Nobody likes mosquitoes. And why would they? These irritating tiny creatures don’t just bite human skin and suck blood but also lead to serious diseases. Have you ever thought, why are mosquitoes so dangerous?
Why are Mosquitoes Dangerous?
While male mosquitoes do not bother you as they feed on plant juice and nectar, the female mosquitoes are what you should be wary about as they survive on human blood. It’s not just the itchiness and uncomfortable feeling of scratching the tiny bumps on your skin left by mosquito bites. It is the diseases that these mosquito bites bring along themselves that make these mosquitoes dangerous. Some of these are even deadly diseases.
Mosquitoes can give you Malaria. This is a disease mostly prevalent in Africa, Asia and Americas. Due to the malaria parasites inside the human red blood cells, malaria displays symptoms such as fever with chills and headache. In severe cases, patient goes into coma and then dies if proper treatment is not provided in the very first stages of malaria.
Mosquitoes are responsible for dengue fever. It is caused by the dengue virus. Widespread in tropical regions of the world, it causes sudden fever and acute pains in the joints. If not contained on time, dengue can lead to severe bleeding as well as failure of organs and even death.
Chikungunya is again a viral disease caused by infected mosquitoes. Often resembling the symptoms of dengue, chikungunya can bring on fever, severe joint pain, muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and rash. There is no treatment for chikungunya and only symptoms can relieved. While most of the patients recover from chikungunya completely, in some cases joint pain remains there for several months, and sometimes for years.
Yellow fever is a hemorrhagic disease, again caused by female mosquitoes and is prevalent in South America and Africa. The symptoms of yellow fever include fever, nausea, and pain. It is cured in some days but in certain cases, a toxic phase follows that may cause damage to liver which first causes jaundice and then may lead to death if left untreated. However, there is a vaccine available for protection against yellow fever.
West Nile disease is perhaps the most dangerous disease caused by mosquitoes. In some cases, west Nile disease doesn’t display any symptoms and in other cases, there are such symptoms as fever, headache, chills, excessive sweating, weakness, swollen lymph nodes, drowsiness, joints pain and other flu like symptoms. In serious cases, dizziness and confusion is also there which may lead to decreased level of consciousness just like coma.
All these diseases are serious ones and thus you need to protect yourself against mosquito bites. But how to do so?
How to protect yourself against mosquitoes?
- If you live in a place that has lots of mosquito, try wearing full sleeves clothes and cover most of your bare skin.
- Try to wear light colored clothes as dark colors attract mosquitoes.
- Don’t use fragrant cosmetics like shampoos and deodorants as these attract mosquitoes.
- You may use an insect repellant cream or ointment and apply on your bare skin. Reapply it after every few hours.
- Don’t let water logging in open areas because it is where mosquitoes live and breed. Try and remove all water pooling areas around your house, these are the breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
- If there’s such an open area close to your place that has pooled water and which you cannot remove, try not to go beside it or expose yourself to this, especially during early evening hours when mosquitoes are most active.
- If you keep water bowl for pets or birds in open areas, frequently change its water (preferably daily) and don’t let it become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
- If you need to store water, always keep it covered.
- Mosquitoes are most dangerous during early evening hours, night and early morning hours when you are still sleeping. Therefore, use mosquito nets on your beds so that these parasitic insects do not get access to your body.
These were all preventive measures to protect you against mosquitoes and it’s really a task! What if you could be able to remove mosquitoes from your home and surrounding areas? That’s the safest thing you can do. But how to get rid of mosquitoes? Here are some tips and tricks for you.
How to get rid of mosquitoes?
When you take steps to eliminate mosquitoes, you not only get rid of the irritating skin itching and the annoying humming sound of mosquitoes near your ears but you also protect yourself against all the dangerous diseases that a mosquito bite can give you. Here are some remedies that you can adopt to get rid of mosquitoes.
1. Use Camphor to get rid of mosquitoes
Camphor is a white (sometimes transparent) flammable solid obtained from the wood of the evergreen tree camphor laurel. It has a strong aromatic odor that insects can stand. It purifies your surrounding area by repelling insects including mosquitoes.
How to use camphor as mosquito repellent
There are at least two ways to use camphor to get rid of mosquitoes.
Use camphor in water bowl
- Take a bowl, preferably having a wide open mouth.
- Fill half of the bowl with water.
- Now add a few camphor tablets in this water, you may use around 2-5 tablets or more. The bigger the room, the more camphor you will need in a bowl.
- Place this bowl in a corner of your room.
- Use a bowl for each of your rooms. You may even keep two bowls in two corners of a room. If doing so, you may like to use lesser camphor tablets in one bowl.
- Change the water in the bowl every second day.
- You will need to use new camphor tablets after 5-7 days as till this time, all the camphor gets evaporated.
Use camphor on hot surface
You can use any hot surface such as a diffuser or aroma lamp. You can even buy the special camphor lamps available in the market. If you have a mosquito repellant mat machine then use it to heat camphor instead of using the chemically laden repellant mats.
- Place a camphor tablet in a camphor lamp or aroma lamp (where you would have used essential oil), and light the lamp. That’s all, the camphor will evaporate due to heat and purify your environment as well as kill the mosquitoes.
- If using a mosquito repellant mat machine, place the camphor tablet on the plate meant for placing the mats. Plug in the machine and switch it on.
- While heating the camphor, keep all your doors and windows closed at least for 15-30 minutes. Open them only after this time.
Precaution: Keep camphor away from kids and pets. If ingested internally, camphor can be poisonous.
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