Illnesses such as the West Nile virus and the Zika virus are often found in mosquitoes, which means that you definitely need to do all that you can to lower the risk of being bitten by one of them. Here are three methods that you can use to repel them!

The most commonly used way of protecting yourself from mosquitoes is the use of an insect repellent. Three of the most popular options are DEET, Picaridin and Lemon Eucalyptus. DEET can protect you for up to 12 hours, Picaridin for 8 hours and Lemon Eucalyptus for 6 hours. The latter of these can potentially cause skin irritation so should not be used on children under the age of three. So that you remain shielded at all times, make sure that you apply your repellent of choice as often as is recommended.

Another option which can be undertaken by everyone, is the wearing of appropriate clothing items. Make sure to wear items which fully cover you, that are lightweight and a bright colour. As well as wearing clothing items of a particular style, NosiLife products are recommended as they use insect repellent technology! The Craghoppers Cardenas shirt, for example, uses a permanent mosquito repellent. If you’re looking to add another layer of protection, you can use the insect repellent – Permethrin. This particular repellent is very useful as it does not irritate skin and is odourless!

As opposed to trying to prevent any mosquitoes from biting you, there are instead ways to prevent them from breeding or evolving to the stage where they are capable of doing that in the first place. There are a couple of techniques that can be explored to do this:

  • They need moist conditions to breed, so removing any nearby standing water or treating it with Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) to stop them from maturing is very useful. Use the same techniques on any bottle caps, plant containers or anything that may have remaining water.
  • You can also use Bti to attract mosquitoes which will prevent their larva from developing. This is non-toxic to other species such as birds, fish as well as most other insects.

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