[pct-l] Pct-L Digest, Vol 50, Issue 14

[Michael S]

Oh please, garlic has NO effect on mosquitoes.  There is no scientific evidence supporting garlic's efficacy as a repellant, but there is evidence that it has none at all:  A double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial of garlic as a mosquito repellant: a preliminary study. 

Mosquito olfactory senses only detect CO2 and lactic acid, stuff that mammals produce, making it target it.  Commercial mosquito repellants work by disrupting the CO2 and lactic acid "odor", not by making any smell "unpleasant" to that annoying insect.   Even if garlic somehow miraculous worked, ingesting it would not provide a sufficient concentration at the skin level to provide any kind of reasonable protection.  You'd need to eat cloves of garlic along the trail, probably weighing more than anything you could buy commercially.

By the way, lemon oil is getting some positive results in clinical trials.  So it might work and smells a lot better than garlic.


Michael
michaels at skepticalraptor.com
http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php



On Feb 13, 2012, at 10:00 :02PST, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

From: Nathan Miller <erccmacfitheal at yahoo.com>
To: Jerry Goller <geartester at comcast.net>; "pct-l at backcountry.net" <pct-l at backcountry.net>; Edward Anderson <mendoridered at yahoo.com> 
Cc: Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes <diane at santabarbarahikes.com> 
Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2012 8:55 PM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] REPELLING MOSQUITOES AND TICKS

You could also try eating garlic...LOTS of garlic!? Mosquitoes have a very narrow range of smell.? Blocking and confusing their olfactory senses is the basis of repellents.? If they land on you, they'll still bite you, no matter what you're wearing, but they have to find you first!? With raw garlic, you also get all those other great health benefits!

-Nate the Trail Zombie