JC98

I'm going to India, and there are outbreaks of several viral diseases going on transmitted by mosquito bites. Please suggest effective mosquito repellent, esp for the face and sensitive skin. DEET applied on my face can make me pass out.

How about spraying your clothes and hats with OFF or some strong DEET based repellent, without putting it on your face? Would that work?

Heard Avon's Skin-So-Soft is supposed to be ok. Anyone tried this?

Wristbands?

Any things you can take--heard of vitamin B's, garlic, etc. NOt sure how effective they are.

I'm very proned to mosquito bites, so I'm trying to protect myself as best as I can.

Thanks!

santharamhari

You sound really paranoid....these mosquitos here in India, dont respond to any/most repellents.

Beware the dengue, chickungunya and other stuff going around in the north part of india.....

Hari

cybor

Ah yes, the dreaded Indian mosquito - most deadly insect around. Do a search here to reveal lots of info. about African mosquito repellents. My guess is that you shouldn't use deet ever if your inclined to pass out - particularly in India, no less You could wear one of those mesh nets on your head - they're very popular in India.
Good luck!

ann_nyc

Up until last year, I believe that the only effective mosquito repellent was DEET, but I think a new one came out recently that was also considered effective. I don't remember exactly, but I think it had Eucalyptus in it. consumer reports had an article, I think. You could try looking it up.

It does sound as if you need to avoid DEET. I'm not sure from your post if you are expecting to use DEET for other parts of the body but not the head. If so, you might want to try the Sawyer brand, which has a controlled release formulation. Supposedly, there is less absorption into the sking, because of the formula, and it is 'only' 20% DEET, I think, but has the effectiveness of a much higher percentage.

I used the Sawyer for a recent trip to Africa and found it effective.

You can also buy Pyrethrin spray to treat your clothing with. You spray or soak the clothes in it before you leave home, and it lasts for 6 weeks, with up to 6 washings. It's not 100% effective, but it helps.

Avon's skin-so-soft is only mildly effective, and the effects don't last long so you need to keep re-applying. I'd check out the Consumer reports article for the other one they recommend.

good luck.

Good luck.

steeliejim

I can second the limited effectiveness of Skin So Soft. Tried it in the Sierra in early summer when mossies were as bad as I've ever seen them. Much worse than when I was in India last year.

Thank goodness I had also brought along a DEET formulation as well. The Skin So Soft was effective, but for no more than about 5 min. with clouds of mossies hanging around just waiting, waiting, waiting... It was hard to even breathe without ingesting them.

sundowner

I remember seeing a show that tested mosquito repellants but couldn't remember what they said. I googled and found a chart of some repellants the University of Florida tested.

It shows that Skin So Soft repels mossies from 3 - 23 minutes. The wrist bands are zero minutes. Not long enough for me!

My personal experience with Deep Woods Off is that it lasts about 2 hours (while being physically active/sweating etc).

Here is the chart
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/IN/IN41900.pdf

Good luck!

santharamhari

JC98,

I dont know which part of India you plan to visit.....but, here in the South it has been raining horrid for the last few days and there is water everywhere!!!

Hmmmmm/////mossie time.......

Hari

santharamhari

Garlic???

My goodness!!!

nevermind

We soaked our clothing in pemetherin. It worked like a charm.

JaneB

Consumer Reports list this non-deet repellent #8 on their list:

Repel Plant Based Lemon Eucalyptus
p-menthane-3,8-diol, 26%

JC98

nevermind, if you put pemetherin on your clothes, do you still need to put another mosquito repellent on your skin?

It looks like we need to cover ourselves 24 hours a day, as the mosquitoes that carry malaria attack at night and those that carry dengue fever and chikungunya attack in the day. DOH!

But the bottles warn you not to apply it more than 8 hours a day. I'm bringing picaridin and DEET too. Plannning on using picaridin on hands and face, but DEET on feet/ankles.

nevermind

JC98 - We didn't use much repellent on our skin at all and were never bothered by any insects. Soaking your clothes is a little bothersome, but not as big a task as you would think. If you purchase Sawyer's, the kit has a bag for soaking and plastic gloves. You soak the clothes for a couple of hours, then hang them to dry. They are not dripping wet, so it isn't messy. After the clothes dry you can not tell they've ever been treated.

You can also buy a spray, but we didn't use it as we found we preferred the soaking method. For one thing, soaking gives a longer lasting effect than spraying.

I purchased the pemetherin online through REI.