Guest Author - Lisa Shea

According to an internet rumor, a simple dish of "Lemon Fresh Joy" is all you need to keep your world mosquito free. Unfortunately, this is not true.

First off, the product is "Lemon Joy". If you're going to make wild claims about products, you should at least get the product name correct. The story is that putting a white bowl with water and a few drops of this dishwashing liquid will keep a 10' radius around it clear of mosquitoes - their dead bodies will fall all around the bowl.

This technique is used for FLEAS and only when you have the buggers in your fingers. As you're picking them off your dog, you drop them into the mixture. The dishwashing liquid breaks the surface tension of the water so the bugs you drop into the liquid drown instead of hanging out on the water's surface.

Female mosquitoes - the ones that bite - are drawn by the carbon dioxide in your breath and the smell of sweet perfume. It is true that gardeners sometimes use a mixture of Lemon Joy and water to drive bugs away from their plants. Not mosquitoes though - mosquitoes don't care either way about the aroma of lemon.

Save your table space, and use a repellent that actually has some repelling action to it.

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