For many, summer means more time spent outdoors, either camping, traveling or just sitting in the backyard. And for those who are attractive to mosquitoes, this translates to flesh that’s riddled with bites from these common and pesky micropredators. Rather than dealing with the resulting redness, itching, pain, and the chance of infection, you should be up-to-date on the latest options for repelling these creatures (and caring for the discomfort caused by their bites).
In an effort to provide the most well-rounded list of mosquito-deterring essentials, we’ve included some expert-recommended items (including a few brand-new solutions that might not yet be on your radar), along with some products that some sweet-blooded members of our own newsroom swear by. (We’ve also included a few itch-relief products for dealing with the inevitable.)
Daniel Markowski, a technical advisor for the American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA), said that mosquitoes are attracted to various chemical cues exuded by the human body. These include breath odors, microbiota byproducts on our skin, or other general human odors.
“We are all different, and these different combinations are more [or] less attractive to different mosquito species. For this reason, some people can use less concentrated repellents, while others need more,” Markowski said.
