Eucalyptus and Lemon Eucalyptus Essential Oil
Neither eucalyptus essential oil nor lemon eucalyptus essential oil are approved by the EPA as insect repellents. Only one substance contained in lemon eucalyptus oil, PMD, is an effective repellent and approved by the EPA.
Regular eucalyptus trees that you may have in your neighborhood are unlikely to be the lemon eucalyptus species. Many times eucalyptus oil is added to a natural repellent formulation, but it is usually added citronella that does the repelling.
Repellent in a Pill
None of the following substances work as a repellent after ingested, or so says the scientific evidence relied on by federal and state agencies. Maybe it's a cover up, I don't know and I didn't do any scientific research into the matter. I do know that I happened to be eating several tablespoons of brewer's yeast last summer and the mosquitoes bit me in spite of my healthy fingernails and shiny hair that the brewer's yeast did seem to foster. The following remedies may be harmless, but consult with your doctor before taking massive doses of supplements in a futile attempt to keep insects off.
- Vitamin B1
- Garlic
- Brewer's yeast (that contains several B vitamins)
Electronic Repellent gadgets
The high-pitched whine from this device is worse than a mosquito. Although my husband could not hear it, he agreed the device did not work. And what do you know, scientific evidence shows that it doesn't work either. On the instructions it did say that only certain species would respond to the device but it didn't state which species. I guess our mosquitoes didn't mind the tinny tone as much as I did.
By the way, apparently those electronic gadgets don't work on any other insects either.
Insect Repellent Wristbands
After wristbands for motion sickness, comes wristbands for keeping bugs away. Even my husband didn't go for this flea collar for humans. Apparently it's not worth much for repelling insects according to scientific evidence and it just didn't seem like something that would work. For what it's worth, I've never read a respectable guide to preventing diseases that suggested wearing repellent on wristbands as a good measure of keeping the bugs off.
[h]Repellent Patches for Clothes In some areas, adhesive patches treated with insect repellent or pemethrin can be stuck to clothing. While it is a good idea to spray insect repellent on the outside of clothing, but just a spot of repellent may do a "patchy" job of keeping critters off. Check out clothing to wear to fight the bite.
Antihistamines
Some people take antihistamines such as Benadryl before going to tropical areas in an attempt to ward off bites. Antihistamines do not prevent bites but only prevent a welt from forming after the body reacts to a bite. So beware, just like birth control pills do not prevent you from getting HIV, antihistamines do not prevent you from getting bitten or from getting diseases spread by insects. They just prevent a big lump from forming afterwards.
Baggies of Water
In Bolivia and Colombia and maybe other countries, some people believe that hanging a plastic bag filled with water will attract mosquitoes and flies and control insects indoors and outside. I shouldn't put baggies of water in the category of alternative methods for repelling bugs that don't work because I have no idea if this really works or not. I can tell you that it is a common site in some countries and that despite the measure I have received some bites while sitting at an outdoor restaurant with baggies of water hanging all around me. One woman told me that the bag must be able to swing around a bit to confuse the flies, whose multi-faceted eyes catch the movement.In China, one reader reports that plastic bags rattling with the breeze are hung at the entrances to homes and this seems to be somewhat effective at preventing flies from entering the house.
Sources
CDC. Division of Vector Borne Infectious Diseases. West Nile Virus: Updated Information regarding Insect Repellents.
CDC. Division of Vector Borne Infectious Diseases. West Nile Virus: Q and A: Insect Repellent Use and Safety.
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. ToxFAQs: DEET.
AAP. AAP News. Vol. 28. No. 2 Feb. 2007. p. 37.
CDC. Traveler's Health. Yellow Book: Protection Against Mosquitoes and Other Arthropods.
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Permethrin.
AHC Media. Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus as an Insect Repellent.
AAP News. Increasing options for malaria prophylaxis in children. Vol. 28 No. 2 February 2007, p. 37.
EPA. New Pesticide Fact Sheet. Picaridin. May 2005.
North Carolina Entomology Extension Waldyogel, Michael, Apperson, Charles.