By Whena Owen
While most people are looking forward to the summer, when it turns up, there are downsides to the sunny season.
There is the sunburn, sandflies and the mosquitoes.
Although our mosquitoes do not carry dengue fever or malaria, a few thousand people are admitted to hospital each year with serious skin infections which started as a mozzie bite.
Consumer New Zealand has just tested insect repellents, so what did they find and how do less traditional methods of dealing to the little blighters stand up?
They are back and they want to suck your blood; well, the females do.
They are after the nutrients in your blood which will help them lay their eggs.
Then the unbearable itching ensues as your body defends itself against what the mosquito has deposited in your skin.
Repellents will protect you, but to varying levels as Consumer New Zealand found out.
They wanted to compare the chemical-based products containing Deet with the more natural products on the market.
After applying the products, volunteers put their arms in tanks swarming with mosquitos.
“With the deet it took seven hours before our volunteers were bitten, more natural products just one hour,” says Sue Chetwin of Consumer New Zealand.
But if you would rather use natural products, apply them generously.
Deet was developed by the US army 50 years ago; there have been question marks over whether it is harmful to health, but no definitive links.
Consumer cautions against the new 2-in-1 products around this summer, offering a sunscreen and repellent.
Sunscreens need to be applied generously and often and deet sparingly, so Consumer says, they oppose each other.
Buy your sun and mozzie protection separately.
But some people have their own protection, based on folk remedies
So Campbell Live put a few of them to the mosquito doctor.
Eating Marmite, spraying perfume and eating lots of bananas and garlic are all ineffective, according to Dr Phil Lester, an entomologist.