Mosquitoes HATE These Sweet-Smelling Repellents (But You’ll Love Them)
Create a no-mosquito-zone for your next summer gathering with these great-smelling alternatives to citronella candles.
A pretty patio will sit empty if you let mosquitos take over. Here are beautiful ways to fend them off.
You upgraded your patio furniture, fluffed the pillows, made snacks and drinks, and invited friends to your backyard oasis. Then there’s a THWACK, and a slap, and a scratch, and your happy hour is suddenly made much less happy by everyone’s least favorite party crashers: Mosquitoes. Back when the invasive Aedes mosquito—also known as the black tiger—started spreading across much of California in 2018, SoCal lost its right to brag about screen-free windows and carefree outdoor dinner parties, and joined much of the rest of the country in an ongoing battle against these virus-carrying blood suckers. The standard advice is to check your yard for standing water (including clogged gutters, stagnant drains, and even the saucers under potted plants) and find your local vector control department for inspection and treatment. Beyond that, bug-zapping lights work. But the eerie blue glow, and the sounds of flying insects being drawn into the chamber and electrocuted aren’t exactly ambient. Old-school citronella candles, with their paraffin wax and tangy, almost antiseptic scent, can be an olfactory trigger, jogging memories of Girl Scout camp and scabby, bitten ankles from summers past. The good news: Mosquito-deterring incense, lawn sprays, and fragrant granules can actually add to the party atmosphere and shoo flies—and other flying things—at the same time. Laced with cedar, lemongrass, lavender, sage, and other natural bug-repellers, they create a long-lasting, bite-free zone, and smell like a pricey candle. Here are our favorites.
Madison James Fly-Away Sticks
Madison James Fly-Away sticks from Terrain, propped in repurposed glass vases planted like terrariums, are a stylish way to keep mosquitoes at bay. Made with a blend of geranium, clove, cedar, and other people-friendly scents that bugs hate, these long-burning incense sticks repel common flies and hornets, too.
The Floral Society Essential Oil Outdoor Incense
The Floral Society incense is handmade from pure essential oils and comes in three gorgeous, designer-candle-worthy scents blended to repel flying bugs: Tea tree and lavender, lemongrass and clary sage, and a sage-cinnamon-leaf-coffee-cedarwood blend. It’s a splurge, so save these for company.
Fredericks & Mae 36-Hour Citronella Coil
Sure, this one is made with citronella—which is derived from the lemongrass plant—but it’s so good looking that we’ll forgive the traditional scent profile. Suspend it from this special metal holder (pictured here), from a ceiling, or a tree branch. Light it on Friday and keep your yard in the clear all weekend, or try it at a camp site. Hang multiple coils at various heights and pretend you’re at the Man Mo Temple in Hong Kong.
Wondercide Outdoor Pest Control Spray
Dilute this blend of non-toxic oils in water, according to package directions, and spray it around your yard to deter pests—including ants, fleas, and ticks. It smells like a fresh cedar closet, is safe for bees and butterflies, is made in the U.S., and has the added bonus of covering up pet odors, for all of the dog owners out there.
Skeeter Screen Granules
One jug of these corn-cob granules, scented with Skeeter’s proprietary blend of citrusy floral oils, can cover up to 3,000 square feet of yard space. Shake them in your grass, in potted plants or bushes, or around your back porch. It’s non-toxic, pet-safe, and biodegradable. And it works for as long as you can smell it—up to a week.
Skeem Incense Sticks
Pungent citronella is balanced with a kind of coastal marine scent, so this is nothing like those Cutter candles sold in the gas station. And these 11-inch long incense sticks will burn for hours, from pre-dinner drinks right through dessert.
Farmhouse Pottery Incense Sticks
Ok, fine. These have citronella in them, too, but the scent is softer, more lemony and less acrid. What can we say? It works. They burn clean and create less smoke, and they aren’t made from paraffin wax, a petroleum byproduct used to create standard-issue candles.
Chrysanthemum Coils from Japan
According to Marie Kondo, burning chrysanthemum incense is the Japanese way to make gardening and backyard gatherings more bearable in the summer months. One coil burns up to six hours.
Palo Santo, or “Holy Wood,” from South America
Used for centuries in cleansing and purifying rituals, the resinous, clean-smelling Palo Santo (Spanish for “Holy Wood”) is the new patchouli. You’ll smell it everywhere haute hippies congregate. But it burns slowly and smells terrific, and the smoke can repel bugs, in a pinch.
