Let's protect ourselves
Mint. 4 tbsp. spoons of fresh mint leaves pour a glass of water, keep on low heat for 10 minutes, let brew for 15 minutes, strain, add 1 glass of vodka, cover with a lid and cool. Pour the product into a spray bottle and spray on your skin or clothing before going outside.
Vanilla and cinnamon. Pour two pinches of cinnamon and 1 chopped vanilla pod into a glass of any vegetable oil. Leave for a week in a dark place, shaking occasionally. To protect yourself from mosquitoes, oil your temples, wrists, and ankles.
Sagebrush. 2 tbsp. Pour boiling water over spoons of wormwood herb, let it brew for half an hour, strain and lubricate exposed skin with the infusion.
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Citronella. The oil of this plant can be bought at the pharmacy. Citronella is so effective against bloodsuckers that industrial mosquito repellents are made from it. Add 20 drops of essential oil to a jar of face or body cream and lubricate exposed skin with it.
Essential oils. Prepare a natural mosquito repellent lotion: fill a glass ⅔ full with vodka, add 50 drops of essential oil of geranium, mint, rosemary or cedar, add water to the top of the glass and stir.
Apply the resulting lotion to your skin before leaving home.
Let's process clothes
Basil. This herb is effective even in dry form. Sew a cotton bag, fill it with dry basil herb and put it in your pocket before heading into the forest. It will be better if you make several bags and place them in each pocket.
Vinegar. Vinegar-based mosquito repellents take a long time to prepare, but the results are worth it. 1 tbsp. a spoonful of dry lavender herb and 1 tbsp. Pour a spoonful of dry rosemary into a glass of vinegar. Leave in a dark place for 10 days. Don't forget to shake the jar! The resulting product is sprayed onto clothes. If you want to use it on your skin, dilute it by half with water. The vinegar smells quite strong, but the smell will go away once it dries.
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How does repellent work on insects?
Mosquitoes easily navigate in space thanks to their well-developed sense of smell. This helps them find their prey without much difficulty, and a strong foreign aroma disorients them and masks the natural smell of a person.
Thanks to this, the essential oil helps get rid of mosquitoes without harm to human health. Insects, not finding a food source, go in search of another place. The protective effect lasts for 2 hours.
However, not all plant extracts have this quality. And for the use of repellents to be effective, you need to know which essential oils repel mosquitoes. Meanwhile, there are herbs whose smell, on the contrary, attracts insects for pollination.
Let's clean the house
Oil burner. Those who love aromatherapy will certainly acquire such a device. It can be used as an alternative to an industrial fumigator. The aroma lamp is a saucer that is heated from below. Water is poured into a saucer, then essential oil is dripped at the rate of 2 drops per 5 m² of room area. When heated, the oil will evaporate, filling the room with the aroma of medicinal plants. Geranium, cedar, lavender or chamomile oils are suitable as natural mosquito repellents.
Geranium. Plant this plant on the windowsill. Mosquitoes do not like strong odors, but geranium smells quite strongly. So there are significantly fewer bloodsuckers in apartments where geranium grows.
Eucalyptus. A decoction of this plant can save you if the fumigator runs out of liquid. 1 tbsp. Pour a spoonful of eucalyptus with water, keep it on low heat for 15 minutes, let it brew until it cools and strain. Now the eucalyptus decoction can be poured into the container where the mosquito repellent liquid used to be, and plug the fumigator into a power outlet.
Candles. Buy a regular candle in the store and melt the wax in a water bath. To do this, pour water into a saucepan and place a tin can there. Place a candle in the jar. When the wax has melted, remove the wick and add 10 drops of eucalyptus, rosemary or lavender oil to the wax. Mix well. Then take a glass jar, place the wick in it and pour out the melted wax. As soon as it hardens, the anti-mosquito candle is ready.
Essential oil against mosquitoes for children
Although natural essential oils are not harmful to children, they must be used wisely. Remember certain rules:
- There are children who have an individual intolerance to certain odors. Therefore, the first use of the product should be carried out with extreme caution. After applying the oil to a small area of the body, it is recommended to carefully monitor the child’s condition and behavior.
- Do not use undiluted oils on exposed skin. Children with delicate skin may experience burns and irritation.
- Add a few drops of oil to baby cream, which is rubbed into the baby's skin.
- If a child under the age of one year lives in the room, use an aroma lamp. There are also soaked pyramids and sticks that need to be set on fire.
- Monitor the dosage carefully. For example, to protect infants, 30 ml of cream requires only one drop of essential oil. Two drops are intended for children from six months. From two years old, you can add three drops of oil per 30 ml of cream.
Of course, for a healthy child, the correct use of oils cannot cause damage to the body. However, parents do not always know about their child’s health problems. This is why experts recommend using essential oils for children aged five years and older. If you are going to protect one-year-old children in this way, it is better to consult your pediatrician in advance. The soft and light lavender scent is best for babies. There are several options for using essential oils for children:
- Oil . The odorous product is mixed with olive or other oil. Then the product is rubbed onto the child’s skin when going outdoors;
- Spray . Convenient when treating small children who cannot stand still. This product is used to treat skin and clothing. To prepare the spray, dilute 10 ml of essential oil in 100 ml of water;
- Cosmetical tools. Almost any cream suitable for children's skin is suitable for their preparation.
Let's fumigate the area
Juniper. While relaxing by the fire, you can try to protect yourself from mosquitoes. Throw a few twigs or juniper cones into the fire. Mosquitoes don't like the smell of such smoke!
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Bay leaf. When burned, it also releases an aroma that is unpleasant for mosquitoes. However, if you throw laurel into a fire, it will burn instantly. Therefore, it is better if you heat a frying pan or metal can over a fire and lightly “fry” the leaves.
Coffee. Place dry coffee grounds on a saucer or foil and set it on fire. The result is a completely safe fumigator!
In the country
- Get some fish. Place fish - gobies or rotans - in your country pond. They feed on mosquitoes.
- Plant marigolds. It is better if the flower bed with these plants is located near the gazebo or terrace where you like to relax. The smell of blooming marigolds will repel mosquitoes.
- Don't forget the garlic. Mosquitoes do not like the feathers of this plant.
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Light and sound
There are devices that help control mosquitoes without releasing toxic substances into the air.
Ultrasonic repellers. They make a sound similar to the squeak of a male mosquito. With this sound the male attracts the female for mating. To fertilized female mosquitoes (and only they bite), such a squeak signals danger. The device repels mosquitoes quite effectively, but it is not very comfortable to use due to an unpleasant squeak.
Lamps. The light from the lamp attracts mosquitoes, and a low-power electric current is passed through a special grid inside the lamp, which kills mosquitoes. The only drawback of the lamp is the unpleasant smell that appears due to the abundance of fried insects on the grill.
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Is the bite dangerous?
General practitioner Irina Vechnaya:
– A mosquito bite is not very dangerous. Malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, Zika virus and other serious diseases are carried only by mosquitoes living in tropical countries. It is also impossible to contract AIDS or any type of hepatitis through a mosquito bite. True, domestic mosquitoes can inject allergens and pathogenic microorganisms into the skin. Therefore, the appearance of inflammation or hives at the site of the bite is not excluded. In this case, antihistamines and external anti-inflammatory drugs will help out.
Contraindications
Even if the most affordable and effective essential oil has been selected, it is not recommended to use it without trial use. Do not forget that essential oils contain aggressive substances in high concentrations. In fact, they are the ones that repel insects. It is possible that for some reason they will not suit your child.
Essential oils
Experience shows that under certain circumstances, essential oils can cause allergies. Therefore, a preliminary test is necessary. For example, first apply the product not to the whole body, but to the wrist. The presence of itching and redness indicates that the product should not be used.
As for infants, although mild, the rather intense aroma of essential oils can cause headaches, heavy breathing, and dizziness. If there is a need to protect the baby, just drop the product onto a napkin, which should be placed in the room with the child. However, the child’s behavior and condition must be monitored in this case as well.
What will relieve itching?
Mosquito bites cause a lot of trouble, forcing you to scratch the sore spot until it bleeds. How to quickly relieve itching?
Our expert is dermatologist-cosmetologist, candidate of medical sciences Anna Karpova.
When bitten by a mosquito, the most important thing is not to scratch the affected area. After all, during a bite, insects inject saliva into the skin, which may contain toxic substances. When you scratch the bite site, blood circulation in this area increases, the insect's saliva is carried through the bloodstream, the affected area increases - and the itching becomes stronger.
If you couldn’t resist and you still scratched a mosquito bite, the following will help get rid of the itching:
External agents with anti-inflammatory and antiallergic components. It is desirable that the drug be fat-based, which will create a film on the skin and limit the spread of saliva injected by the mosquito. This is why creams designed to treat insect bites work better than sprays and lotions, which evaporate too quickly from the surface of the skin.
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Antihistamines. If you have been bitten very badly and you have counted at least ten mosquito marks on your body, it is better to take an antihistamine orally - this will first help localize the itching and then completely get rid of the discomfort.
Home remedies can also help fight mosquito bites. For example, you can use:
Lemon juice or any essential oil (tea tree, lavender) . Both lemon juice and oil have anti-inflammatory properties and cool the skin, which means it helps relieve itching.
Question answer
How do mosquitoes and flies get into the house if there are mosquito nets on the windows?
Ammonia. Has an even stronger cooling effect.
Just keep in mind that you should not rub anything into the bite site. Any product is applied with light movements.
If a wound has formed at the site of the scratched bite , you should not use home remedies.
The wound must be disinfected with a preparation containing aniline dye (green paint, fucorcin) or an alcohol-based product. You can also apply a wound healing drug to the sore spot. You should not leave damaged skin without treatment, otherwise, scratching the sore spot will increase the itching and increase the area of the wound.
How to use essential oil against mosquitoes
To make essential oils fragrant in the room, it is recommended to use aromatherapy. Here, in addition to oils, you will need a base component. As a rule, any cream plays its role. Also, the base component may be alcohol. This product is perfect for treating your entire home.
The product can be applied to almost any item in the home. In nature, clothes are treated with oils. You can also apply a couple of drops to your body and rub them thoroughly. The oil is added to a balm or cream, which is then applied to the skin.
You can use a leather bracelet or a cotton scarf that is tied on your hand. The impregnated material can emit a pleasant aroma for a long time, thereby repelling many insects. If you want to use several essential oils, but do not have time to experiment with their combination, pay attention to the ready-made mixture, which is sold in the pharmacy in the form of a spray.
