“I’m going to sound like a boring entomologist and suggest what the CDC recommends,” says Louisa Messenger, a medical parasitologist and entomologist who teaches at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. “Personal protection,” she says, is your first line of defense, including EPA-approved insect repellent containing 25 percent DEET and wearing long-sleeve shirts and pants that have been treated with insecticide, “usually permethrin.”
Richard Campbell, the founder of adventure travel company 10Adventures, agrees that nothing beats covering up. He and his family spend the summer months deep in the Canadian Rockies, where the mosquitoes can get surprisingly vicious. Since they lay eggs near or in water, in the mountains “you have almost perfect breeding grounds,” with all the lakes, rivers and boggy areas, explains Campbell. In some areas, especially just below the tree line near water, he says, “most bug spray is useless.” The trick, then, is to not leave any skin exposed, particularly in the most vulnerable spots. “They love my ankles,” he says, which is why he often wears two pairs of socks.
Down in the swamps of Florida, protective measures can get even more extreme. Pete Corradino, a wildlife biologist and owner of Everglades Day Safari, says the tour groups that his company leads are encouraged to load up on DEET repellent and wear hats with nets over them to cover the face and neck. Outside of that, it’s a matter of adapting — by now, Corradino says, “a couple of mosquito bites for me is something I can tolerate.”
Dump or treat standing water
If you’ve battled mosquitoes, you surely know that even the tiniest amount of standing water — where the females lay their eggs and the babies develop — can harbor the enemy.
Messenger says homeowners with pools should chemically treat the water with the standard course of chemicals, including chlorine. When not in use, pools should still be maintained and cleaned regularly, as “mosquitoes are much less likely to breed in clean water without any debris,” she says.
People with outdoor planters that gather water, “need to dump those out or potentially treat them with insecticide,” though Messenger says to be wary of chemical treatments as they could also impact the plant’s health.
For people with ponds, bird baths and even puddles on their property, Daniel M. Parker, an associate professor of public health at the University of California at Irvine, offers another solution: Small fish such as guppies and dragonfly larvae are natural predators to mosquito larva. Adding some to the water will help with population control.
Parker also cautions against keeping certain plants in your garden. Varieties such as bromeliads, pitcher plants and certain types of hollow bamboo can hold small bodies of water on their leaves or in crevices and are therefore a favorite home for mosquito larvae.
David Price, an entomologist and director of technical services at pest-management company Mosquito Joe, says he avoids boxwoods, evergreen shrubs and sunshine ligustrum shrubs, all of which can harbor mosquitoes. He advises pruning back any thick bushes in your yard, which offer mosquitoes protection as well as a possible place to lay their eggs.
Make some dietary changes
Starchy vegetables, salty and spicy food — these may all make you more attractive to the feasting insects. “Mosquitoes aren’t attracted to the food itself,” says Nicole Carpenter, president of Black Pest Prevention in Charlotte, but they may be attracted to the changes in body chemistry that comes from eating certain things. “For example, spicy foods make your body produce more carbon dioxide.” And the carbon dioxide we exhale is how mosquitoes locate us. “Drinking alcohol, especially beer, also contributes to releasing more carbon dioxide,” Carpenter says. Plus, it can make you run a bit hotter, and elevated body temperatures are yet another thing that can attract mosquitoes, says UNLV’s Messenger.
Letisha Guerrero, founder of the Nouveau Lifestyle, a wellness and travel blog, has ample experience traveling internationally, often to places known to be buggy. One time in Honduras an allergic reaction to mosquito bites led to hospitalization, so now Guerrero is hypercautious. She reports that ditching sweet-smelling soaps and lotions in favor of lemongrass and citronella-scented products has made her less of a draw. She says using essential oils like Murphy’s Natural lemon eucalyptus oil spray and Nantucket Spider Original Bug Repellent for People have helped her keep mosquitoes at bay.
Messenger says there’s no evidence to support certain scents making you more — or less — prone to bites. However, “if you’re putting lotion on, it’s changing the composition of bacteria on your skin,” and that process, rather than the perfume within a certain product, “[can alter] how you smell to mosquitoes,” making you more or less of a magnet for them.
Schedule outdoor time wisely
Tracy Ellis, a San Diego-based entomologist with FarmSense, an agtech company, avoids exercising outdoors at dusk or dawn. “I try to get my stuff done when I’m not a perfect victim,” she says, pointing out that mosquitoes have an easier time finding you when you’re “sweaty and dirty and breathing hard.” Even if you’re just going out for a walk on a humid summer evening, Ellis suggests showering first and bringing repellent. She agrees that a product with DEET works best, but says the botanical, all natural stuff is still better than nothing.
Corradino, the owner of Everglades Day Safari, echoes that going outside in the evening really should be avoided in super buggy areas like his Fort Myers, Fla., neighborhood. “Once it’s dusk, then you usually head indoors because that’s when the mosquitoes can get pretty bad,” he says.
Sometimes, you just have to let the mosquitoes win.
Stacey Lastoe is a writer in Brooklyn who covers lifestyle topics.