Homemade Mosquito Repellent for Yard – No one likes mosquitoes. And why would they? These irritating little creatures not only bite human skin and suck blood, but also lead to serious diseases. Have you ever thought, why mosquitoes so dangerous? Why are mosquitoes dangerous?
While male mosquitoes do not worry as they feed on vegetable juice and nectar, female mosquitoes are what you should be careful about as they survive on human blood. It is not only the itchy and uncomfortable sensation of scratching the tiny bumps on your skin left by mosquito bites. It is the diseases that these mosquito bites bring with themselves that make these mosquitoes dangerous. Some of them are even more deadly diseases.
Mosquitoes can give you malaria . This is a disease prevalent in Africa, Asia and the Americas. Due to the malaria parasites inside the red blood cells of human blood, malaria has symptoms such as fever with chills and headache. In severe cases, the patient falls into a coma and dies if proper treatment is not provided in the early stages of malaria.
Mosquitoes are responsible for dengue . It is caused by the dengue virus. Diffused in tropical regions of the world, it causes sudden fever and sharp pains in joints. If it is not contained in time, dengue can lead to severe bleeding as well as organ failure and even death.
Chikungunya is again a viral disease caused by infected mosquitoes. Often resembling the symptoms of dengue, chikungunya can bring on fever, joint pain, muscle aches, headache, nausea, fatigue and rash. There is no treatment for chikungunya and only symptoms can be alleviated. While most patients recover from chikungunya completely, in some cases, joint pain remains there for several months, and sometimes for years.
Yellow fever is a hemorrhagic disease once again caused by female mosquitoes and is prevalent in South America and Africa. The symptoms of yellow fever include fever, nausea and pain. It is cured in a few days but in certain cases a toxic phase following which can cause damage to the liver, which first causes jaundice and then can lead to death if left untreated. However, there is no vaccine for protection against yellow fever.
West Nile disease It is perhaps the most dangerous disease caused by mosquitoes. In some cases, West Nile disease does not exhibit any symptoms and in other cases there are symptoms such as fever, headache, chills, excessive sweating, weakness, swollen lymph glands, drowsiness, joint pain and other flu-like symptoms. In severe cases, dizziness and confusion is also there which can lead to a decrease in the level of consciousness as well as coma.
All these diseases are serious and therefore you need to protect yourself from mosquito bites. But how to do that?
How to protect against mosquitoes?
- If you live in a place that has a lot of mosquitoes, try to wear full clothing sleeves and cover most of your bare skin.
- Try to wear light colored clothing as dark colors attract mosquitoes.
- Do not use scented cosmetics such as shampoos and deodorants as these attract mosquitoes.
- You can use an insect repellent cream or ointment and apply on bare skin. Reapply it every few hours.
- Do not allow flooding in open areas, because that is where mosquitoes live and reproduce. Try to remove all areas of water pooling around your house, these are mosquito breeding sites.
- If there is such an open area near your place that has collected water and you can not remove it, try not to go next to it or expose yourself to it, especially during the early evening hours when mosquitoes are most active.
- If you keep bowl of water for animals or birds in open areas, they often change their water (preferably daily) and do not let it become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
- If you need to store water, always keep it covered.
- Mosquitoes are most dangerous during the early evening, early evening and early morning hours when you are still asleep. Therefore, use mosquito nets on your beds so that these parasitic insects do not have access to your body.
These were all precautionary measures to protect you from mosquitoes and it really is a task! What if you could be able to remove mosquitoes from your home and adjacent areas? That’s the safest thing you can do. But how to get rid of mosquitoes? Here are some tips and tricks for you.
How to get rid of mosquitoes?
When you take steps to eliminate mosquitoes, you not only get rid of the irritating itchiness of the skin and the irritating buzz of mosquitoes near your ears, but you also protect yourself against all the dangerous diseases that a mosquito bite can give you. Here are some remedies that you can adopt to get rid of mosquitoes.
1. Use camphor to get rid of mosquitoes
Camphor is a white (sometimes transparent) Flammable solids obtained from the wood of the camphor tree blond. It has a strong aromatic odor that insects can stand on. It cleanses its surrounding area by repelling insects,
including mosquitoes.
How to Use Camphor as a Mosquito Repellent
There are at least two ways to use camphor to get rid of mosquitoes.
- Take a bowl, preferably with an open mouth.
- Fill half of the bowl with water.
- Now add some camphor tablets in this water, you can use about 2-5 tablets or more. The larger the room, the more camphor will be needed in a bowl.
- Put this bowl in one corner of your room.
- Use a basin for each of your rooms. You can even hold two bowls in two corners of a room. If you do, you may like to use smaller camphor tablets in a bowl.
- Change the water in the basin every second day.
- You will need to use new camphor tablets after 5-7 days, until this time, the entire camphor evaporates.
You can use any hot surface such as a diffuser lamp or aroma. You can even buy the special camphor lamps available in the market. If you have a mosquito mat repellent machine, then use it to warm camphor instead of using the chemically repellent mats on load.
- Place a camphor tablet on a camphor lamp or aroma lamp (where you would have used the essential oil), and light the lamp. That is all, the camphor will evaporate due to the heat and purify the environment, as well as kill the mosquitoes.
- If using a mosquito repellent mat machine, place the camphor tablet on the plate meant to put the mats on.
- Turn the machine on and turn it on.
- While heating the camphor, keep all your doors and windows closed for at least 15-30 minutes. Open them only after that time.
Caution: Keep camphor away from children and pets. If ingested internally, camphor can be poisonous.
2. Use dry ice to remove the mosquitoes
Why do you think, mosquitoes can track us so easily? Why when you sit anywhere, it does not take even a few seconds for these mosquitoes to locate it and start sucking your blood? Because they are attracted to the carbon dioxide that you drop during exhalation! Did you know that dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide! Therefore, you can also use dry ice to bring out the hidden mosquitoes as dry ice also emits a lot of carbon dioxide. This ice acts as a repellent. What else it is a cheap, environmentally friendly and efficient way to produce carbon dioxide, in order to bring out the mosquitoes from their hiding places so that you can get rid of them.
Take this:
- Bloco dry gelo 5 pounds (about 2.25 kg)
- Mosquito trap
- Bag cloth
- Rope or something similar to be used to hang the trap and dry ice
Do it:
- Hang your mosquito trap 6-8 feet off the ground. Always use dry ice in an open area such as garden or patio.
- Never use it in rooms as it emits a lot of carbon dioxide, enough to choke in a closed room.
- Place the dry ice block inside the cloth bag and hand it to the side of the trap
- Mosquitoes are attracted to the carbon dioxide released by the dry ice and once you get close, the trap does its job.
- This remedy is better for large yards and gardens, etc., for the dusk to dawn solution for mosquitoes.
Precautions during handling of dry ice
Dry ice is not good for humans too. Exercise the following precautions to use it for mosquitoes.
- Dry ice is very cold, so cold that can freeze human skin cells. So, wear gloves or use towel to touch dry ice.
- Never ever allow dry ice to get in contact with your skin.
- Never use dry ice indoors or in confined spaces such as cars, because of their risk of suffocation. It releases large amounts of carbon dioxide
- Do not use airtight container to put dry ice. The expansion of the CO2 gas can cause the container to expand and even explode.
- Keep dry ice out of the reach of children and pets.
3. Make a mosquito trap at home
You can make a mosquito trap at home and get rid of mosquitoes without any difficulty. This trap uses sugar water and yeast that attract mosquitoes. The sugar solution is placed in a bottle having a narrow opening through which the mosquitoes enter the bottle, but are unable to quit. They get into the bottle with sugar water.
Take this:
- A plastic bottle about 2 liters (a little bigger bottle of help, but you can use any plastic bottle)
- Sugar 1/4 cup
- Water- 1 -2 cups
- Yeast- 1/2 tsp
- Scissors or knife
- Tape (optional)
Do it:
- Cut the bottle into two parts using a knife or scissors. The bottom of the bottle is 3/4 and 1/4 upper part.
- Place the sugar inside the bottom of the bottle.
- Pour water over it
- Now add the yeast to the mixture of sugar and water. Yeast releases carbon dioxide to attract mosquitoes.
- Take the top off the bottle and place it upside down into the smaller bottle as well as a funnel. The mouth of the bottle goes into the bottom of sugar water retention.
- If necessary, use tape to secure the two parts of the bottle.
- Place the bottle in one place, preferably away from where people often gather and sit in groups. Mosquitoes are attracted to the CO2 released by the yeast, you will find the way to the sugar water and get stuck in the bottle.
4. Homemade Mosquito Repellent
If you are fed up of chemical repellents loaded, why not try some repellent at home! As you begin herbal repellents such as oil or lemon eucalyptus sprays, you really do not know if they are actually herbs or not. If you want to be 100 percent sure about the absence of any harmful chemicals in your mosquito repellent, make this one alone.
Take this:
- Essential Oil (Cinnamon / Eucalyptus citriodora / citronella oil) – 15-25 drops
- Carrier oil (Olive / Sunflower / Safflower / grape / almond oil) – 2-3 tablespoons
- Bottle / Spray
Do it:
- Mix the olive oil and essential oil carrier and put them in the bottle or spray bottle
- Now you can rub or spray the repellent home mosquitoes all over your skin and even your clothes.
- If you want to make larger batches of this DIY mosquito repellent, add 10% of essential oil to your choice of amount of carrier oil. For example, if using 50 ml of carrier oil add 5 ml of essential oil to make its natural mosquito repellent.
5. Coffee may help you get rid of mosquitoes
Much research in recent years have established the effectiveness of coffee to get rid of mosquitoes, especially the Aedes albopictus species, or the Asian tiger mosquito can be effectively controlled by coffee. However, other species of mosquitoes were also successfully eliminated using coffee during research studies. When you use coffee to eliminate mosquitoes, you prevent the growth of larvae and thus the mosquito population is killed. In fact, one study has suggested that coffee may actually have a deterrent effect and is able to keep mosquitoes from laying eggs.
- Wherever there is standing water around your home that you can not clean, just sprinkle coffee grounds on stagnant water.
- You can also dissolve some coffee in a very low amount of water and keep them in bowls inside your home, such as patio or deck. When mosquitoes feed on this aromatic liquid, they will not be able to lay eggs.
6. Use Neem to get rid of mosquitoes
In India, neem (Indian lilac) is used since ages for various medical purposes due to its effective anti-bacterial properties. It is indeed used also as a natural insecticide. Now, several studies also showed that neem oil may be an effective repellent organic mosquitoes. Use neem in the following ways to get rid of mosquitoes.
- Mix equal amounts of neem oil and coconut oil and store it in a bottle or spray bottle. Rub it or spray it on your skin to keep mosquitoes away from you.
- Add one tablet of camphor to neem oil and put it in a bowl. Keep this bowl in your room to ward off mosquitoes.
- If you have a machine repellent mosquitoes that comes with a bottle of liquid repellent, you need to do this.
- Instead of chemical liquid repellent, fill the bottle with neem oil and place it some tablets camphor. Now use this bottle with mosquito repellent machine as usual.
7. Citronella repels mosquitos
Citronella oil is a natural repellent. This oil is obtained from different grass oil distillates. The main components of this oil, that is, citronellol, citronellal and geraniol seem to be the magic ingredients that repel mosquitoes. During a research study at the University of Guelph in Ontario, candles were made using 3% concentration of citronella oil. These mosquitoes citronella candles reduced by 42%. Why is this oil is so effective? It is because it masks the human scent that attracts mosquitoes, along with the carbon dioxide released during expiration.
- Light some candles around citronella wherever you sit. This will keep mosquitoes away from you.
- Add citronella oil with some carrier oil, such as olive oil or almond and rub it on your skin.
8. Mint also helps keep mosquitoes away
Along with the use of carbon dioxide track to locate a human being, mosquitoes also smell of human skin. That’s why they can perfectly land on our exposed skin. This means that mosquitoes have advanced sense of smell. This has been proven by research as well. Therefore, we can surround us these strong scents that are not appreciated by mosquitoes. Mint is one such smells. Use it in different ways to get rid of mosquitoes.
- Spray some peppermint oil around to keep mosquitoes away from you.
- Spend a little peppermint oil on your exposed skin and relax
- You can also try to grow mint bush in your garden or in a pot and keep it on your porch or patio where you sit often.
9. Make spraying herbs to get rid of mosquitoes
Catnip is a natural plant mosquito deterrent. Nepetalactone is the essential oil found in catnip that drives away mosquitoes. While you can always plant catnip around your place, you can also use it to make a mosquito spray herbs to keep them away. Rosemary is another herb that has been used in this spray. This aromatic herb is also an impediment to mosquitoes.
Take this:
- Catnip leaves and stems (chopped) – 1/2 cup
- Rosemary herb (chopped) – 1/2 cup
- Hot Water- 1-2 cups
Do it:
- Place the chopped herbs in a container or bowl.
- Pour the hot water over the herbs
- Cover the bowl and leave to infuse for an hour
- Open the lid and let cool
- Once it reaches room temperature, strain the solution and fill it in a spray bottle.
- Use it as a spray mosquito repellent.
10. DIY Mosquito repellent scented spray
If you like the smell of aromatic oils, you can use them to make a mosquito spray. However, using these oils that they are not appreciated by mosquitoes. Add one or two essential oils that have anti-bacterial properties. Mix them with a carrier oil and you have self made aromatic Mosquito repellent spray on your hands. Here is a recipe to help you.
Take this:
- Eucalyptus oil 10 drops
- Cedar oil paintings- 10 drops
- Oil drops of tea tree 5,
- Geranium oil 5 drops
- Jojoba oil 2 tbsp
