Mosquito precautions in Delhi

This seems to be a recurring topic on these forums, but there also seems to be no real solid answer about Delhi in particular I could find (if it's buried deep in some many-page thread, pardon me). I actually wrote a long reply to an old thread rather than create a new one, but it doesn't seem to have gone through :/.

Anyway, I've been in Delhi for two weeks, and will be here (as well as traveling throughout India) until December. I've noticed several small mosquitoes flying around my room, which I'm trying to kill, and I have also have several bites. I'm wondering if this is a real concern?

I live in Defence Colony, but right across from a construction site with an open cesspool of some sort that is likely heaven for mosquitoes. I'm not sure if these would be carrying anything here - malaria seems to not be a huge problem in Delhi, but dengue might be?

I would really like to NOT sleep with pants and long sleeves on (or a shirt of any kind...). I have one of those All Out things now, and am going to sleep with the fan on. I'm not really sure what the All Out does - repel or kill? - but if it repels, should it be plugged in near the bed (rather than, say, across the room, whereby it might just push mosquitoes my way?).

My main query is whether a net is at all advisable in Delhi. I'll admit I'm a bit reluctant to be thought ridiculous by my landlords for using one when they aren't! My room doesn't have a hook for a net anyhow, and I couldn't install one without the owners' permission (which I feel quite foolish to ask... and yes, I know this is a terrible reason for not taking precautions!). And if people don't use nets here, I'm assuming no one DEETs before bed, and I'm assuming I'm not the only person who gets mosquito bites... so should I just accept that I'll get some mosquito bites, but that they'll in all likelihood lead to nothing serious?

On this site it seems there are people who are cavalier about mosquitoes, and people who take every precaution. I'm wondering what most people do in Delhi, given the reality that there are mosquitoes around and that they bite people. If I got bit by a mosquito back in California I wouldn't give it a second thought, I just want to know if the stakes are at all more serious in Delhi.

Thanks!

You assume wrong! I used to apply it(deet) to the bed frame & outer boundaries of the bed sheets & also turn the fan on to a good gale. Had 'almost' 100% success with this nontoxic method.

Exactly.

There are mosquitoes, they are biting you, you should do something. Well, unless you like mosquito bites, of course!

Whilst I don't know how your Californian mossies compare in disease carrying, our Indian ones can carry several nasties, and, even though the vast majority of them don't, the bites can become infected and painful as well as just itchy.

Bedtime is exactly when you should be applying DEET. There is a mossie risk all day: different species bite at different times. Big Meal times, though are around dawn and dusk, with a snacking session around midnight/2.00am.

All-Out is an insecticide. It kills them, and I wouldn't want to sleep with it close to my face. I'm not enjoying having one on in the room at the moment.

If you have AC, or sleep with the windows shut anyway, or have screens on the windows, turn on your All-Out an hour or two before you go to bed. At bedtime, turn it off, but make sure the mossies can't get in.

A net will save you some of this trouble, but, if they are around the house they are going to get to you anyway.


Not many people are cavalier about mosquitoes, except the few that just don't smell right to them (lucky people). However, local people may not notice that they are being bitten, as their immune system has got used to it and does not react.

Nets are available easily. Its funny, my landlord caught malaria in Delhi..

To each his own. We travel for six weeks at a time, and each evening we fire up our AllOut machine (or equivalent insecticide) and leave it on till we get up. Can't say we've noticed any side effects. But I must admit I'd as soon have it plugged in over there on the other side of the room.

And then there's the whole thing about Malarone...

Thanks for your replies. Yes, I'm a bit suspicious of the All-Out myself -- it was furnished in my room, but I left it off until now because I didn't savor the idea of any sort of poison (however allegedly benign to human health) being continuously pumped into my breathing space. I like the method of leaving it on before going to bed, but I am not sure how mosquito-proof my room is. I suppose I'll find out in coming weeks.

I usually light a mosquito coil in the closed room while I'm at dinner; by the time I get back, it's used up and there are dead mosquitos instead of living ones. I have also used one of those chargeable mosquito killers (they look like badminton racquets) and do a sweep of the room before turning out the lights. And yes, I sleep with both DEET and the fan on!

I am at a little bit of a loss to understand why people are happy to absorb DEET through their skin and inhale its vapors, but are worried about AllOut. I should think chemicals is chemicals.

But then I have a strong negative reaction to DEET, like so very many other people. It is I believe why it's so very hard to find any 100% DEET any more – the manufacturers know it ain't good for you.

100 percent means it melts plastic, etc. Timed release is the better way to go..

Chemicals is chemicals ... and you still drink that H2O, eh?

It is hard to compare something that is designed to simply confuse the sense of smell of a creature so it can't find you with something that is designed to kill it.

Yes, it is true that recent research has shown doubts that DEET may not be as 100% safe as it was thought to be for the last several decades. There are alternatives.

100% DEET has never been necessary or desirable to use, at least not here in India. The percentage determines how long the effect lasts, rather than how far away it keeps the mossies. You just need something that lasts the night.
That H2O melts a lot of things too!

If you read the package carefully, you'll see that it warns against doing just that! A fan and All Out don't go together!

The box says it kills. The ads say it kills. But I don't think I've ever seen too many dead mosquitoes around in a room with All Out on!

I'm not too sure it even repels them. -- I regularly get bitten, with it on all the time. Resistant strains?!

Or perhaps it's something else altogether! The package proudly proclaims: "The No. 1 Liquid Mosquito Destroyer"!

The problem is, my place is infested with no liquid mosquitoes! I mean, by the time they are mostly liquid, it's already too late!

I think they do get groggy and eventually fall out of the air, but it is nowhere near as powerful as a squirt of aerosol mossie killer. Trouble is, that is even harder to live with --- although, if done a couple of hours before bed, there should not be much smell left.

A local naturopath was just on the radio. He said there is no replacement for deet ... but either a shot of Vit B1(thiamine), a couple cloves of garlic &/or, believe or not, a catnip spray application would be the next best deterrent - he says.

The man's mad --- or both!

Actually, cheese might be good.


No, really! Because they like the smell, and it is something to do with it being like feet, and it has been used in successful mossie-trap research...

Isn't it well known (since Bram Stoker's days at least) that cloves of garlic are good against blood suckers?

.