Our new mosquito repellent test gives contradictory results to say the least, between products that protect for long hours and others that don’t.
Rarely is a comparative test What do you choose Many will count excellent products on the one hand, and very mediocre products on the other. This is the big surprise of this new mosquito repellent test.
It was performed in a laboratory with volunteers who inserted their product-covered forearms into a cage filled with hungry female mosquitoes. To comply as closely as possible with the concerns, we used the species that became the most problematic due to the colonization of new sections from year to year. Everyone will recognize her, she’s the tiger mosquito, her real name Aedes albino.
Given the concerns it raises, good protection is needed. So we tested at the 1 gram dose for one forearm recommended by the majority of manufacturers, which is 6 to 8 sprays depending on the product. This dose is much higher than most common practices, but it does provide 8 to 9 hours of protection if the best insect repellents are chosen. In other words, it’s worth painting without trimming. In addition, there is an option because they are six get ★★★ rating, which is the best rating for our tests.
At the other end of the order and despite the high dose applied to the forearms of the volunteers, six other references protected less than an hour or barely more. They are not doing their job. If their ineffectiveness causes very unpleasant bites in France where the tiger mosquito is not a vector, it can be dangerous when traveling to areas where dengue, chikungunya or Zika are common.
The reputable brand even managed to put one of its products on our test bench and the other at the bottom of our rankings with specific protection times of 9:22 for one and 30 minutes for the other.
