Eating garlic or taking vitamin B tablets don’t work to reduce mosquito bites.
Eating garlic or taking a vitamin B tablet are often suggested as ways to prevent mosquito bites. These remedies have been tested by asking volunteers to take either a placebo (a capsule containing sugar or vitamin C) or a remedy capsule (garlic or vitamin B) and then to participate in a test of their attractiveness to mosquitoes in a laboratory. Attractiveness can be determined by counting the number of bites or landings for each subject. Volunteers are then asked to return at another time for a second assay, this time after eating whichever treatment (placebo or remedy) they did not use the first time. Studies of garlic and vitamin B did not find evidence that these substances could reduce mosquito attraction. Studies in a more natural setting have not been carried out.
Scented Personal Products
There is no evidence that wearing scented lotions or perfumes attracts mosquitoes.
Other remedies include limiting the use of scented lotions or perfumes. Female mosquitoes will often use flowers as souces of nectar, which they can use for energy and some floral scents are attractive to mosquitoes in laboratory settings. Although there are studies of mosquito attraction to plants and floral scents, there are no studies of the effects of scented personal products (lotions, sprays, deodorants, aftershaves, or perfumes) on mosquito attraction to humans.
Dark Colored Clothing
Clothing that does not reflect much light is usually more attractive than more reflective clothing.
In practical terms, black or dark-hued clothing of any color is often more attractive to many types of nuisance mosquitoes than light (white, khaki, green, or yellow) clothing.
Several studies indicate that mosquitoes belonging to the genera Aedes or Ochlerotatus prefer dark colors over light colors. These studies will be summarized below. Caution should be exercised in assuming these results apply to other genera, especially Anopheles, for which there is limited data suggesting that lighter colors (yellow and white) may be preferred (Ko, 1925).
Brett (1938), Brown (1951, 1954, 1955) and Gjullin (1947) established color preference in some mosquitoes by exposing them to different colored cloths, either as clothing on human volunteers, stretched over a box which enclosed a human hand, or in studies using temperature controlled robots. The general order of preference was black (most attractive); red (very attractive); blue (attractive to neutral), green, yellow, and white (less attractive).
Alcohol
Drinking alcohol may increase your attractiveness to mosquitoes.
An interesting study suggested that the ingestion of alcohol may stimulate mosquito attraction. Mosquito landing on volunteers significantly increased after alcohol ingestion compared with before ingestion (Shiral et al. 2002). Bernier et al. (2007) also reported that a subject who consumed alcohol regularly was the most attractive of the six people participating in a study of mosquito preferences. This most attractive individual produced the highest levels of acetone, ethanol and methanol in sweat (volatile skin emanations) but it is unknown whether these compounds were responsible for the increase in attraction.
Vanilla
Vanilla, a common kitchen flavoring, has been suggested by members of the general public as a possible repellent. Two published studies demonstrated minimal to no repellent activity of vanillin, the primary component of the extract of the vanilla bean (Khan et al. 1975; Tawatsin et al. 2001) and this is supported by informal testing by my laboratory and correspondents. However, the two published studies indicated that addition of vanillin to DEET or to other repellents increased the efficacy against some mosquitoes (Khan et al. 1975; Tawatsin et al. 2001). Extracts of vanilla plants also have been tested for the ability to kill mosquito larvae directly (insecticidal rather than repellent function).
Catnip Oil
In 2001, Catnip oil was reported to repel mosquitoes 10 times better than DEET. Subsequent tests of this claim have shown some repellency for catnip oil and its component nepetalactone (Zhu et al. 2006). However, these laboratory tests have not shown that catnip oil works as well as DEET. There were also unusually strong differences in protection time between the mosquito species tested, ranging from no protection to 4 hours (Webb and Russell 2007, Chauhan et al. 2005, Bernier et al. 2005).
Other Home Remedies
Unpublished data suggests that eating a banana may make some people more attractive to mosquitoes.
References
Agosta S. 2002. Habitat use, diet and roost selection by the Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) in North America: a case for conserving an abundant species. Mammal Review 2:179-198.
Barber M.A. and King C.H. 1927. The tadpole of the spadefood toad, an enemy of mosquito larvae. Public Health Reports 42:3189-3193.
Bernier U.R., Kline D.L. and Posey K.H. 2007. Human emanations and related natural compounds that inhibit mosquito host-finding abilities. In “Insect repellents. Principles, Methods and Uses.” Edited by Mustapha Debboun, Stephen P. Frances and Daniel Strickman. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida. Page 83.
Bernier U. R., Furman K.D., Kline D. L. Allan S.A., Barnard D.R. 2005. Comparison of contact and spatial repellency of catnip oil and N,N-Diethyl-3-methylbenzamide (DEET) against mosquitoes. Journal of Medical Entomology 42:306-311.
Blaustein L. and Margalit J. 1996. Priority effects in temporary pool: nature and outcome of mosquito larva-toad interactions depend on order of entrance. Journal of Animal Ecology 65:77-84.
Borjas G., Marten G.G., Fernandez E., Portillo H. 1993. Juvenile turtles for mosquito control in water storage tanks. Journal of Medical Entomology 30:943-946.
Brett G.A. 1938. On the relative attractiveness to Aedes aegypti of certain colored cloths. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 32:113-124.
Brown A.W.A. 1951. Studies of the responses of the female Aedes mosquito. Part IV. Field experiments on Canadian species. Bulletin of Entomological Research 42:575-582.
Brown A.W.A. 1954. Studies on the response of the female Aedes mosquito. Part VI. The attractiveness of colored cloths to Canadian species. Bulletin of Entomological Research 45:67-78.
Brown A.W.A. 1955. Effect of clothing color on mosquito attack on exposed skin. Journal of Economic Entomology 48:130.
Chauhan, K.R., Klun, J.A., Debboun, M., Kramer, M. 2005. Feeding Deterrent Effects of Catnip Oil Components Compared with Two Synthetic Amides Against Aedes aegypti. Journal of Medical Entomology. 42:643-646.
Gilbert I.H. and Gouck H.K. 1957. Influence of surface color on mosquito landing rates. Journal of Economic Entomology 50: 678-680.
Gjullin C.M. 1947. Effect of clothing color on the rate of attack of Aedes mosquitoes. Journal of Economic Entomology 40:326-327.
Griffin D.R., Webster F. A, and Michael C. R. 1960. The echolocation of flying insects by bats. Animal Behavior 8: 141-154.
Ives A. R. and Paskewitz S.M. 2005. Testing vitamin B as a home remedy against mosquitoes. Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association 21(2): 213-217.
Johnston R.F. 1967. The diet of the purple martin in Kansa. Ibis 109:8-13.
Kale H.W. II. 1968. The Relationship of Purple Martins to Mosquito Control. Auk. 85:654-661. http://pinellascounty.org/PublicWorks/mosquito/Purple-Martins.pdf
Khan A.A., Maibach H.I., Strauss W.G., and Fenley W.R.1969. Vitamin B1 is not a systemic mosquito repellent in man. Transactions of St. John’s Hospital Dermatology Society. 55:99-102.
Khan AA, Maibach H., and Skidmore D. 1975. Addition of vanillin to mosquito repellents to increase protection time. Mosquito News 35:223-225.
Ko R. 1925. On the color-preferences of mosquitoes. Journal of the Formosan Medical Society 244, Taihoku. Formosa. (In Japanese. Abstract in Review of Applied Entomology B 13:158. 1925).
Lounibos L.P. 2007. Competitive displacement and reduction. In Biorational control of mosquitoes. Published by The American Mosquito Control Association.
Maasch H.J. 1973. Investigations on the repellent effect of vitamin B1. Z Tropen Med Parasit 4:119-122.
Marten G.G., Cush M., Fernandez E., Borjas G., Portillo H. 1992. Mesocyclops longisetus and other forms of biological control for Aedes aegypti larvae in the Integrated Dengue Control Project, El Progreso Honduras. In “Dengue-a worldwide problem, a common strategy”. Proceedings of an International Conference on Dengue and Aedes aegypti community-based control. Published by the Mexican Ministry of Health and Rockefeller Foundation. Pp. 133-137.
Marten G.G. 2007. Turtles. In Biorational Control of Mosquitoes. Published by the American Mosquito Control Association.
Mokany A. and Shine R. 2003a. Competition between tadpoles and mosquito larvae. Oecologia 135:615-620.
Mokany A. and Shine R. 2003b. Biological warfare in the garden pond: tadpoles suppress the growth of mosquito larvae. Ecological Entomology 28:102-108.
Rajan T.V., Hein M., Porte P. and Wikel S. 2005. A double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial of garlic as a mosquito repellant: a preliminary study. Medical and Veterinary Entomology 19:84-89.
Ritchie S.A. 1982. The green tree frog (Hyla cinerea) as a predator of mosquitoes in Florida. Mosquito News December: 619.
Shiral Y., Tsuda T., Kitagawa S., Naitoh K., Seki T., Kamimura K., and Morohashi M. 2002. Alcohol ingestion stimulates mosquito attraction. Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association. 18:91-96.
Spielman A. and Sullivan J.J. 1974. Predation on peridomeestic mosquitoes by hylid tadpoles on Grand Bahama Island. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 23:704-709.
Strauss W.G., Maibach H.I., Khan A.A. 1968. Drugs and disease as mosquito repellents in man. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 17:461-464.
Tawatsin A., Wratten S.D., Scott R.R., Thavara U., Techadamrongsin Y. 2001. Repellency of volatile oils from plants against three mosquito vectors. Journal of Vector Ecology 26:76-82.
Walton W.E., 2007. Larvivorous fish including Gambusia. In Biorational Control of Mosquitoes. Published by the American Mosquito Control Association.
Webb C.E., Russell R.C. 2007. Is the extract from the plant catmint (Nepeta cataria) repellent to mosquitoes in Australia? Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association 23: 351-354.
Whitaker J.O. and Lawhead B. 1992. Foods of Myotis lucifugus in a Maternity Colony in Central Alaska
Journal of Mammalogy 73: 646-648.
Willems K.J., Webb C.E. and Russell R.C. 2005. Tadpoles of four common Australian frogs are not effective predators of the common pest and vector mosquito, Culex annulirostris. Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association. 21:492-494.
Wilson C.S., Mathieson D.R., Jachowski L.A. 1944. Ingested thiamine chloride as a mosquito repellent. Science 100:147.
Zhu J., Zeng X., Yanma, Liu T., Qian K., Han Y., Xue SD., Tucker B., Schultz G., Coats J., Rowley W., Zhang A. 2006. Adult repellency and larvicidal activity of five plant essential oils against mosquitoes. Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association 22:515-522.