I try to eat a healthy balanced diet all the time, so I know I get all the vitamins and minerals I need without having to take supplements. Recently, I heard the suggestion that getting extra B vitamins, especially B1 (thiamine), deters bugs and mosquitoes. This idea made me hopeful, but I approached it with a healthy dose of skepticism.
While getting enough B vitamins is great for your health, I'm sorry to say that mosquitoes will still find you just as tasty, even if you up your dosage. One thing to think about is that B vitamins are water soluble. This means that they are not stored in the body and must be taken every day. Even if you take extra, your body can only handle a certain amount, so you'll just end up peeing it out, which won't deter mosquitoes and other pesky bugs.
Wonderbra
Swildens
Juan Antonio Lopez
Over the years I've heard a few things about eating or drinking various things to keep mosquitos away. The most common one I have heard of is vinegar. Maybe mosquitos are repelled by certain scents coming out of the body. Anybody tried this?
1Oh, I've tried everything to stop mosquitoes from attacking me. Nothing works, they love me. I tried taking garlic supplements to keep them away. Didn't work!
2Darn, that totally got my hopes up and then dashed.
Back to citronella....
3I'd heard this too. Too bad it doesn't work. That would be fairly easy.
4I actually just started taking more B vitamins. I know a few people that SWEAR by this so I figure it can't hurt. I usually get eaten alive and they always turn into HUGE welts, so I'll try every weird old wives tale out there. I figure maybe something will work
5That picture scares me!!
6My grandpa was an entomologist and he told me that female mosquitos are attracted to CO2 and body heat, so if you're alive, you pretty much can't avoid the things. Although, there are some ways to decrease your attractiveness to them: if you have a dog with you, they'll prefer the dog to a human, so your dog will probably draw more of them towards him. The best mosquito repellant out there is a sort of "fake mammal" thing that stays at about 98 degrees and emits CO2. Mosquitos flock to it and it zaps them with a bug zapper. Our friends have one and it WORKS.
7I usually get eaten alive too and I've tried a lot of things - stay away from standing water, if there's a campfire I stay close (the smoke is supposed to deter them), and I even tried eliminating sugar from my diet (someone told me it had to do with sugar intake!). I wish there was something that worked better than citronella or worse yet, bug spray!
8I end up working in some pretty buggy areas and can't use anything topically most of the time because I sometimes handle sensitive critters. I have also tried the garlic, vinegar, B-complex, etc. If there is a magic bullet besides covering up your skin let me know.
9I don't think mosquitos really like me that much, even though I have random summers where I get bitten more than usual.
10Come on! someone has to have something! be good and share!
11Mosquitoes absolutely love me! But I find what really works best for me is Avon Skin So Soft. I put that on and I don't get bitten.
12I first heard this about ten years ago when I was being bitten alive in summer by anything and everything (but not mosquitos, we dont have them really in the South Island of NZ). My parents were going to make me eat Marmite which is a yeast based spread you put on toast and crackers (popular in NZ and Aus, but very much an acquired taste) which has a lot of B vitamins, but it didnt really work. Ah well
13Post New Comment
Please share your opinion with our community, but make sure it is on topic and follows our Community Rules. We moderate comments and prohibit personal attacks, threats, spam, lewd images, or the promotion of your personal website.