Tips on how to avoid mosquitos, ticks, flies and other annoying bugs
This Week In The HSI Healthier Talk Community
Bugs, be gone!
If you want to avoid mosquitoes, ticks, flies and other annoying (and potentially dangerous) bugs without resorting to commercial sprays that are loaded with chemicals, just look for the thread titled “Natural Mosquito Repellants” in the General Health Topics forum of the HSI Healthier Talk community.
Here are just a few of the postings from this very informative thread:
Howard: “It’s that time of the year to increase your intake of vitamin B-1 (thiamine) and garlic. Both of these items make you ‘stink’ to a mosquito. I have used this method for years to keep the ‘Minnesota State Bird’ at bay. Just stop by at your favorite supermarket or health food shop and pick up some B-1 and garlic tabs. (Preferably the ones that are odorless) Or alternatively, use more garlic in your daily cooking plans. Be sure to take them every day. You will not stink to your friends/family, but the little critters will avoid you.”
Ksomuerte: “Bob, a fisherman, takes one vitamin B-1 tablet a day April through October. He said it works. He was right. Hasn’t had a mosquito bite in 33 years. Try it. Every one he has talked into trying it works on them. Vitamin B-1 (Thiamine Hydrochloride 100 mg.)”
A member named Mary agrees with the tip on B vitamins. Her mother-in-law used to sprinkle brewers yeast on her pets in the summertime to keeps bugs off. And Mary adds: “Remember that mosquitoes love the smell of bananas. Well actually the smell you give off after you eat bananas, so don’t eat nanners during mosquito season.”
WillowS offers these anti-mosquito hints that she found on eartheasy.com:
- Remove standing water sources
- Oil of eucalyptus (at 30 percent concentration) helped prevent mosquitoes from biting for two hours, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine
- Put some rosemary or sage on hot coals
- Neem oil contains sallanin, a mosquito repelling compound
- Plant marigolds – their scent repels flying insects and other bugs
- Larry: “Here’s a tip that was given at a recent gardening forum. Put some water in a white dinner plate and add a couple drops of Lemon Fresh Joy dish detergent. Set the dish on your porch, patio, or other outdoor area. Not sure what attracts them, the lemon smell, the white plate color, or what, but mosquitoes flock to it, and drop dead shortly after drinking the Lemon Fresh Joy/water mixture, and usually within about 10 feet of the plate.”
Sally: “Here in Louisiana, especially where I live, the mosquitoes are terrible. Last summer a friend recommended trying tea tree oil. To my surprise, it worked quite well. Just a few drops spread topically seemed to do the trick. I’m not sure exactly why. Must be the odor, as with garlic. We double up our intake of garlic in the summer. Seems to help, too! I’m not so sure I could stand the odor topically. Although, it would be better than mosquito bites!”
Tea tree oil was one of the items on the list of tick-repellant items I told you about in the e-Alert “Lyme Time” (6/29/05). Other oils that also do the trick include lavender oil, citronella, cedar oil, rose geranium oil, American pennyroyal oil (also called tickweed) and (as mentioned above) eucalyptus oil.
Without question, the award for most unusual method to repel mosquitoes goes to an HSI member from New Zealand named JonB who writes: “When mossies are around stroke your nose downwards 30 times every 2 hours. It does work.”
Other topics being discussed this week in the Healthier Talk community forums include:
- Vision: Natural treatment for ocular pressure?
- Depression: Sunlight boosts serotonin
- Arthritis: Glucosamine/Chondroitin/MSM
- Cancer: Growing graviola
- Memory: Zinc improves memory of 7th graders
- General Health Topics: Bromelain and hypertension
You can easily reach the HSI Healthier Talk community forums on our web site at www.hsionline.com. Just choose “Forum,” and join in with any of the dozens of discussions about nutrition and natural health care.
