Note: The views, opinions and content mentioned in the blog are solely mine and are not of those of my current or previous employers'.
With the recent heavy rain in most of the Southern states of India, there has been a rise in the number of mosquitoes and diseases carried by them, Dengue in particular, is on the rise (read here). It becomes important for us to protect ourselves from mosquito bites to avoid transmission of the diseases. Even if the mosquitoes are not carrying any disease causing organisms, no one enjoys a bite from them. There are several methods that we use to protect ourselves in India, most popular are as follows:
- Mosquito Repellent Coils
- Mosquito Repellent Diffusers- liquids and mats
- Mosquito Repellent Creams, sprays, patches and roll-on
- In some parts of the country- Mosquito nets (not too effective in my experience)
Most of these methods (except for use of mosquito nets) are quite unsafe and it involves inhalation of a lot of chemicals directly or indirectly. Some people also use Mosquito Repellent plants as well. I think this can be safe as well and if it was possible, I would have grown these at home. Unfortunately, I cannot :-(. I am not sure how effective these are but if you are interested, you can read about 12 such plants here.
Now, I have an "indoorsy" garden just outside my front door and the mosquitoes are usually waiting eagerly in the garden, for us to open our doors to them and they really love our blood. I was using (until this morning) liquid or mat diffusers and they actually worked for me but I always felt uncomfortable at the thought of inhaling invisible fumes of a concoction of chemicals which could harm us in a long run.
Recently, I saw a video on a simple home made mosquito repellent circulating on WhatsApp and thought of trying it out at home. I prepared it today. It is quite easy. All you need is:
- A few pellets of camphor
- Neem Oil
To prepare the repellent, crush the camphor pellets to a powder- finer, the better. However, I left it a bit chunky. Mix this powder very well with the neem oil. I used about 25 ml of oil and crushed about 5 pellets of camphor.
This mixture can be used in 3 ways:
- Light a lamp using the oil.
- Apply it directly on your skin
- Fill the mixture in an empty liquid diffuser bottle and plug it on.
I used the diffuser method. It has been 3 hours since I turned it on (7pm to 10pm) prior to writing this blog and so far I have not had a mosquito bite. I am not sure if it is because there have been no mosquitoes, or if the repellent is really working. I have to test it out some other time as well and also during different times during the day. I will keep you posted if you are interested in knowing- just drop a comment and I will let you know.
P.S:
Neem is known to have natural pest repellent qualities. There is a lot of material on the internet to read on this topic.
As per some online content that I read, mainly coming from US, Camphor vapours are likely safe to inhale in small quantities in adults and may have minor side effects. It should not be swallowed whatsoever. Some people are allergic to camphor while applied on skin, so, best to do a small patch test before using it. Please do consult a doctor for the use of camphor, if there are babies, pregnant or lactating mothers around you or if you are one.
Most Indians use camphor as a part of religious worship and are used to it and I have not really known/heard of any one being harmed by its use- but one never knows. In my opinion, this would still be safer than the highly concentrated chemicals (including DDT which our gardener sprays in our garden). Many of the popular vaporubs available in the market also use camphor. Hope you found this useful.
With the recent heavy rain in most of the Southern states of India, there has been a rise in the number of mosquitoes and diseases carried by them, Dengue in particular, is on the rise (read here). It becomes important for us to protect ourselves from mosquito bites to avoid transmission of the diseases. Even if the mosquitoes are not carrying any disease causing organisms, no one enjoys a bite from them. There are several methods that we use to protect ourselves in India, most popular are as follows:
- Mosquito Repellent Coils
- Mosquito Repellent Diffusers- liquids and mats
- Mosquito Repellent Creams, sprays, patches and roll-on
- In some parts of the country- Mosquito nets (not too effective in my experience)
Most of these methods (except for use of mosquito nets) are quite unsafe and it involves inhalation of a lot of chemicals directly or indirectly. Some people also use Mosquito Repellent plants as well. I think this can be safe as well and if it was possible, I would have grown these at home. Unfortunately, I cannot :-(. I am not sure how effective these are but if you are interested, you can read about 12 such plants here.
Now, I have an "indoorsy" garden just outside my front door and the mosquitoes are usually waiting eagerly in the garden, for us to open our doors to them and they really love our blood. I was using (until this morning) liquid or mat diffusers and they actually worked for me but I always felt uncomfortable at the thought of inhaling invisible fumes of a concoction of chemicals which could harm us in a long run.
Recently, I saw a video on a simple home made mosquito repellent circulating on WhatsApp and thought of trying it out at home. I prepared it today. It is quite easy. All you need is:
- A few pellets of camphor
- Neem Oil
 |
| Neem Oil- Brand information and other methods of identification redacted |
To prepare the repellent, crush the camphor pellets to a powder- finer, the better. However, I left it a bit chunky. Mix this powder very well with the neem oil. I used about 25 ml of oil and crushed about 5 pellets of camphor.
This mixture can be used in 3 ways:
- Light a lamp using the oil.
- Apply it directly on your skin
- Fill the mixture in an empty liquid diffuser bottle and plug it on.
I used the diffuser method. It has been 3 hours since I turned it on (7pm to 10pm) prior to writing this blog and so far I have not had a mosquito bite. I am not sure if it is because there have been no mosquitoes, or if the repellent is really working. I have to test it out some other time as well and also during different times during the day. I will keep you posted if you are interested in knowing- just drop a comment and I will let you know.
 |
| Liquid Diffuser with Camphor-Neem Oil mixture |
P.S:
Neem is known to have natural pest repellent qualities. There is a lot of material on the internet to read on this topic.
As per some online content that I read, mainly coming from US, Camphor vapours are likely safe to inhale in small quantities in adults and may have minor side effects. It should not be swallowed whatsoever. Some people are allergic to camphor while applied on skin, so, best to do a small patch test before using it. Please do consult a doctor for the use of camphor, if there are babies, pregnant or lactating mothers around you or if you are one.
Most Indians use camphor as a part of religious worship and are used to it and I have not really known/heard of any one being harmed by its use- but one never knows. In my opinion, this would still be safer than the highly concentrated chemicals (including DDT which our gardener sprays in our garden). Many of the popular vaporubs available in the market also use camphor. Hope you found this useful.
No comments:
Post a Comment