# Off! Clip-on Mosquito Repellant - does it work? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 28, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-clip-on-mosquito-repellant-does-it-work/541091 "2010-05-28T17:31:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-clip-on-mosquito-repellant-does-it-work/541091/1 "2010-05-28T17:31:35Z")
This is a little fan thing you clip on to your belt, or even set up beside you, you put in cartridges of some anti-mosquito stuff that the fan blows around, and it’s supposed to keep the pests off you, without your having to dose yourself with DEET. It sounds like a late night TV gadget sold to the gullible along with the electric egg scrambling machine, but I’m curious. If you’ve tried it, does it work? And while we’re at it, what kind of bug-be-gone do you favor? Does Avon Skin So Soft really work well? ---
**Author:** ![justrob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@justrob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justrob)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-clip-on-mosquito-repellant-does-it-work/541091/2 "2010-05-28T17:51:01Z")
I have used one and it seemed to work pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![misling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ab097/32.png) [@misling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misling)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-clip-on-mosquito-repellant-does-it-work/541091/3 "2010-05-28T19:27:29Z")
I’d be curious as to why blowing repellent around yourself where you might breathe it, is supposed to be better than rubbing it on your skin. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-clip-on-mosquito-repellant-does-it-work/541091/4 "2010-05-28T19:42:49Z")
> [@misling](#): > > I’d be curious as to why blowing repellent around yourself where you might breathe it, is supposed to be better than rubbing it on your skin. I’m totally unfamiliar with this product, but I’ll take a guess: if the repellent is fragrance or pheromone based, it’s not “bug poison”. It’s a scent that confuses the squitos so they don’t recognize you as food. Ah, here’s an excerpt from a site on how DEET works: > [@](#): > > DEET works by corrupting receptors on the mosquito’s antennae. A blood seeking mosquito hones in on you by detecting three things: 1) your body heat, 2) the carbon dioxide you exhale, and 3) a variety of chemicals your body excretes on your skin, the most important of which is lactic acid. Some receptors on a female mosquito’s antennae are tuned to this lactic acid and nothing else. DEET turns off those receptors, so the nerves connected to them simply don’t fire. … When the female mosquito flies into areas where lactic acid is detected, she goes immediately into active hunting mode. When DEET is in the air, she flies erratically apparently searching for some scent of a target, unaware that one is nearby. So if the blower product works in a similar way, but is not harmful to people, the Bob’s your uncle! ETA: ANyone know what is in the Off blower? Is it some kind of DEET derivative? ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-clip-on-mosquito-repellant-does-it-work/541091/5 "2010-05-28T20:44:41Z")
My granddaughter is allergic to mosquitoes, or not, I really don’t know but she hates them with a passion. I got her one of these and it worked for her, no bites at all. ---
**Author:** ![DivineComedienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c67d28/32.png) [@DivineComedienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DivineComedienne)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-clip-on-mosquito-repellant-does-it-work/541091/6 "2010-05-28T21:53:54Z")
It works, but it is annoying to have on your belt. It is not small! About the size of a pear. I got one for my 7-year-old so he could play in the yard, and it bothered him to have it bouncing around as he ran. He wore it once. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-clip-on-mosquito-repellant-does-it-work/541091/7 "2010-05-28T22:31:49Z")
The disks contain Metofluthrin, a pyrethroid said to be “generally harmless to humans”. Though you wouldn’t want to ingest it. There is no DEET in these disks. I don’t know how much you would breathe in, the little fan seems to be made to put a force field of repellant around you. … I just wondered if the thing actually works or is just another gimmick.