Repelling mosquitos (serious)

Falconoffury · Expert Joined: May 25, 2004 Posts: 1469

I live in Florida. If things get bad enough, I may end up living in a wood shack in the everglades, and hunting alligators for food. I don't want to get eaten alive by mosquitos, and I don't expect to be able to buy repellant from a Wal-Mart. So, can anyone recommend plants or herbs of any kind that are known for keeping mosquitos away?
_________________
"If humans don't control their numbers, nature will." -Pimentel
"There is not enough trash to go around for everyone," said Banrel, one of the participants in the cattle massacre.
"George W. Bush loves poor people. He keeps making more of them." -unkn

DomusAlbion · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:20 pm Post subject:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=natural+mosquito+repellent&spell=1

Lots of sources.
_________________
"Modern Agriculture is the use of land to convert petroleum into food."
-- Albert Bartlett

"It will be a dark time. But for those who survive, I suspect it will be rather exciting."
-- James Lovelock

Ludi · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:22 pm Post subject:

Horsemint Monarda citriodora grows in many parts of the country. It's what citronella is sometimes made from.

BabyPeanut · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:52 pm Post subject:

How do you make quinine?
http://sres.anu.edu.au/associated/fpt/nwfp/quinine/Quinine.html

http://www.scidev.net/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=readnews&itemid=1984&language=1

Ludi · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:58 pm Post subject:

Momordica charantia Oriental Bitter Melon, is a source of quinine that's supposed to be easy to grow.

lactose · Coal Joined: Feb 26, 2005 Posts: 8

Douse yourself with urine. I doubt it will work but it's worth a try.

seahorse2 · Expert Joined: Oct 18, 2004 Posts: 1950

Smoking your clothes with the smoke of a campfire helps a lot, as well as burning cow crap or animal crap in your fire. All wild things, including bugs, fear smoke.

Terran · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 4:26 pm Post subject:

Monarda citriodora the citronella plant supposed to do a good job for a good repelling mosquitos for a good 5 sq feet.

You could always get one of those electric lamp. The theory bugs are attracted to light. Covering around the lamp is a grid, in which in contact this bug completes a electric connection from + to - , and electrocutes this bug to vaporization. By that time you'll totally electrocute the mosquitos population to death.

Anyone even through about netting as well? it keeps bugs away like a charm.

What about natural control? You could always build a habitat for bats. They devour bugs in the 100s.
_________________
my page:
www.myspace.com/peakoil

kpeavey · Expert Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 1313

Horehound
run the leaves into your clothes and onto your skin. Helps but you smell like a cough drop.

Fennel is pretty good at fleas. Just grow it all around your Gator-hunting shack.

Away from swamps and surface water, mosquito population can be mitigated by making sure everything around your house for hundreds of feet is drained after a rain. Buckets, plastic sheeting, old tires, puddles, gutters, boats, anything that will hold water for 3-5 days will be a breeding ground for mosquitos.
_________________
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--for ever."
-George Orwell, 1984

______________
Accept the Facts.

mindfarkk · Heavy Crude Joined: Dec 07, 2004 Posts: 481

just to throw a little perspective on this question...

i used to live in florida. i was living in central at one point, and listening to some ecologist or some such specialist speak to a group of students (myself included). i'm fuzzy on the details, which i'm trying to check right now, but basically she said that back in the 1800s some scientists did some testing to measure the mosquito population. they put out this jar with something in it to attract mosquitos, i'm unclear whether it was a substance or a light of some kind. it was a jar that bugs fly into but can't fly out of, by design. anyway this was a standard way of measuring mosquito counts. there was a cut-off number which indicated major infestation, i can't remember if it was 100 or 300, but it was something like that. well, that night they caught... the number i remember is 300,000, which can't be right. but you get the picture. it was astronomical. it blew "major infestation" right ouf of the water. the word "thousand" was definitly used.

i will relate another tale. when i was in high school, my friend's father had a boat. one day he took us both out on a little expedition and we ended up exploring a few islands near cedar key, which is in the gulf of mexico. my friend and i decided we wanted to explore one of the islands, so he dropped anchor and we just dove in and swam over (very calm, warm water). we were just a couple of teenagers in bathing suits. so we are walking down the first path we find into the brush and we get about twenty feet and man... this CLOUD of mosquitos the size of swallows rose up, like a swarm of bees, and just dove right for us. it was awesome. it was also a pretty terrifying. we ran like bandits back to the water and i can remember diving underwater and sitting there (the water was pretty shallow), looking up through a few inches of water, and actually seeing these mosquitos buzzing in the air above me as if they were frustrated they couldn't quite touch me. i kid you not. a few of those Fark could have carried me into the scrub brush, never to return. WELL ok that last might be a slight exaggeration but... i think those insects were close to an inch long. if you haven't lived in the tropics, you really have no idea how BIG an ordinary bug can get.

you can write this off to tall tales if you want, but i promise you on my word i'm telling you the truth. i would consider the problem in this situation to be potentially life-threatening, and not just because of the west nile or meningitis or whatever else you can catch from those evil bastards.

i'm thinking you might do well to research the seminoles and find out how the hell they managed to stay alive and sane. or research turn of the 19th century florida, before the advent of electricity and widespread use of pesticides, and see how the early crackers handled it.

i do not think ordinary measures of natural bug control would suffice, myself.
_________________
what, me worry?

seahorse · Expert Joined: Oct 15, 2004 Posts: 2230 Location: Arkansas

I spent three weeks in the Florida everglades without bug spray (Army Ranger School) and didn't think they were that big of a deal. They were a lot worse in Alaska. If they are just eating you alive, wear long cotton pants and long sleeve cotton shirts, put a head net on if you must, you will be okay. Also, if you're into trying off the wall methods, try sulfur. There's the belief that sulfur into your system helps keep them away. You can do this in the field by sucking on paper match heads. I think it helps.

katkinkate · Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 3:10 am Post subject:

Eat lots a garlic. The sulphur compounds in garlic act as a mild broad spectrum antibiotic and mosquitoes hate the smell.... so does everyone else, however.
_________________
Kind regards, Katkinkate

"The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops,
but the cultivation and perfection of human beings."
Masanobu Fukuoka

gg3 · Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 4:44 am Post subject:

Commercial insect repellents contain DEET, and this is also used in higher concentrations for troops stationed in Iraq. However it is also known to cause neurological damage and is suspected in some of the cases coming back from the war.

Personally I would not live in a place such as Florida or Alaska that's subject to those kind of infestations. The risk of deadly diseases is too high. There are plenty of other places to choose from that are not subject to this hazard.