CDC | Colin Purrington's blog

Health officials love to remind people to wear pants and use CDC-approved repellents, but they tend to shy away from telling the public what doesn’t work. As a result, millions of people embrace ineffective techniques and gimmicks that waste money and expose family members to mosquito-borne diseases. So I thought I’d make a list of the top myths and scams just in case skeptical people want details.

1. Mosquito-repelling plants

Despite claims made by influential, wholesome gardening folks on Facebook, there are no plants that repel mosquitoes. The plant marketed as the “mosquito plant” is no exception.

2. Bug Zappers

These devices make a satisfying crackle but if you dump all the carcasses on a table and sort them, you’ll find that only a very small fraction of the victims are mosquitoes. In one study, 0.22% were mosquitoes. Mostly you’ve just electrocuted thousands of small, defenseless moths and night-active beetles. More details.

3. Tubes of yeast and sugar

Containers filled with yeast and sugar are really good at attracting and killing fruit flies, ants, and wasps but will not control your mosquitoes. If you want details I’ve reviewed Tougher Than Tom’s Mosquito TNT and the Spartan Mosquito Pro Tech.

4. Dynatraps

These don’t appear to work. I’ve tried two different models and splurged on the optional lure but only succeeded in killing large numbers of moths, beetles, and other innocent insects (and thus depriving local birds of food). If you’re still on the fence read some of the 1-star reviews on Amazon.

5. Citronella candles

Citronella candles, coils, and torches only seem to work if you surround yourself with a lot of them, ideally in a protected area so that wind doesn’t dissipate the smoke. The fire and smell combine to activate a strong placebo effect in people who are susceptible to gimmicks.

6. Ultrasonic devices and apps

None of these have been found to work (details). The FTC has taken some companies to court. There is, however, a device called The Mosquito that is effective at repelling teenagers.

7. Listerine

Just another internet rumor started by somebody with too much free time.

8. Bounce dryer sheets

Per one study fungus gnats (which don’t bite) were mildly repelled by dryer sheets. I’d wager these sheets might actually be attractive to mosquitoes because some species home-in on perfumes.

9. Wrist bands with natural oils

At best, wrist bands will reduce the number of mosquito bites on your wrist simply because they can’t bite through the plastic. But they will not emit enough volatile compounds to shield the rest of you. NB: currently there are no wristbands that contain DEET or other CDC-approved repellent. Details.

10. Stickers laced with natural oils

Stickers only prevent mosquitoes from biting the flesh directly underneath the sticker. You’d need an awful lot of stickers for full protection. Note, same conclusion for the stickers that claim to infuse your bloodstream with B1.

11. Garlic

Eating garlic does not deter mosquitoes. It just deters other people.

12. Vitamin B1, B6, or B12 pills or patches

Nope, nope, and nope. Details. More details.

13. Mozi-Q pills

Just another scam. Details.

14. Bats and birds

Bats and birds eat mosquitoes under some circumstances (e.g., when they are caged with nothing else) but under most conditions they prefer to eat larger insects. Details.

Ten interesting facts about antibiotics, for Antibiotic Awareness Week (Nov 18 -24, 2013). Below is an image that can be used for presentations. PDF version for printing: facts-about-antibiotics.pdf.

I’ve tried to craft the above poster with information that is mildly interesting, with the hope that people (people like you?) might pass the link along. There are 100s of posters on the internet … but they seem to be completely ineffective at educating the public (according to an experiment). In my view, the problem is that all of these posters use “antibiotics” instead of the correct term, “antibacterial.” Please see my page, “Curbing the misuse of antibiotics” for details on why antibiotic/antibacterial choice matters for the public, even if it doesn’t matter to you (who probably have a higher degree).

Below are some links that explore some of statements in the PDF above. I’m putting them below the fold because they are probably TMI for 99% of the people who might be interested in the above PDF. If you are that 1%, go crazy.

To reduce the number of patients demanding antibacterials for viral infections (often for their kids), doctors are urged to think carefully how they speak to patients. See this paper (from The Alliance for Prudent Use of Antibiotics) for insightful suggestions on linguistic “levers” that physicians can use toward this goal. My suggestion: say, “An antibacterial will not treat your viral infection,” rather than “An antibiotic will not treat your viral infection.”
Antibiotics are generally assumed to be primarily defensive compounds, but that assumption is under review: see excellent articles by Raaijmakers and Mazzola, Alicia Fajardo and Jo sé L Martínez, and Aminov.
10% of Americans believe antibiotics are addictive. Source: Pew Research Center (pdf). Also discussed here.
Percentage believing viruses can be killed by antibiotics. Also, see this pdf. In my opinion, the bulk of this misconception is actually due to people’s belief that viruses are bacteria. See haiku at right. I was forced to make this because I didn’t have “% believing viruses are bacteria” poll data. Why do those doing STEM surveys not ask this? If you are a teacher and use “clickers” in class, can you please assess this at the start of class some year? Ideally in a huge class with freshman. Ideally not a science course. And then tell me??
Effect of antibacterials on mitochondria.
Etymology of antibiotic.
Modern definitions of “antibiotic” from multiple dictionaries. Many still define the word as applying to compounds that are active against microorganisms (i.e., not just bacteria).
How Selman Waksman stole the discovery of antibacterials from his own graduate student. And, in doing so, likely stole the Nobel Prize that Waksman eventually was awarded.
Antibiotics can be produced by bacteria, too. Waxman’s earlier papers (e.g.), in fact, say that antibiotics can be derived from any microorganism. And his claim to fame was streptomycin, which comes from a bacteria, though the organism was originally classified as a fungus (oopsies!). Microbiologists today like to define antibiotics as “just from fungi”, but that seems to be a recent fad.

Colin Purrington's blog

nature photography / natural history / misc

Tag Archives: CDC

Mosquito-control strategies and devices that don’t work