No Evidence That Salt Water Ingestion Kills Adult Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae)
Don't be fooled, just because a product has a lot of five star reviews and has sold millions of units, does not make it effective.
Natural mosquito control is important to me, and since you are reading this site, it is likely important to you too. However, we can’t lose site of the word, “control”. It is not enough for a product or solution to be Natural, it also has to work.
Recently an all-star group of Public Health experts from across the world collaborated on research to test a core assumption of a group of Natural mosquito products. The research question, “Does salt water ingestion kill adult mosquitoes?”
The simple answer is, “No.”
(Great summary of the study available in Entomology Today)
I can’t blame consumers for wanting to believe that products can kill mosquitoes using a salt water solution. Wouldn’t that be amazing if it were that simple?
However as lead researcher Dr. Don Yee was quoted as saying in the press release which accompanied the article’s publication:
“It makes a lot of sense scientifically that mosquitoes can deal with low concentrations of salt, given that all vertebrate blood has a similar amount of salt in it,” Yee says. “If mosquitoes could not deal with salt, then they likely would have evolved away from blood feeding millions of years ago.”
– Donald Yee, Ph.D., BCE, professor at the University of Southern Mississippi’s School of Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences.
Let’s keep looking for Natural ways to keep our backyards mosquito free. I recommend using strong oscillating fans around your sitting area.
I also recommend hiring a professional licensed company to treat with Stop The Bites! around your yard and your property. If you need help finding a company that uses Stop The Bites! – click here.
NOTE: Full citation for the paper in the Journal of Medical Entomology. – Excellent read – rock solid research method.
Yee D.A., Dean C., Webb C.E., Henke J.A., Perezchica-Harvey G., White G.S., Faraji A., Macaluso J.D., Christofferson R. (2020). No evidence that salt water ingestion kills adult mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae). Journal of Medical Entomology – Full article text here. Backup site here
