West Nile Is On It's Way! Here's A Few "Home-Grown" Mosquito Repellent

Good info...I take garlic oil capsules everyday, the super garlic. The mosquitoes
don't come around me at all. (Course neither does anyone else...ha ha) This
summer I've been amazed at how they are just not bothering me, don't even see
them and I'm in the garden etc. But this morning I had a bite, and a few were
coming around, just came in and read this article and recall, I had a banana for
breakfast. That is so incredible.

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"aaaah and the whisper of thousands of tiny voices became a mighty deafening roar and they called it 'freedom'!"' Canadians Acting Humanely at home & everywhere

Thanks, I'm trying B1, sounds fantastic, hope it works.

Oops, posted in wrong place, maybe B1 will help there too.

RPW,

This sounded like wonderful advice, so I sent it around to family and
friends. One of them replied, advising caution. She said:

"Whoa! Not a good plan to wipe your skin with a chemical-laden dryer
sheet.  In fact, not a good idea to use these carcinogenic "Bounce Fabric
Softener Sheets" in the dryer at all.
 
"These sheets really serve no function other than to spread perfume all
over your clothing. They're perfume sheets. And these perfumes are not
essential oils harvested from flowers out in a wild field somewhere, they
are synthetic chemicals, manufactured in a chemical plant, and many are
highly carcinogenic. So after washing clothes to get out all the dirt,
people are then coating their clothes with a product that deposits a thin
film of toxic chemicals onto their clothes. In other words, the clothes
were cleaner before they went through the washer and dryer. And now
that they come out of the dryer, they are dangerous to your health,
because now they have been soaked in a toxic chemical cocktail.
 
"To spread it directly on the skin of babies to ward off mosquitoes is
outrageous!
 
"Chemicals found in fabric softeners and dry sheets (eMediaWire website
- Press release February 21, 2005) include:

• Benzyl acetate: Linked to pancreatic cancer
• Benzyl Alcohol: Upper respiratory tract irritant
• Ethanol: On the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Hazardous
Waste list and can cause central nervous system disorders
• Alpha-Terpineol: Can cause respiratory problems, including fatal
edema, and central nervous system damage
• Ethyl Acetate: A narcotic on the EPA's Hazardous Waste list
• Camphor: Causes central nervous system disorders
• Chloroform: Neurotoxic, anesthetic and carcinogenic
• Linalool: A narcotic that causes central nervous system disorders
• Pentane: A chemical known to be harmful if inhaled

"Additional side effects from any of these chemicals can cause: Nausea,
Vomiting, kidney/liver damage, Headaches, Blood pressure reduction,
pancreatic cancer and irritation to the skin, mucus membrane and
respiratory tract. These side effects may not happen immediately, but
over a period of time. Some people may notice constant coughing
sensation, while sleeping on dry cleaned bedding sheets, which may be
the cause of these chemicals. Skin rashes maybe more likely, on baby's
skin, since they are more sensitive to dry sheets, exposed to their
clothing. When a person sweats, that moistens the clothes, which may
cause the skin to absorb any chemical residue, from the clothing that
was treated, with a dry sheet.
 
"I'd much rather take my chances with a mosquito than with products
straight from Dow Chemical."


She advised another remedy ... I'll go back and double-check ... and
report again. But thanks for the good thought, RPW.

~~
P.S. Oops. It was a laundry suggestion, not a mosquito-repellant
suggestion. Plain white vinegar in the rinse cycle ... no smell.

I plan on going out and trying to get bit as often as I can.

West Nile is a virus, and in 90 out of 100 cases, the bitee has no serious side effects. 9 of the others get some flu like symptoms for a few days. One in something like 10,000 get serious side effects that require hospitalization. I've fought off Malaria. It's not so bad, if you know the symptoms and treat it appropriately.

I like those odds of getting West Nile, because once you are bitten and go through the symptoms and recover, you are immune. I'm not going to avoid our short summer over a 1 in 10,000 possibility. Life is too short. The Chicken Little media does not run my life.

But I do like the suggestions. You can also get a repellant made for Tomatoes in many health food stores Stateside, and it can be ordered online north of 49. It's supposed to be as effective as 10% deet.

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BC Mary you are right to pass on caution. Speaking as living "Canary in the coal mine", I had caution hit me over the head when I became Chemically Sensitive in 1990. I ought to be speaking up and telling people how and when they are poisoning themselves but often opt for the path of least resistance (chicken out). At one point I used a chemical “dictionary” I forget the exact title, but I went through the exercise of dissecting every product in my home by looking up the ingredients and health effects of each chemical. Baking soda and vinegar and a few others are safe, it goes downhill from there. Skin so soft will rob me of my voice, make my speech slurred and make walking a challenge within minutes of exposure to it. I personally have filed it under “neuro toxic” due to the set of symptoms it brings. Hardly scientific but it works for me. I soon learned that I could die waiting for long term, double blind studies, or health professionals to start advising people to remove the poisons from their homes.

Laundry products like scented detergents, fabric softeners, and dryer sheets are so very important (to avoid) because whatever you use, you wear all day and sleep on all night. Many of the laundry products will transfer on to your skin in the time it takes to try on a piece of clothing (when I buy second hand). I use multiple vinegar soaks outdoors, and washings, and then days on the line preferably in the rain to get enough of those chemicals out to make them livable. It is hard to imagine how "green" it is for me to buy second hand stuff by the time I get done my purging routine Anyway the less risky mosquito remedies are encouraging.

Dr. Caleb, I envy you throwing caution to the odds . Personally, I'm cynical enough to entertain West Nile Virus as an "agressive" marketing campaign, and the "chicken little media" as offering free promo space.

.
... but it's awfully hard to see mosquitoes or black-flies feasting on
babies.

Our family (often in Australia) uses the big cotton tent-like nets which
completely envelope the beds ... surefire non-toxic protection --
although it gets hot inside them. And babies never take long to grab
hold and haul any nets down.

I dunno ... rub babies with garlic?

.

It's pretty good odds! Odds are better that you'll have a car accident on the way to work. But yet, people still drive to work!

And rubbing babies with garlic . . . .I dunno. I always thought they went better with a mango&lime chutney.

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