Amazing mosquito chaser
Jul. 9th, 2009 06:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoYesterday Gary handed me a strange-looking plastic gadget about the size of my two fists placed palm to palm. (Maybe one fist if you have big hands, I don't.) It had a big curved hook to go on your belt, and a slide switch on the front. Turns out it's a mosquito repellent gadget marketed under the familiar "Off!" trademark. There's a small battery powered fan in it, and you insert an air filter thing with a tiny capsule of oily looking repellent that very slowly oozes onto the filter. The claim is that it works better than spray on repellents and doesn't have to be on your skin. I was skeptical.
But I tried it today while doing barn chores. The breeze was very light, so whatever the little fan put into the air around me didn't blow away instantly and I'm sure that helped. But it really does work. They claim the unit will clear a cube ten feet on a side, though they don't say how long that takes. It did work best when I was standing in one spot or staying within a small area for several minutes. Even moving around at ordinary speeds it seemed effective, including in some very bad areas, like the duck yard and the pasture gate, where there are usually swarms of mosquitoes just waiting for me to show up. I have no idea what it cost or what the refills cost. One refill lasts 12 hours if running continuously, or up to 14 days if the unit is turned off. Presumably putting it into a zip lock or back into the plastic box it came in would help reduce evaporation while turned off. The active chemical is called metofruthin, something I've never heard of, rather than the usual DEET used in spray ons. Supposedly it is a pyrethrin derived substance, of low toxicity to mammals but very toxic to invertebrates and aquatic life, so you don't want to drop it into your fish tank or pond. It was approved for marketing to the public in 2007, under one of the laxest administrations for regulatory action that we have had in my lifetime, so I'm suspicious of the claims. But I can't deny the functionality of it. If you were sitting on a lawn chair or something stationery, it would probably keep you completely free of bites after the first 20 seconds or so.
Tail waves and whinnies to Flare, who is here as close as O'Hare tonight, stuck waiting for a flight home and worrying about whether he can get his bag on board to avoid paying to checked luggage. I would have enjoyed seeing him but Thursday is the worst day for such a thing to happen for me. I can't be away from here for more than a couple of hours at a time because of leaving all the animals alone. I worry too much about what could happen, I suppose, but I'm alone on Thursday, and have to be up early on Friday too to do chores in the morning before going to work. Alas, getting through traffic and then security just to park at the airport would take so much time that it just doesn't work within my rigid schedule for a Thursday. Likewise, for him to get out closer to here by public transit, though possible, is a scheduling nightmare unless he could have stayed overnight and gone out in the morning. With a 5 am flight and the need to be there to get through security before that, it just didn't work out well at all.
Still upgrading software at work, still with the same problems each time. Oh well, only two more machines to go with this level of complexity. The remaining five are much simpler because they operate in kiosk mode, and shouldn't require so much intervention.
OK, time to feed dogs before they eat each other, or me.
But I tried it today while doing barn chores. The breeze was very light, so whatever the little fan put into the air around me didn't blow away instantly and I'm sure that helped. But it really does work. They claim the unit will clear a cube ten feet on a side, though they don't say how long that takes. It did work best when I was standing in one spot or staying within a small area for several minutes. Even moving around at ordinary speeds it seemed effective, including in some very bad areas, like the duck yard and the pasture gate, where there are usually swarms of mosquitoes just waiting for me to show up. I have no idea what it cost or what the refills cost. One refill lasts 12 hours if running continuously, or up to 14 days if the unit is turned off. Presumably putting it into a zip lock or back into the plastic box it came in would help reduce evaporation while turned off. The active chemical is called metofruthin, something I've never heard of, rather than the usual DEET used in spray ons. Supposedly it is a pyrethrin derived substance, of low toxicity to mammals but very toxic to invertebrates and aquatic life, so you don't want to drop it into your fish tank or pond. It was approved for marketing to the public in 2007, under one of the laxest administrations for regulatory action that we have had in my lifetime, so I'm suspicious of the claims. But I can't deny the functionality of it. If you were sitting on a lawn chair or something stationery, it would probably keep you completely free of bites after the first 20 seconds or so.
Tail waves and whinnies to Flare, who is here as close as O'Hare tonight, stuck waiting for a flight home and worrying about whether he can get his bag on board to avoid paying to checked luggage. I would have enjoyed seeing him but Thursday is the worst day for such a thing to happen for me. I can't be away from here for more than a couple of hours at a time because of leaving all the animals alone. I worry too much about what could happen, I suppose, but I'm alone on Thursday, and have to be up early on Friday too to do chores in the morning before going to work. Alas, getting through traffic and then security just to park at the airport would take so much time that it just doesn't work within my rigid schedule for a Thursday. Likewise, for him to get out closer to here by public transit, though possible, is a scheduling nightmare unless he could have stayed overnight and gone out in the morning. With a 5 am flight and the need to be there to get through security before that, it just didn't work out well at all.
Still upgrading software at work, still with the same problems each time. Oh well, only two more machines to go with this level of complexity. The remaining five are much simpler because they operate in kiosk mode, and shouldn't require so much intervention.
OK, time to feed dogs before they eat each other, or me.
