In this article, we’ll share some practical and not-so-practical ways that you can use to keep mosquitoes away.
Let’s start.
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7 Simple Things You Can Do to Keep Mosquitoes Away
If you’re fighting a seemingly endless battle against mosquitoes, don’t despair. Instead, try the following simple yet effective tricks to enjoy pest-free time outdoors.
1. Sprays and Repellents
There are many natural and chemical sprays you can use to repel mosquitoes. One nifty trick is by using ⅓ hydrogen peroxide to ⅔ water. Use this DIY spray to repel mosquitoes from biting you and eating your guests.
Other options include Off! Spray, Caldrea multi-purpose sprays, and DEET.
2. Candles and Scents
Mosquitoes will stray from citronella and lemon smells when it comes to scents. You can also use cedarwood oil, lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus, and cloves, among other scented products.
3. Clothing
Netted clothing comes in handy for the actual bite from a mosquito. In addition, some clothing stores make clothes with synthetic Permethrin, which helps conquer mosquitoes. One other trick is to wear light-colored clothing such as white and khaki colors.
4. Plants
Pull out your gardening gloves because it’s time to plant some mosquito repellents such as:
- Catnip
- Lemon balm
- Marigold
- Garlic
- Peppermint
- Ageratum
- Scented geraniums
- Monarda
When it comes to planting, and watering your plants, ensure you clean up any excess pools of water as mosquitoes like to breed in low-lying stagnant water.
5. Lighting
Mosquitoes don’t perceive light and color the way you do. Instead, they use natural light to navigate their destinations. However, some lights such as red and yellow will NOT repel mosquitoes but rather make it more difficult for them to see us.
6. Clean Yard
One thing that attracts these mini vampires is a messy yard. So ensure you rid your yard of stagnant water, keep your lawn mowed, clear wet woodpiles, and trim back bushes that create shadows.
7. Good Hygiene
Mosquitoes are attracted to carbon dioxide and to your sweat and the pheromones you naturally give off. You will wash off these scent trails and avoid getting bitten by maintaining good hygiene.
Good hygiene consists of brushing your teeth often, washing your hands, changing your sweaty clothes, and patting yourself down with a cool, wet cloth on hot days.
What Is the Best Thing to Keep Mosquitoes Away?
Dawn and dusk are when the mosquitoes like to come out the most. So, during these hours of the day, if you need to go outside for any reason, keep tight-fitting long sleeve shirts handy. In addition, it’s always a good idea to have rain boots or toe-covering shoes on hand for mosquito season.
When wearing protective clothing, there are tricks to keep mosquitoes away, such as:
- Spray your clothing with repellent options
- Bright colors as they don’t attract much heat
- Tight clothing makes it harder for mosquitoes to bite through
- Buy permethrin-treated clothing
- Mesh clothing
Mainly, avoidance tactics such as not going outside when they come out the most and screening all windows will keep mosquitoes away. While using plants and scents to repel them works well, sprays are your ultimate go-to.
There are many homemade spray recipes online. However, you can almost make any mosquito repellent scent together with a dash of water, and voila, you have your solution. However, be careful, as some ingredients may be harmful to sensitive skin.
Pro Tip: You can add coconut to the mixture for sensitive skin people, which will help your skin stay soft and protect you from the heat during the hot summer months.
What helps keep mosquitoes away involves some main ingredients that you can add to almost any repellent mixture :
- Coconut oil
- Tea tree oil
- Neem oil
- Lemon
- Any citrus-scented oil
The best way to keep mosquitoes away is by wearing protective clothing and using different types of sprays explicitly designed for mosquito repellent.
How to Keep Mosquitoes Away from Your Yard?
There are more than likely to be mosquito infestations no matter where you live. As much as you try to keep those pesky critters away, that won’t stop them from breeding in your neighbor’s yard.
So, what really works to keep mosquitoes away from your backyard is dedication, financing, and patience. So, try these things to help keep mosquitoes out of your yard.
Cover Your Patio
Patios with netted walls and mosquito nets tend to do the trick when keeping mosquitoes out of the yard. However, there may still be tiny openings that mosquitoes will get through – which is why plants and certain scents come in handy.
Use & Burn Plants That Repel Mosquitoes
Whether you’re planning a backyard campfire or just enjoying the nightly breeze, there are a few herbs you can burn that won’t hurt you and will surely get rid of any mosquitoes in the area.
Burning plants such as:
- Lavender
- Sage
- Mint
- Citronella
- Lemon balm
All work as a temporary method. Once the herb stops burning, you can expect the resilient, stubborn creature to return.
Use Lights That Don’t Attract Mosquitoes
Yellow and red lights should not be permanent but used with other preventative measures.
Blue and green lights attract mosquitoes the most, as they use light to see where they are going. Bright lights such as outdoor street lights blind their vision, so they will automatically choose a different route.
Use Nets
As previously mentioned, nets are a great way to protect patios from pesky mosquitoes. However, nets can work for more than just a deck.
You can purchase nets specifically for your cozy hammock, tent, or outdoor eating area that will let you enjoy the fresh air and scenery without the annoyance of mosquitoes.
Use Scented Candles
While citronella is the most wide-known scent to keep mosquitoes away, it doesn’t always do the trick. Scented candles only work for a small distance – about 3 feet.
Other scented candles such as cinnamon, lavender, forest and wood smells, minty fragrances, and clove scents work wonders. Try adding your own essential oils to a burning candle as a way to keep mosquitoes away.
Remove Standing Water
If your backyard obtains a fish pond or water gardens, there are ways to keep mosquitoes away, providing shelter for the standing water. Standing water consists of swampy marsh areas and ponds.
Enforce netting around each pond or swampy area, and keep potted plants such as geraniums and mint herbs surrounding the garden.
Use Sprays
It’s good to keep mosquitoes away by using sprays. You can literally spray them on anything – yourself, your furniture, buildings, surrounding areas, etc. The two best sprays include:
- Hydrogen Peroxide: Make sure to use only 3% peroxide as anything heavier can hurt your plants. Hydrogen peroxide works to kill larvae the best.
- Cedar Oil: You can get cedar oil from essential oils and pine or conifer trees, as well as some household sprays. Cedar oil works as a repellent because it dehydrates mosquitoes and interrupts their pheromones – a tool used to help them return to their desired destination.
Keep Your Yard Maintenance Under Control
Mosquitoes like to hide in tall grass and breed in stagnant water. So ensure you mow your grass weekly. It’s also a good idea to build a barrier where your yard may flood and cover hard-to-clean still water areas.
The methods used above are only preventative measures and last only temporarily. Feel free to combine one technique with a couple of others for a more effective way to keep mosquitoes away.
How to Keep Mosquitoes Away Outdoors?
Keeping mosquitoes away from you while you’re outside in their natural habitat can be difficult. However, the following tricks can help.
Use Fans Even Outdoors
A research study found that fans outside repel mosquitoes by pushing them away through the wind. However, fans also mask the smell of carbon dioxide and other bodily odors, which makes it harder for the mosquito to navigate where you are.
Keep Covered and Use Repellent
Pre-treated permethrin clothing significantly helps in reducing mosquito bites. Although, if this is not an option for you, opt for tight light-colored clothing. Light colors consist of bright blues, yellows, pink, and orange.
Your best bet is to stick to white, beige, and khaki. These colors help to keep you cool, which means less sweat, leading to fewer mosquitoes. However, clothing with red, black, dark purples or dark greens stands out the most to these critters, so it’s best to avoid wearing that at all costs.
However, you likely won’t want to add layers on scorching days. Instead, consider covering your outdoor space with a shelter, nets, or mesh.
What’s the Best Way to Keep Mosquitoes Away Outside?
The primary reason for mosquito infestation is stagnant water. Many people have pools, fountains, fish ponds, or water drainage from gutters that attract mosquitoes.
The good news is that there is no need to get rid of anything that makes your yard look beautiful. Instead, the best way to keep mosquitoes away outside is to protect yourself.
Protect Yourself
Luckily mosquitoes have many weaknesses such as smells, types of clothing, and windy atmospheres. There are numerous ways to take preventative action and protect yourself, such as the following.
- Use Mesh Coverings: One of the best ways to keep mosquitoes away outside is by using mosquito nets with holes about 1.2mm wide. Another excellent investment is insecticide-treated nets, which can kill the mosquitoes with one touch.
- Please Take Advantage of Smells: Mosquitoes use their scent glands to find food sources. Scents such as floral, blood, sweat, and CO2 attract these deadly critters. However, you can wear certain strong smells like eucalyptus as a protective measure.
- Invest in Effective Repellent: Repellents such as citronella, mosquito lamps, and scented candles are potential temporary fixes. Or you can consider industrial fans and mosquito misting systems for superior protection.
Other Preventative Measures:
- Check for any stagnant water.
- Keep your lawn tidy.
- Ensure all woodpiles are tightly tied up.
Pro Tip: If all else fails and mosquitoes are still creating a nuisance, it may be time to protect yourself from mosquitoes by calling in the professionals. They use heavy-duty equipment to rid your yard of those pests.
How to Keep Mosquitoes off You?
Not only are mosquitoes annoying, but they also carry diseases. The last thing anyone wants is to develop a mosquito-infested disease on their summer holidays. So while there are ways to treat mosquito bites, the goal is to become less attractive to mosquitoes.
Avoid Scented Body Products
Here’s a simple motto: Less fragrance, more DEET.
DEET is a key ingredient in Off!, Deep Woods, and Cutter Skinsations products. Unfortunately, while it’s nice to smell good with flowery or Gucci perfumes, these scents are essentially mosquito bait.
Mosquitoes know when a human is nearby because of the smells. Floral fragrances, carbon dioxide, and sweat are just a few smells that attract mosquitoes. As such, hygiene is critical. You must eliminate body odor instead of masking it with a fragrance.
Mosquitoes attack you mainly because your sweat has dried on your skin, and now you have covered it up with perfume, driving them straight to you.
When using hygienic products to keep mosquitoes away, ensure you use unscented products or deterring scents such as mint, lemon, or forest.
Wear Light Colored Clothing
Dark colors cause you to sweat more often and create a shady resting place for the mosquito eye. Whereas with light-colored clothing, you won’t sweat nearly as much, which will help in not releasing as much CO2. Where there is no scent trail, there is no mosquito.
Use Repellant
Lemongrass, mint, garlic, and lavender are all effective repellent methods because their scents are so strong. However, mosquitoes avoid these natural plants and pungent aromas because they prevent the insects from finding food sources.
Repellents such as mosquito sprays, tight clothing, and mesh shelters with fans work together to create a helpful mosquito deterrent.
Time of Day
Mosquitoes like to come out during the colder parts of the day, so they don’t get dehydrated or too hot. Think the wee hours at dawn – just before the sun rises, and dusk, when the sun begins to set. Avoid these times of day as much as possible.
While these methods are effective, they are not the cure-all solution. Ensure you have closed all windows and doors or keep screens on everything when you are inside.
If you happen to notice a few bloodsuckers in your home, check to see if there is stagnant water anywhere in your household to stop them from breeding.
What Can You Put on to Keep Mosquitoes Away?
Wearing tight clothing and avoiding perfume sprays may not be enough to keep mosquitoes away. However, the type of fabric you wear can be a more effective treatment.
Pre-treated fabric protects you from mosquitoes. Common brands include:
- L.L. Bean’s No-Fly Zone
- Insect Shield
- ExOfficio
The clothes include a Permethrin treatment. You can purchase Permethrin at almost any grocery store and apply it to your clothes.
However, always read the label for safety warnings and keep it away from your skin and face. After applying Permethrin, check that your clothes are completely dry before wearing them.
Products containing Permethrin and picaridin work like an insecticide. Permethrin will not stop mosquitoes from landing on you; however, it will poison them upon biting you. On the other hand, picaridin repels mosquitoes from going near you due to the strong smell.
While some lotions and fragrances attract mosquitoes, there are several you can use to deter mosquitoes. Look for lotions that include DEET, picaridin, and Permethrin ingredients.
Vicks Vapor Rub is another solution, thanks to its strong smell that mosquitoes hate. However, while Vicks is effective, the odor may be too much for some people. In these cases, you can opt for aloe vera creams.
Aloe vera has a gentle cooling agent that helps keep you cool. While you stay cool, you don’t attract mosquitoes as much – as they only arrive when they sense CO2 and heat.
What Keeps Mosquitoes Away Naturally?
There are many natural preventative measures to repel mosquitoes, including essential oils, sprays, plants, household products, and clothing. If you’re someone who prefers natural remedies, here are some practical ideas:
Plants & Vegetables
When it comes to yard maintenance, investing in gazebos, mosquito zappers, and screens can leave you with a massive bill. To avoid such a large investment, consider a more natural option.
If you love the outdoors – especially gardening – you may want to opt for growing plants and vegetables.
The vegetables that are most repellent for mosquitoes are:
- Garlic and onions
- Peppermint
- Lemon Thyme
- Lemon Basil
- Rosemary
- Chilli Peppers
- Tomatoes
- Grapefruit
These vegetables and fruit are not only good to grow to repel mosquitoes, eating these ingredients, but it will also make your blood less appetizing to the small critter.
Fruits and veggies are not the only things you can plant for an effective repellent. Some flowers and plants will do the same trick as well. These include:
- Catnip
- Beebalm
- Marigolds
- Lemongrass
- Floss flower
- Citronella
- Citrosum
- Sage
- Pennyroyal
Not only will these plants make your yard beautiful and more desirable, but they will also help in keeping mosquitoes away.
Household Items
Vinegar, dryer sheets, coffee grounds, and neem oil are natural household items that repel mosquitoes.
Vinegar works as a potent smell to chase mosquitoes away. However, it is only effective for a short amount of time. Dryer sheets will work if they have certain scents, like lemongrass or sage.
Coffee grounds work as a repellent, but you need to burn them first. Finally, neem oil helps rid scent trails for mosquitoes and other insects.
Lemon Eucalyptus Oil
People commonly use lemon eucalyptus oil to repel mosquitoes and other pests, although it also relieves pain, skin conditions, and respiratory infections. The natural insect repellent in lemon eucalyptus oil is para-menthane-3,8-diol (PMD), totaling about a 10% concentration.
Light-Colored Clothing
When you wear dark-colored clothing, you sweat more and emit more carbon dioxide. Both CO2 and sweat attract mosquitoes, so you can expect more mosquitos to visit you while wearing such dark clothes.
On the other hand, light-colored clothing helps you sweat less as it doesn’t absorb the sun’s rays as much.
What Can I Spray To Keep Mosquitoes Away?
As mentioned, vinegar is known to repel mosquitoes, so adding vinegar to any spray used as a repellent significantly increases your chances of keeping mosquitoes away from you. Aside from vinegar, there are other sprays, such as synthetic insecticides, mainly used by professionals.
All-Natural Sprays
When you’re looking for quick fixes but don’t want to harm yourself or your household with chemical-induced sprays, there are options for you:
- Hello Bello Organci bug spray
- All Terrain Kids Herbal Armor Natural insect repellent
- Medella Naturals INsect and Mosquito Repellent
- California Baby Plant-Based Natural Bug Spray
You can find these in any drug or grocery store and safely use them on kids and babies.
Synthetic Insecticides
The most common synthetic insecticide ingredient is Permethrin, and picaridin is specifically used for mosquitoes and helps with ticks and other pesky bugs. Other synthetic insecticides include:
- Horticultural – dormant oils used for soft-body insects.
- Botanical – found in neem oil and is mainly extracted from plants and flowers
- Microbial – contain micro-organisms mainly found in garden feeding products.
- Essential oils
DIY Sprays
Homemade sprays are mainly water mixed with essential oils or safe household products such as vinegar or mint herbs. Some ideas are:
- Witch Hazel Spray: One-third cup of witch hazel and 40 drops of witch hazel essential oil. Shake the ingredients in an equal amount of water and spray away.
- Lemon Juice: Add 2 cups of water to three freshly squeezed lemons to a pot or frying pan and wait for it to boil. Let it sit for an hour and wait for it to completely cool before adding the mixture to a spray bottle.
- Water-Based: Combine four tablespoons of lemon juice and vanilla extract, 15 drops of lavender essential oil, and water in a spray bottle. Spray away!
Sprays are the easiest method to keep mosquitoes away. However, combining them with other methods means your summer months should be a breeze and mosquito-free.
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