Claim: Lemon Fresh Joy (a dishwashing liquid) or Listerine (a mouthwash) water will knock mosquitoes dead from the sky.
Example:
[Collected via e-mail, 2002]
Pass this on to anyone who likes being out in the evening or is having a cook out.
Here is a good thing for the summer, for those who like to sit and enjoy the out of doors, but don't like those pesky mosquitoes. It was given at a gardening forum.
Put some water in a white dinner plate and add just a couple of drops of Lemon Fresh Joy dishwashing soap. Set the dish on a porch or patio. Not sure what attracts them, the lemon smell, the white color, or what, but mosquitoes flock to it, and drop dead, or fall into the water, or on the floor within about 10 ft.
Works just super!
Enjoy the mosquito free summer!
[Collected via e-mail, August 2007]
Mosquito spray.....
I was at a deck party awhile back, and the bugs were having a ball biting
everyone. A man at the party sprayed the lawn and deck floor with
Listerine, and the little demons disappeared. The next year I filled a
4-ounce spray bottle and used it around my seat whenever I saw mosquitoes.
And voila! That worked as well. It worked at a picnic where we sprayed the
area around the food table, the children's swing area, and the standing
water nearby. During the summer, I don't leave home without it.....Pass it
on.
OUR FRIEND'S COMMENTS: I tried this on my deck and around all of my doors.
It works - in fact, it killed them instantly. I bought my bottle from
Target and it cost me $1.89. It really doesn't take much, and it is a big
bottle, too; so it is not as expensive to use as the can of spray you buy
that doesn't last 30 minutes. So, try this, please. It will last a couple
of days. Don't spray directly on a wood door (like your front door), but
spray around the frame. Spray around the window frames, and even inside
the dog house
Origins: The ongoing war between man and bug prompts in many people a continual search for an inexpensive and effective weapon against mosquitoes, preferably something "natural" (or at least something that isn't
specifically a pesticide and therefore poses less danger of harming or killing humans and their pets). The perennial struggle often leaves warriors confused about
the difference between substances that kill mosquitoes, substances that merely repel them, and substances that do neither.
The good news in the mosquito wars is that one need only worry about the females of the species, because male mosquitoes don't bite. Male and female mosquitoes both feed on nectar for sustenance; the female, however, requires blood to lay her eggs. It matters not how many male mosquitoes she's been with;
without the blood she draws from her victims she will not gain entry into the ranks of mosquito motherhood, so instinct drives her to take a piece out of someone. (That's the bad news, of course: mosquito bites signify that more batches of little skeeters are on the way.)
Female
mosquitoes are attracted to carbon dioxide (the more carbon dioxide a person emits, the more likely that person is to be singled out by a motherhood-driven mosquito) as well as moisture, warmth, and body odor. Mosquito repellants such as DEET work not by "repelling" mosquitoes in a literal sense, but by blocking the receptors on their antennae that allow them to home in on human beings.
A few drops of Lemon Joy dishwashing soap in a plate or bowl of water is neither an effective mosquito repellant (although it might have limited effectiveness for that purpose if you slathered it all over your body) nor a concoction that will cause flocks of mosquitoes to fall out of the sky dead. As noted, mosquitoes are attracted to moisture, so putting out an open container of water mixed with soap will can draw some of the critters into landing and coating themselves with a sticky film that prevents them from escaping, but that's about it. There's nothing special about Lemon Joy that attracts hordes of skeeters and sends them plummeting to the ground dead.
Likewise, spraying Listerine around your home or outdoor areas isn't an all-purpose mosquito preventive. It may kill some mosquitoes on which it is directly sprayed, but it won't serve to keep knocking mosquitoes dead for hours and hours afterwards. It may also have limited effectiveness as a mosquito repellant, but you get what you pay for — DEET will repel mosquitoes more effectively for much longer than solutions concocted from commercial household products intended for completely different purposes.
Last updated: 16 March 2008
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/dishsoap.asp
specifically a pesticide and therefore poses less danger of harming or killing humans and their pets). The perennial struggle often leaves warriors confused about
the difference between substances that kill mosquitoes, substances that merely repel them, and substances that do neither.
Sources:
