How to Prevent Mosquito Bites

Ants may be more common visitors to a picnic, but mosquitoes are surely more annoying guests and dangerous, too. Besides the irritation of mosquito bites, the pesky buggers can transmit all sorts of deadly diseases, including malaria, yellow fever, and the latest scourge to hit the United States, West Nile Virus. The good news is properly used repellents will prevent over 95 percent of mosquito bites.

A little mosquito entomology

There are nearly 3,000 different species of mosquitoes (about 150 in North America). Only female mosquitoes bite. Females draw blood to produce eggs, which they lay in standing water. Eggs can also lay dormant in soil for up to four years, waiting for a good rain to activate them. Within two to three days, the eggs hatch into larvae. About a week later the larvae morph into pupae, from which adult mosquitoes emerge a few days later by popping out of their pupal skins and flying off. Oils, larvicides, and detergents sprayed into mosquito breeding water are of some value, but a simpler, more effective means of abatement is to dump over containers of standing water. Birdbaths, kiddie pools, and junkyards full of old tires are especially popular nurseries for the little blighters.

Most species are active at dusk and dawn, but some bite right through the day. Mosquitoes are nearsighted. Targets are identified by movement and dark colors (tip: wear light clothing to make yourself harder to spot). After they get within 100 feet, mosquitoes locate their targets using tiny sensory receptors on their antennae that detect exhaled carbon dioxide and lactic acid. The skeeters then fly towards their targets, seeking out a telltale halo of warm, moist air surrounding the body-the sign of a living being. Mosquitoes then use their chemoreceptors to plop down on the involuntary blood donor. Although scientists have spent a lot of time trying to figure out why some people taste better, about all they have determined is that mosquitoes are finicky connoisseurs of human sweat.

Forget about frying 'em

Research has shown that bug zappers, including models marketed as mosquito killers, are worthless against mosquitoes, which favor carbon dioxide over fluorescent light. A 1996 study published in Entomology News Bats eat them, just not enough.

The creepy bat has made a resurgence in recent years, as bat conservation groups have extolled its insectivorous nature as good for mankind. True, some bats are voracious mosquito eaters, but many others would rather dine on moths and mayflies. There are simply too many mosquitoes for bats to eat them all. Even a large, guano-producing bat colony in your backyard will not rid your barbecue of mosquitoes. Purple martins also have been promoted as mosquito eliminators by (surprise!) companies that sell purple martin houses. The problem is that purple martins feed during the day when most mosquitoes are lying low, and aren't particularly fond of mosquitoes to begin with.