A Low-Tech Mosquito Deterrent

When I travel in areas at-risk for malaria or dengue, I treat my clothes with Permethrin as well.

I also opt for Picaridan over DEET. Doesn't feel as nasty on your skin.

That setup kept me bite-free for three months in Southeast Asia and India.

heh, you bet ! When I read the article, I was like FFS ! You've got to be kidding me ! Is this really on the NY-effing-times ! ...but then I read the comments ...ah well, first world ignorance of ^low-tech^ solutions. Next thing you know somebody would be 'discovering' water is good to fight dehydration ! :)

I would love it too. I spent some time working on one, ten or so years ago. I have forgotten the actual power measurements but I came to the conclusion that a laser powerful enough to kill a mosquito in the ~10 ms my tracking system was able to locate it would be too dangerous to leave running with people around, because even if my "never shoot when there might be a human in the background" algorithm worked perfectly (ha!), even just a stray reflection off a nearby shiny surface would be enough to potentially cause permanent eye damage.

Microcontrollers have improved dramatically since then, so perhaps it would be possible to track mosquito flight instead of just scanning for mosquitos and blasting away whenever one shows up in your crosshairs, but unfortunately we'll never see any commercial applications now that Intellectual Ventures has stuck their toe in. Might be fun to try it again as an open source hack project, though...

My low-tech deterrent? A lifetime of avoiding deterrents. My body seems to have developed a natural resistance to them.

I grew up in New Hampshire, not exactly as extreme as Alaska but a place where there are certainly plenty of mosquitos in the summer. I went camping a few weekends ago in the White Mountains and had 10 mosquitos biting my arm as soon as I stopped moving.

So what's my deterrent? My body. It seems to have developed a natural resistance to mosquitos, or at least to what they inject into me.

When mosquitos bite me, I genuinely don't get itchy or have "bug bites". If I remember correctly, the itchy welts that most people get are caused by the body's response to something the mosquito injects into your skin to prevent the blood from clotting. My body seems to have adapted in such a way that it doesn't react anymore.

I haven't always been this way. When I was little, I got mosquito bites just like everybody else. The difference was, I always refused bug spray (I hate chemicals on my skin). I don't care how bad the bugs are. If it's 100F outside, I'll wear a long-sleeve shirt and long pants to cover my skin (and yes, they still bite through, so heavy clothes help).

EDIT: Also relevant: my grandmother discovered that dryer sheets--those scented things that people throw in the dryer with their laundry--work as an excellent mosquito deterrent. I didn't believe her until I tried it. Hang one out of your hat or on your shirt collar and watch how few mosquitos come near your head!

Many genera of mosquitoes _can_ spread disease: anopheles, aedes, culex, culiseta. Your risk depends on where you are, how often you're bitten, the prevalence of infection among mosquitoes, etc etc.