Mosquito Natural Repellent Ideas for Organic Mosquito Control

It's about mosquito season again. I dread it every year, especially in the humid south. I'm a human feast for the bloodsuckers (both literally and figuratively).

Now with the West Nile virus to worry about, it's a more serious concern. I have found several mosquito natural repellent ways to help repel mosquitoes naturally.

Here's a bit of information about these insect pests and their itchy mosquito bites, whether you want to know or not. (I don't want to waste all of my research- ha!)

Anyway, only the female mosquitoes bite. The main thing that attracts mosquitoes to humans is the carbon dioxide gas humans release when they exhale. They also can hunt us down by our body heat and scent.

Like I said, mosquitoes love me, but it's not mutual. I used to spray myself down with mosquito repellents. But after I got older, I got wiser to the potential harm of repellent chemicals such as DEET.

Plus, I saw a video where a young man was at a birthday party. Just a few minutes prior to filming, he had sprayed himself with a Deet mosquito control product for repelling mosquitoes. The video caught the entire episode of the man starting to become disoriented, then start having seizures. The man was rushed to the hospital. Sadly, he died. He had a severe reaction to the mosquito repellent.

I really don't want to take a chance on that happening to me or a family member. So, I have looked high and low for other ways to repel mosquitoes. Here are the few that I have found to be effective, at least for me and my family:

Before you buy natural mosquito repellents and mosquito killers, try to avoid getting too many mosquitoes in the first place.

Check around outdoors for any standing water that is collecting. Immediately dump it out. Do this soon after every rain.

If you have something outside where you keep standing water intentionally, such as a pond, be sure to put one of those mosquito 'donuts' in the water, so that it will kill the mosquito eggs. Or add fish that will eat the mosquito larvae.

We haven't done it personally, but bat houses are very effective at getting rid of mosquitoes. Not the houses themselves per se, but the critters that live in them. If you can build bat houses that will attract bats to set up homes, your mosquito problem will be solved.

Same thing goes for martins. These birds love mosquitoes for snacks! Build martin houses and hope they become your neighbors.

I have used Avon Skin-So-Soft bath oil rubbed full strength onto my skin as a natural way to repel mosquitoes. It seems to work pretty well. My husband mixes it half and half with rubbing alcohol. He says it works better that way, but I think it's too harsh for my sensitive skin. It's also an excellent flea repellent to use on pets, without using the added alcohol.

Use an eucalyptus oil mixture of 1 part eucalyptus oil to 2 parts of a carrier oil, such as jojoba or almond oil. Use high quality eucalyptus oil that has at least 70% cineole. This is one of the best natural bug repellents I've used.

This is as effective an mosquito repellent as commercial products. It lasts for about two hours before needing to be reapplied. I suppose you could even mix it with any lotion you have on hand, although we have never tried that. Mixing the essential oil with aloe vera gel works, too.

If you don't want to make your own natural insect repellant, there is a commercial lemon eucalyptus mosquito repellent that is supposed to be very effective. It claims to repel mosquitoes for up to 6 hours. You can buy it from the link to the right.

Neem oil is also an effective natural mosquito repellent, but I wouldn't recommend it for use on humans. The smell is terrible.It works great on your pets, though. They don't seem to mind. And it's non-toxic if they lick it.

There are products available with neem oil to repel mosquitoes and other insect pests, but I have no personal experience using them. They may not smell offensive.

The link below illustrates why it may be smart to try to start using natural mosquito control methods and natural mosquito repellent to avoid mosquito bites. The dangerous yellow fever mosquitoes are starting to build up resistance to popular DEET mosquito repellants.

Spray regular scent Listerine around the area where you will be outdoors. This works very well at repelling mosquitoes for the space of an evening, no matter what certain other websites may claim. I have used this method of natural pest control, and it worked. It seems to repel other insect pests, too, such as flies.

We finally bought an electronic insect killer called a Flowtron 80 watt size that attracts mosquitoes and other bugs, then kills them. It works best if you start using it early in the season before the mosquitoes can start multiplying too much.

They can protect different size areas, depending on which model you get. Ours is effective for our entire yard, which is less than a 1/2 acre. The model we bought is supposed to be effective for up to 1 1/2 acres. It cost about $90.

We also bought cartridges to use in it that attracts mosquitoes.

Our mosquito and bug zapper is still going strong. I think it's well worth it. And with the money we've saved on mosquito repellent sprays, citronella candles, and the like, I don't think it was a bad investment at all. Not to mention now we don't worry about heartworm with our pets.

The bug zappers seem to last a long time. We bought ours a couple of years ago, and it still works great at killing mosquitoes and repelling other bugs, too. Now I wouldn't live without one. I have discovered summer evenings again!

One negative about the Flowtron mosquito killer is that it needs to be plugged in somewhere. So, if you don't have a free outdoor outlet, you are out of luck.

Also, just like those bug zappers of the 70s, it emits a noise as the insects come into contact with it. It's not overly loud, but it is a negative factor.

And replacement bulbs are costly, but we've only replaced one in two years or so.

The only other thing is that the Flowtron mosquito killer isn't selective about its victims. So it will kill the good critters along with the insect pests that you want to die.