mosquito net overkill?

August 24, 2014 3:29 PM

I want to get a mosquito net for my bedroom. My motives are functional rather than aesthetic. Some nets are treated with chrysanthemum pesticides, others are just nets. For those who've been to places where the nets are essential, is the pesticide treatment necessary or a just a marketing power-up? I'd rather not sleep bathed in bug killing gases if the nets are as effective sans poison.
posted by Fupped Duck to Pets & Animals (7 answers total)

I use a DEET treated one when I am sleeping in regions with bad mosquito-borne diseases - malaria, dengue, etc - but at home I use the untreated one and it is fine. Just make sure it is big enough to cover your whole bed down to the floor.
posted by Kerasia at 3:39 PM on August 24, 2014

My understanding is that treated nets are a major advance in malaria prevention worldwide. Some bugs will get through nets, but with treated ones, they then die (and don't breed).
posted by idb at 3:56 PM on August 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

The pesticide is especially useful for the ones that otherwise land on the outside of the net and wait for you to put a limb against it. Then they bite you through the net. With pesticide they either won't land, or if they do, you don't get a cluster of them waiting there all night, because the bastards die.
posted by lollusc at 4:27 PM on August 24, 2014 [2 favorites]

Are you concerned about disease, or just itchiness? The DEET and permethrin impregnated nets are designed for avoiding disease transmission, when the goal is zero bites. If you just want to itch less, and you're concerned about human toxicity, the untreated net gets you most of the way there, especially if you hang it over a four-poster bed or a big spreader hoop so that you can't press up against the net in your sleep. I got through a summer with zero bites using an untreated net over a bunk bed.
posted by d. z. wang at 4:42 PM on August 24, 2014

I like to have one that tucks in around the mattress, not that goes to the floor. You can rig elastic or do it however. I've been fine like this with an untreated one.

You will put holes in it though so tape of some kind for repairs is important, fabric tape is best, duct tape is ok. If you're going somewhere really rural, spare tape will surely be appreciated by your new neighbors or housemates too and its easy to bring extra.
posted by fshgrl at 5:14 PM on August 24, 2014

Where do you live? The frou-frou kind from World's Market was perfect for out needs when there was standing water under our Oakland apartment building and we had dozens of mosquitos every night, all summer. We obviously did not have to worry about dengue or malaria (at that time). You may have different needs.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:48 PM on August 24, 2014

It's not always an option, but screening the house/apartment is way better for both comfort and disease prevention than just putting a net on the bed. (One time I screened an apartment with a cut up bed net, in fact, and was much happier for it.) Bed nets are still better than no bed nets, but do buy ones with real netting -- I have encountered fashion nets with such large mesh that mosquitoes could fly through, which is beyond useless.

If there's any danger at all of dengue, malaria, west nile, or other diseases, I'd go for a net that is treated with insecticide because whatever small danger from that is guaranteed to be less than the danger of the diseases. (And compared to the amount of pyrethrin you breathe from mosquito coils, exposure to the nets is going to be negligible.) If it's just the irritation of the bites, then it's a tougher call -- I'd still go for impregnated because I am a mosquito magnet and react to the bites, but a person who doesn't get bit as much might choose otherwise.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:00 PM on August 24, 2014 [1 favorite]