By Pat Dray
The Garden Spot
Pat Dray.
With so much in the news regarding mosquito-borne illnesses, do you ever wonder why some people seem to be mosquito magnets and others are rarely bothered by them?
Mosquitos use several factors to determine who to home in on. The one that makes one person most attractive from the farthest distance is carbon dioxide. Mosquitoes use their antennae to sense the CO2 we exhale from as far away as 300 feet, which is why the many of us feel plagued by them when we are out hiking or doing any aerobic activity. The higher our metabolic rate, the more oxygen our bodies use, and the more CO2 we exhale. That’s the bad news for those of us with more metabolically active lean muscle mass.
Mosquitos also use their eyesight to search for good biting candidates and are attracted by movement, especially of dark-colored shapes. Since they are most active at dawn and dusk, try to avoid wearing dark colors such as black, blue or red at these times.
Certain scents also attract them. Animal scents, such as musk, really trigger the female mosquito (the only one that bites) to search out that blood meal. You might also consider washing your clothes in scent-free detergents to reduce the attraction. Wearing any scented product and black running pants for your early morning run? Not a great idea.
Even more important than reducing your attractiveness as a meal is reducing the mosquito’s breeding grounds. Don’t leave any stagnant water near your home – the females lay their eggs near water sources. A bucket left outside in the rain can become a breeding ground. If you have a water feature in your landscape, make sure that it’s aerated. The Centers for Disease Control recommends that once a week you should empty and scrub, turn over, cover, or throw out any items that hold water like tires, buckets, planters, toys, pools, birdbaths, flowerpot saucers or trash containers.
You should also wear long pants and sleeves (but remember, light colored) when outdoors in areas where there are mosquitos. As a mosquito magnet, I also have a sunhat with a mesh head cover. I’m sure my neighbors think I’m ready for anything when I’m outside gardening, but it does work.
There are also a number of repellents available containing DEET, most of which can be sprayed on clothing. If you prefer to use an organic botanical, oil of lemon eucalyptus is the only organic repellent that has been found to be effective by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The CDC also recommends that you replace your outdoor lights with yellow “bug” lights, which tend to attract fewer mosquitoes than ordinary lights. The yellow lights are not repellents, though, so follow the other recommendations in the evening hours as well.