There is nothing that will ruin a beautiful day outdoors like getting bitten by mosquitos. Those nasty little blood suckers love me and my granddaughters, and last year, I decided to do something about it. I bought us all some mosquito repellent plastic bracelets and almost immediately regretted it. We all got sick within a few minutes of putting the bracelets on, and one of my grandbabies even threw up a couple of times after having it on for about five minutes. I bought the bracelets at Walmart and looked at the packaging carefully. The bracelets were supposed to be safe for kids over a year old. I threw those damned things away and bought citronella candles. They didn’t work well, but I figured anything was better than those bracelets.

Well, ABC 7 did a story on mosquito repellent and it turns out, we might as well not waste our money on trying to keep the little buggers from biting us. Researchers at NMSU say:

"Consumers are being taken advantage of, but also, they're more vulnerable because now they think they're being protected when they're not.”

Oh, that’s just great.

Five different spray repellents, five wearable repellent devices and one candle were tested to see how they work, but they don’t. Reseachers say all but the Off! Clip On did nothing and you might as well not wear any repellent at all. Products with DEET, which is what made me and my girls so sick, and those with oil of Eucalyptus were determined to be most effective.

I have a friend who swears by putting a few drop of Eucalyptus oil into a small spray bottle of water and spraying exposed skin with the mixture. I don't know if that works, but I might try it this summer to see what happens.

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