Mossies, I just hate em

Are you allergic or sensitive to mosquito bites? I suppose most of us are; I for one gets all itchy when I see a mossie – before it actually bites me.

So what do we do? Despite all the screening we install on windows and doors, these pesky critters seem to have the skills to penetrate almost anything. Short of armor-cladding our bodies in thick denim from top to toe, the only other alternative is to use repellents. A common type of repellent in the market is the plug in type. A small bottle of clear fluid is mated to a modular heater; the whole assembly is then plugged into a wall outlet – the heater draws the fluid up through a black wick and evaporates it. It is the evaporation and dispersion into the air of the active compound containing allethrin thats kills mossies. It certainly seems to work well, the fluid seemingly deadly to the bugs. Wonder if there is any long term harm to us humans. Avoid dengue and malaria; then come down with side effects of the chemical in the repellent. Oh well, you can't win them all.

One thing I noticed is that the repellent gets used up very fast. Whether listed as 60 or 90 day duration, it just doesn't last as long as touted – even when used less than 10 hours per night. You might use a timer to limit its action to say, 6 hours a night. However, the heater seems to pour out prodigious amounts of repellent via the black wick, probably more than necessary. I was mulling about this and finally hit upon an idea to slow it down. You need to work on the black wick that appears to be a wooden material. Just cut off the topmost 5mm of the wick – score along its circumference with a sharp blade cutter and snap it off cleanly. The logic of this is to reduce the heated part of the wick, the topmost part of the wick now reaches only half into the heater. Less heated portion of wick, less repellent is drawn up and evaporated.

Hey, waddaya know? It really works, the bottle of repellent seems to last longer now. The level of repellent remaining doesn't go down as fast as before. The device still keeps the mossies at bay. When I get to the next new bottle, I will be able to accurately gauge how much longer it lasts with this modification. Saves a little money and reduces the repellent residue we absorb – all for less than a minute's work.