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Each lazy summer season night within the backyard requires three issues: a pitcher of one thing icy chilly, a plate full of one thing scrumptious, and a stash of citronella candles to repel mosquitoes.
There is not any doubt in our minds that citronella candles shall be someplace close to the highest of your checklist of backyard concepts yearly working, whether or not you are the type of one that spends ages tablescaping earlier than a celebration, or who prefers to maintain issues as easy and pared-back as doable.
Why? Nicely, as a result of everybody is aware of that these shiny, recent, and lemony candles are one of the best ways to maintain mozzies at bay… proper?
Proper?
Nicely, no. Flawed, because it seems.
(Picture credit score: Dominic Blackmore/Future Publishing Ltd)
Do citronella candles repel mosquitoes?
Whereas they’re completely the form of backyard social gathering concepts to set the temper for an outside occasion, it appears we have all been misled with regards to the superior bug-repelling powers of citronella candles.
In line with the outcomes of a examine in The New England Journal of Medication, important oils are very unstable, which implies they evaporate too rapidly to repel mosquitoes successfully. The truth is, they solely ‘supplied safety for a imply period of lower than 20 minutes’ – lower than half an hour.
(Picture credit score: Getty)
Nonetheless, there is not any must banish citronella candles out of your checklist of straightforward backyard concepts utterly.
After talking with Laurence Zwiebel, the chair of organic science at Vanderbilt College, The New York Occasions has discovered that citronella candles present as a lot safety from mosquitoes as every other candle-produced smoke (no extra, no much less).
Primarily, which means that the biting beasties aren’t keen on the scent or warmth that comes hand-in-hand with smoke, so will attempt to keep away from it as a lot as doable – though a campfire or backyard torch is more likely to do the job extra successfully than a candle.
So, what ought to we use to repel mosquitoes as an alternative of citronella candles?
If you’re on the lookout for easy methods to repel mosquitoes from your house, you are in luck: we beforehand spoke to Howard Carter, UK Chunk Safety knowledgeable and advisor to the UK and Brazilian governments and founding father of Incognito, to glean his high suggestions.
His recommendation was easy: we have to CLOAK.
- C – Cowl up legs and arms with appropriate clothes.
- L – Mild colored clothes is suggested.
- O – Odours, bodily or in any other case, like sure kairomones and perfumes
are robust attractants. So wash totally, together with exfoliating with a
loofah, and don’t use perfumes. - A – Apply an efficient insect repellent, equivalent to incognito, accessible at Amazon.
- Ok – Hold your backyard tidy, and keep away from stagnant water wherever doable.
(Picture credit score: Getty)
Considerably surprisingly, it appears desk or pedestal followers are one other good technique to preserve mosquitoes at bay – in case your extension cable permits it, in fact.
How does it work? Nicely, mosquitoes are notoriously weak fliers, so all it is advisable to do is pop a fan on (consultants recommend retaining it at knee stage), sit again, and chill out because the biting bugs are thwarted of their makes an attempt to get at you.
Your fan may also assist disperse the carbon dioxide you exhale, which attracts mozzies, and preserve you cool as you chill out. Win win!
Nonetheless, it simply would not be summer season with out the distinct waft of citronella candles within the air. Possibly we’ll simply stud one or two round our backyard desk, for outdated instances sake…
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