In this guide, we will attempt to find out if rubbing alcohol deters mosquitoes.
Rubbing alcohol also known as isopropyl alcohol or denatured alcohol serves a wide range of uses. This includes being applied for pest treatments.
Examples of pests repelled or killed by rubbing alcohol include fungus gnats, whiteflies, mealy bugs, red spider mites, and aphids among others.
Does Rubbing Alcohol Keep Mosquitoes Away?
Here, we’ll attempt to find out whether rubbing alcohol has any repellent effect on mosquitoes.
These parasitic pests are notorious for the spread of a wide range of diseases such as dengue, malaria, West Nile virus, filariasis, tularemia, Ross rive fever, Barmah forest fever, and Japanese encephalitis.
These are just a few of many potential diseases that can be spread by mosquitoes. For most homeowners, there’s a strong need to have such eliminated by getting rid of the causal factors.
We’re more interested in knowing how rubbing alcohol impacts these pests.
About Rubbing Alcohol
Due to our focus on rubbing alcohol as a possible treatment for mosquito problems, it’s important to provide a bit of background information.
This denatured alcohol is typically perfumed and has medical uses, home health applications as well as being applied for household cleaning.
These are broad use categories that also include pest control.
For more information on what each of these categories entails, let’s discuss specific uses of rubbing alcohol under each.
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Medical Uses of Rubbing Alcohol
Rubbing alcohol has antiseptic properties.
As such, it’s used as a surface disinfectant in addition to serving as an antiseptic. What more? This product also comes in handy for postoperative nausea treatments.
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Home Health Applications
When it comes to home health applications, rubbing alcohol offers a wide range of benefits. It serves as an astringent, in addition to being useful as a soothing liniment for muscle aches.
Recall we mentioned that rubbing alcohol is perfumed. This gives it its odor elimination properties.
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Household Cleaning Applications
In terms of its application for household cleaning, there are tons of ways to put this product to good use.
Some of these include serving as a sink and chrome cleaner, useful for cleaning blinds, cleaning makeup brushes, in addition to being used to disinfect mobile phones.
There are lots of other households uses for rubbing alcohol but that isn’t our focus.
Here, our main concern is to find out if it has any mosquito-repellent effect.
Does It Repel Mosquitoes?
Rubbing alcohol is a great mosquito repellent.
It only needs to be sprayed on the skin to help keep mosquitoes at bay. Not only are mosquitoes repelled, but other insect pests are also repelled and killed once this product is sprayed on them.
There’s a downside to its use though. When applied to the skin, it could cause dehydration.
This poses a problem as it makes your skin dry. Thankfully new formulations of rubbing alcohol are being designed that help address that.
How so? Such products are infused with moisturizers that help retain skin moisture when applied to the skin.
With these products, you’re able to use rubbing alcohol without any issues of dehydration.
How Rubbing Alcohol Repels
When sprayed on the surface or skin, rubbing alcohol will repel mosquitoes as they do not like its scent. What more?
When this denatured alcohol is sprayed directly on them, it causes dehydration which kills them. The same dehydrating effect plays out on other insect pests.
You only need to have your space or home sprayed with rubbing alcohol to keep mosquitoes as far off as possible.
Isopropyl alcohol creates an invisible barrier around your home, thus making such spaces unfavorable. While these mosquitoes would like to feed on human blood, they can’t due to rubbing alcohol applied.
It’s Possible to Still Experience Mosquito Problems Even after Application
No certainty using rubbing alcohol will give you the much-desired effect you seek. You might still end up seeing these pests around or even experiencing bites.
So, what’s the cause for that?
Firstly, one of the possible causes of persistent mosquito presence despite rubbing alcohol use may be due to improper application. Here, rubbing alcohol must be properly applied for best results.
Significant results are only possible when the right application methods are implemented.
Secondly, even proper application of rubbing alcohol won’t guarantee the total repelling of mosquitoes. That is because rubbing alcohol isn’t as effective as specially formulated treatments designed solely for repelling mosquitoes.
You’ll need to use it in combination with other natural treatments. Such combinations are more potent against mosquitoes and other pests than when used alone.
Downsides to Rubbing Alcohol Use
Even when it’s likely to give you a certain degree of relief from mosquitoes, it’s necessary to apply caution with rubbing alcohol use. This product can cause staining, especially with fabrics.
So, when spraying rubbing alcohol, you’ll need to be more careful about where it’s sprayed.
Safety Issues
Rubbing alcohol must be used the right way to guarantee safety. First off, it shouldn’t be ingested. Kids will easily take a gulp whenever they can due to curiosity.
To prevent that from happening, you’ll have to be more cautious about where it’s stored after use.
As a desiccant, contact with the eyes can be dangerous as it could cause irreversible damage. Therefore, you want to avoid this product getting into your eyes as much as you can.
When it does get into your eye accidentally, rinse immediately with plenty of cleaning water and seek medical help immediately after.
Rubbing alcohol is highly flammable! You want to keep this product as far away from flames as possible.
Before spraying around your home, make sure there are no flames on. If there are, have all switched off before application.
This helps prevent any accidents that may result from accidental ignition.
Not a Long-Term Solution
The residual impact of rubbing alcohol is mostly short-lived after application.
This is far limited compared to other treatments. This leads to mosquitoes trooping in when the repellent effect of isopropyl alcohol wanes.
You’ll need to have this product sprayed repeatedly.
Consider Adopting Professional Pest Control
Your best bet is to seek professional help when dealing with mosquito issues.
Pest management companies offer comprehensive pest treatments for all types of pest problems. Plus, there are no guesses about what works or what doesn’t.
Rubbing alcohol will repel mosquitoes.
However, it isn’t a very reliable method of treatment. You’ll need to consider other more comprehensive mosquito treatments as discussed above.