Guess you’d have to be a bug guy to call this a “crazy spectacular year,” in the mosquito department. But that’s what Mike Raupp is. And that’s what the University of Maryland at College Park professor of ornamental horticulture — and the Bug Guy, whenever he’s on the network morning TV shows — is calling this year of record rainfalls that have led whole chunks of the country to be swarmed with near-tropical levels of blood-sucking skeeters.
We leaped at the chance to try the shiny new mosquito-repelling gizmos that flooded in this year, almost like the swarms themselves.
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Here’s the latest from the mosquito front.
Off! Clip-On
$8.99 for starter kit, includes fan, batteries and one refill. $3.99 for refills.
What it is: A blue plastic clip-on fan, with Off! repellent insert, sort of like an iPhone, only with an app for mosquito-shooing.
First impression: OK, so this is about the oddest thing we’d seen in the bug-battling battalion (short of donning a hazmat suit, that is). You slip in the 12-hour supply of Off! mosquito repellent — which includes metofluthrin, a relatively new repellent ingredient — clip the contraption on your waistband, and the little battery-operated fan whirs round and round.
What we found: It works! Not a bite, while it was whirring away. We even hung around near where mosquitoes were in cloud formations. Whatever it is it’s wafting, we couldn’t smell a thing. We couldn’t smell the repellent. But, apparently, the mosquitoes did.
Final thought: You don’t have to get that nasty gook all over you.
Don’t Bite Me!
$4.99, for a five-pack.
What it is: A 36-hour repellent patch, with vitamin B1 and aloe. Just peel away the backing, like a Band-Aid, and stick the little square to your back, thigh or upper arm. Anywhere that won’t, um, bug you.
First impression: Raupp told us there’s nothing to the urban myth that vitamin B, garlic and even bananas are super-duper natural repellents.
What we found: We went bite-less for a day and a half. Maybe there’s a placebo effect here (you know, you think you won’t get bit, so somehow you don’t).
Final thought: Not a dorky thing about it. You can hide that little patch. Be sure to apply two hours before you need it to do its repelling trick.
Natrapel 8 hour
$5.99, for 3.5-ounce pump, or for 12-piece wipes.
What it is: DEET-free alternative. Comes in spray or wipes.
First impression: Natrapel is 20 percent Picardin, which studies have shown to be among the most effective plant-based repellents, along with oil of lemon eucalyptus, according to Raupp. And the label — heck, the name — promises it’ll last eight hours. We had high hopes.
What we found: Nineteen mosquito bites by the end of one long day.
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Final thought: We tried and tried. Didn’t get much better.