The sight and smell of smouldering mosquito coils is a mainstay of summer. But is all that smoke really keeping away the swarms of mosquitoes, and is breathing in the smoke worse than mosquito bites for our health?
The burning of aromatic plant material to keep away swarms of mosquitoes is an integral part of many cultural traditions around the world. But it wasn’t until the early 1900s that the distinctively shaped mosquito coil was born, thanks to Japanese entrepreneurs Eiichiro and Yuki Ueyama and their katori senk (mosquito-killing incense).
While traditional coils and sticks were made from a pyrethrum paste, modern mosquito coils mostly contain either pyrethroid insecticides or plant-derived substances such as citronella. They’re cheap, portable and generally effective at reducing mosquito bites, but do they actually reduce the risks of mosquito-borne disease?
Mosquitoes killing lamp review I ordered from
Deodap
Work or not
