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Consumer Reports: Best Insect Repellent

Castle Dave

Getting off the lift
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Apr 24, 2017
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324
Thermacell's active ingredient is Allethrin, a synthetic version of a naturally occurring repellent found in chrysanthemum flowers
 

Uncle-A

In the words of Paul Simon "You can call me Al"
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Joined
Dec 22, 2015
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10,893
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NJ
I will start by saying I am a mosquito magnet. Deet does work for me, and I have also used "Skin So Soft" with mixed results. The "SSS" on an average summer night on the water is only OK but on a bad night not as much. Someone tried to tell me that your diet has something to do with how mush the mosquitos love to bit you. One thing they said was give up eating bananas during mosquito season. Does anyone have any info or history on Bugs and Diet?
 
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TS
Tricia

Tricia

The Velvet Hammer
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Nov 1, 2015
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27,298
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Reno
I will start by saying I am a mosquito magnet. Deet does work for me, and I have also used "Skin So Soft" with mixed results. The "SSS" on an average summer night on the water is only OK but on a bad night not as much. Someone tried to tell me that your diet has something to do with how mush the mosquitos love to bit you. One thing they said was give up eating bananas during mosquito season. Does anyone have any info or history on Bugs and Diet?
When my little sister went to Chuuk Island to teach school for a year, she was advised to take garlic pills or eat a lot of garlic because mosquitos, and bugs in general, will avoid the scent of garlic. She said it worked fairly well, but the downside was, her skin smelled like garlic. Smelling like garlic isn't appealing to me.
 

cantunamunch

Meh
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Nov 17, 2015
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21,907
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Behavioral sink
I will start by saying I am a mosquito magnet. Deet does work for me, and I have also used "Skin So Soft" with mixed results. The "SSS" on an average summer night on the water is only OK but on a bad night not as much. Someone tried to tell me that your diet has something to do with how mush the mosquitos love to bit you. One thing they said was give up eating bananas during mosquito season. Does anyone have any info or history on Bugs and Diet?

We know they trigger on CO2 as an attractant and bigger CO2 sources will preferentially be targeted, independent of anything to do with diet. This is how natural gas-based skeeter killers work.

The next biggest known targeting factor? Vitamin B. Kinda like I posted about above.
 

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