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LISTERINE as a Mosquito repellant

zman308

zman308

Joined
Sep 3, 2007
Messages
831
I have received two emails recently lately about how wonderous Listerine or any mouthwash is as a mosquito repellant. Anyone have any experience with this? Or is this another WWW BS rumor that has grown long legs. It seems to me any unusual odor will repel some of the critters. But how does it do with the more numerous determined ones in heavily infested areas. Also Listerine is water soluble so it would sweat off very fast. As for now I will stick with My DEET formulas which always work.
 
Tricky part is getting the little buggers to gargle for 30 seconds...

Kind of like using mothballs: do you have any idea how hard it is to hit a moth with one of those things ?

:D
 
A Bounce dryer sheet rubbed on your skin or tucked in the back of your hat keeps yellow flies away. I prefer the hat method as it minimizes contact with whatever it is in the sheet. Learned this from some old fishermen a few years ago.
 
In Cooktown , the mozzies are bad enough that the owner of the Cooktown van park rubs diesel on his skin to keep the number of bites down , but even that doesnt work well

We use a natural repellent we make ourselves ( got chemical sensitivities , so most off the shelf repellents are out ) it works to stop flies , buffalo flies , march flies , sand flies and usually mosquitoes too , but not this time , the mozzies were too dam thick and too stubborn to be beat

some other campers at the park were spraying mortein indoor / outdoor spray on their skin to try and beat them but even that had limited success ...

sometimes , the bugs just win ...

I reckon tho that in some places , some stuff may work , skeeters come in a lot of shapes and sizes , but because it worked in one area dont mean itll work in all areas ...

listerene keeps the kids out of the mouthwash bottle here ... it keeps some of the natives in Alice Springs happy and intoxicated according tot he TV news , who knows ? it might in some cases , keep bugs away ... Im not about to believe it works here tho ...
 
Deet-based products have always made me somewhat nervious. I mean, put a plastic solvent on your skin? But I did it for years, and it works just fine.

For skeeters, lemon eucalyptus products (Repel makes one) have been approved by the G. They work as well, but for only 75% as long, as the deet products. They do not have nearly the sensitivity problems as deet products.

It is interesting that repeated scientific testing all over the world comes to the same conclusions, but folks just WILL try stuff that is not remotely as effective -- or has no effect whatsoever. :confused:
 
I was just picturing my spraying peppermint or spearmint flavored listerine all over and around my tent in bear country. :eek: No issues there.

Yeah, keeps the mosquitos away because they are afraid of all the bears coming to visit. :D

Stick with DEET. Millions of man hours of testing. It works and it works well and is safe. Don't use greater than 25%, its been proven in testing that it doesn't add that much extra time to the protection that you get and it needlessly raises the levels in the blood higher than they need to be.

If you have young children or people with a reaction to DEET I would use picardin. I have used it and it is effective, just not as long lasting as DEET. It also in not a plasticiser (i.e. it won't melt nylon and other plastics) like DEET is.

Last but not least is Permethrin. Really great stuff that you have to spray on your clothes. Very, very, effective and will last through several washings.

KR
 
Just a thought: when was the last time you saw a dead bug inside a mouthwash bottle ? It must work pretty well...:D
 
I find living in a country that doesn't have mosquitos pretty effective.

But if you don't like slugs, don't walk on the lawn barefoot after dark and don't leave your beer outside unattended for too long, especially if it's still in the can.

Andy
 
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