Nile virus, malaria and dengue fever can kill you dead, and if you’re trusting your life to advice you were given by your dear old grandma… well, you need to go back to school, son, and stay there until you’re ready for the real world.
There are more myths about mosquitoes than there are mosquitoes themselves, but here’s a selection of the worst offenders that need to stop right now.
Myth: If you eat bananas you’ll attract mosquitoes
Many people believe that you become more attractive to mosquitoes after eating bananas. It’s an idea that’s been making the rounds for many years, but it’s a theory with only a tiny factual grounding surrounded by a thick, gloopy layer of bull.
Here’s the factual part. Mosquitoes are attracted to lactic acid – or, at least, the byproducts of lactic acid present in your breath, sweat and anything else that’s pouring out of you (take a shower, for Christ’s sake). They’re also attracted to a whole bunch of other chemical and visual markers that you’re broadcasting 24/7, but lactic acid is one of the big ones.
Mosquito Magnet?
Lactic acid is a chemical compound that’s present in the body all the time – you don’t need to know what it does for the purpose of debunking this myth, but just believe me that it’s a thing. Now, in your day to day life the concentration of lactic acid swirling around your body will stay pretty stable. During high energy exercise, though, more lactic acid is produced than your body can get rid of, so the concentration builds up in your muscle tissue. If you’ve ever had a stitch, that’s a build up lactic acid taking its toll.
Now, here’s the science. Potassium helps break down lactic acid. Bananas are packed full of potassium, so the theory is that shortly after eating a banana you’ll start sweating out lactic acid by the bucketload, and a million mosquitoes will start fighting over you like a couple of hobos wrestling over a steak.
Now it’s easy to determine how this will affect you. Look down. Are you wearing running shoes? Are your thighs straining against skin tight Lycra? Are you covered in a sheen of sweat, and do you look like you just stepped off the set of a Nike commercial? No? Then feel free to eat a damned banana.
You see, potassium only breaks down lactic acid if you’re carrying extra stores that need breaking down. If the most strenuous exercise you’ve had today was peeling that banana then you won’t attract a single extra mosquito to your blubbery, sedentary form.
If, on the other hand, you’ve been performing anaerobic exercise for the last hour then maybe, just maybe, you’ll get a couple of extra nibbles from the mozzies. Bananas are damned tasty, though, so it’s not a bad trade.
Myth: Mosquitoes aren’t vitamin friendly
Another popular idea is that taking a vitamin B supplement (specifically B-1 – Thiamin) can somehow deter mosquitoes. One of the biggest factors keeping this idea alive is that the Mayo Clinic published an extremely guarded statement several years ago that claimed that vitamin B-1 ‘may slightly change your scent and offer some protection from insect bites.’
Supporters of the myth (including, no doubt, vitamin manufacturers) cite this as a glowing endorsement of the vitamin B theory. Unsurprisingly they usually leave out the final sentence in the publication: ‘However, this hasn’t been definitively proved.’
In fact, quite the opposite seems to be the case. A 2005 study published in the Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association showed absolutely no link between vitamin B and the level to which mosquitoes want to make sweet, sweet love to your ankle, and a Brazilian study around the same time concurred. To date there have been no major studies that have done anything but cast doubt on this steaming pile of…
Myth: Bats eat 600 mosquitoes per hour
A few years back there was some study (presumably conducted in the Bat Cave) that threw up some interesting numbers. It seems that bats looooove chowing down on mosquitoes to the tune of up to 10 each minute. The result of this was a widespread belief that you should encourage bat colonies to tackle the mosquito scourge in your neighbourhood. This seems like a fantastic idea. Fewer nasty mosquitoes, more cool bats. Win win, right?
Weeeeell, not really. It turns out that the ’600 mosquitoes an hour’ figure was reached under ideal lab conditions. The bats were trapped in a cage full of thousands upon thousands of mosquitoes, and like a poor student at a Sizzler salad bar they shovelled down as much food as possible before the management politely asked them to leave.
Mosquito Busters?
In the real world (i.e. your back yard) you’d need a ridiculous number of bats to have any impact on the local mosquito population. Bats in the wild will eat any insect they can find, so while they may pick off the occasional mosquito they’d eat many more other types of insect – some of which may feed on mosquitoes themselves. In the end it becomes a bit if a wash, with the added disincentive of having to clean up the huge piles of guano the bats leave behind.
Myth: Eating garlic will repel mosquitoes
Yet another food-based theory. It’s obvious where the garlic mosquito repellent myth came from, as garlic is one of the stinkiest foods any of us eat. My girlfriend will happily eat garlic cloves whole, and I’ve had to learn to love (or, at least, tolerate) the smell that can hang around for up to a few days.
The theory goes that garlic masks the odours of the human body that mosquitoes home in on, and as theories go it makes a sort of logical sense, provided you don’t bring facts into the mix.
The truth is that mosquitoes have a pretty limited sense of smell, and it doesn’t work in quite the same way as ours. While garlic may well act as a human repellent it won’t even be noticed by mosquitoes. The chances are that they aren’t even able to smell it, and even if they can smell garlic there’s no evidence that it puts them off their meal (i.e. you).
A 2005 study by the University of Connecticut Health Center proved that garlic has no measurable effect on mosquitoes. Volunteers were asked to eat lots of garlic on some days and a placebo on others, and the results showed no difference in the number of bites on any day.
In fact, just to put to bed the whole spectrum of ‘food and drink’ mosquito repellent theories, the only thing that has ever been proved to affect mosquito behaviour is good old alcohol. A 2002 study showed that volunteers who drank 350ml of beer were bitten significantly more than those who abstained. So, if you want to stay bite free you should just lay off the sauce.
Myth: Skin-so-Soft products repel mosquitoes
This one seems to pop up on Yahoo Answers every time the subject of mosquitoes comes up (to the extent that I suspect some kind of sneaky marketing campaign is afoot).
I should make it clear here that I’m referring to Avon Skin-so-Soft lotion rather than Skin-so-Soft Picaridin Bug Spray. I’ve never used the bug spray but I assume it works as advertised.
The lotion, though, is bunk. A University of Florida study showed that Skin-so-Soft lotion offer great protection from mosquitoes – truly amazing, incredible, perfect, flawless and bite-free protection.
For ten minutes.
Hell, I can keep mosquitoes at bay for ten minutes with a well-reasoned argument.
Myth: Listerine is a mosquito repellent
I’ve already covered this myth in greater detail in my Listerine mosquito repellent article, so I’ll just cover the main points here.
Sure, mosquitoes don’t like listerine. The eucalyptol in the popular mouthwash (floor cleaner, surgical antiseptic, cigarette brand… seriously, read about it) is often used in natural mosquito repellents to ‘blind’ the senses of mosquitoes. The problem is that the effect only lasts a few seconds. The alcohol in Listerine causes the liquid to vanish faster than a deadbeat dad faced with an alimony bill. It just evaporates and wafts off into the sky.
So, yeah, Listerine keeps you minty fresh, and using it will keep the mosquitoes out of your mouth. Maybe. Just don’t bother trying it anywhere else.
Myth: Electric bug zappers kill mosquitoes
Now I grew up in a country blissfully free of mosquitoes (the weather was too bad for both insects and any sort of civilisation), so it wasn’t until I grew up that I got to see a bug zapper in action. Last year I found myself staying for a couple of weeks in a small town in the south of India, and my host generously loaned me the use of one of those tennis racket shaped bug zapper things to fight the swarms of mosquitoes that hung around my roof garden.
I. Did. Nothing. For. A. Week.
Seriously. I’d just driven a tuk tuk the length of India so I was in pretty bad shape (I had a spine like a question mark after two weeks of bad roads and no suspension) so I just sat in the garden with a beer and exploded a few thousand mosquitoes. I really improved my evil cackle that week.
Unfortunately, bug zappers are only really good for mosquitocide on a tiny scale. I used the tennis racket zapper to great effect in the back of my tuk tuk (thousands of mosquitoes set up shop there each morning), but the fact is that the large bug zappers you’ll find on porches around the world don’t do squat to protect you.
Bug Zappers
There are a few reasons for this. First, most bug zappers attract insects using UV light. Mozzies don’t respond to UV. Can’t see it, couldn’t care less. Any mosquitoes that fly into a UV bug zapper are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Second, some bug zappers emit carbon dioxide to attract mosquitoes to a fiery death. These work, I suppose, but not in the way you’d want them to. While they probably do kill a lot of mosquitoes, the bugs they’re killing are only there because the zapper attracted them. Without the zapper they wouldn’t have bothered you anyway.
Finally, most of those satisfying little crackly explosions you see won’t be caused by mosquitoes. Percentage-wise, most of the insects caught in bug zappers will be absolutely harmless. Many, in fact, are beneficial – bug zappers catch a hell of a lot of mosquito-eating insects.
All in all, bug zappers are pretty useless for their intended purpose. If you love hearing that satisfying crackle, though, you can feel free to ignore me.
Myth: Certain plants repel mosquitoes
Let’s finish off with a tricky one. There’s a lot of confusion about mosquito repellent plants, and it’s always useful to work on facts rather than fiction.
Right, here we go…
You can plant your garden full to bursting with citronella, marigolds, catnip and any of the dozens of plants, trees and flowers claimed to repel mosquitoes, and it won’t do a single bit of good. You’ll still get just as many mosquitoes. You’ll still get just as many bites. The only benefit you’ll get is a nice looking garden. Full of bloody mosquitoes.
I’m not saying that these plants don’t have mosquito repellent properties – far from it. In fact, there’s an article right here on this site about the benefits of mosquito repellent plants.
No, what I’m saying is that the plants don’t repel mosquitoes just by their very presence. Citronella, for instance, has been used for years with great success in natural mosquito repellents, but the active ingredient that offers the protection has to be extracted from the plant before it’ll do anything.
Personally, I grow a lot of lemongrass in my back garden. I live in Thailand, and in this tropical climate it grows like you wouldn’t believe. Whenever I head out into the garden I grab a few leaves, tear them up and cover my hands with the sticky sap. This is the stuff that mosquitoes hate.
Another approach is to burn the leaves in a barbecue. The mosquito repelling oils will be aerosolised and released into the air.
So, you see, there are certain plants that repel mosquitoes. You just have to work a little to get them to perform.