Mosquitoes in the Bedroom: Prevention and Cure

May 10, 2023 8:50 PM

I have moved into a new apartment, and in the past 10 days I have: killed 2 mosquitoes, been bitten twice, been woken up with their buzzy nocturnal fly-bys on several occasions. What is the best way to keep mosquitoes out of my bedroom, and what is the best tactic to track them down if they get in? I'm in Japan - here's the link to the Amazon JP "mosquito" search results, if that helps (I don't know anything about any of these products/ approaches).
posted by my log does not judge to Home & Garden (11 answers total)

I've had bedroom mosquitoes. They are most likely breeding in a drain in a nearby bathroom.

Hang a bednet over your bed so they can't feed off you.

Cover all the drains in your home: sink, shower, etc., close toilet and drape a towel over it.

Put up an electric mosquito zapper.
posted by Jacqueline at 9:49 PM on May 10, 2023 [4 favorites]

+1 for the bed net. And if you can sleep with a fan pointed at you, that will help as well. As for tracking them down, use a flashlight at night pointed along the wall to see them more easily.
posted by mezzanayne at 10:20 PM on May 10, 2023 [3 favorites]

The Nomat 1 day 1 push is what I use (first result in the amazon search) before bed, it works well. I usually put a hanging deterrent (like the 2nd search result) on the laundry pole outside, and a liquid one (similar to the Kincho Mushi Konaazu / Insect Conners bead type Siberian Forest scent - 22nd in your search) next to the front door.

These seem to work well. I think the 1 day 1 push is the most effective though. I live with someone who is very sensitive to mosquito bites.
posted by Sar at 12:18 AM on May 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

Seconding that fans work really well against mosquitoes and that they're probably breeding in a bathroom drain.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:35 AM on May 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

Are you able to install or jury-rig window screens? That will make the biggest difference, along with ensuring that you aren't breeding them indoors as well. If you can't screen the windows, then you would want a good bed net. You can get bed nets that are treated with repellent, which makes them work even better. For me, having at least that one bubble of mosquito-free space where you can sleep soundly is key, even if you can't keep them to zero in the rest of the house.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:34 AM on May 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

I would definitely try drain maintenance - very hot water down all your drains, and then keep them stoppered or covered with a suction-based cover.

They can breed in Aircon drip pans if they're not draining properly, and if I remember right most Japanese apartments have mini-splits/ductless units with an outside compressor if they have A/C at all. For troubleshooting purposes, you might buy some loose bug netting and tape it around the output of any units in your place - you should be able to tell within a day if they're coming in that way, as they'll be trapped in the netting.

When we go camping, there's always at least two mosquitoes inside the tent when we go to bed. I hang a rechargeable zapper in there (mine looks like this but you can probably do better) and it has usually taken care of business within 20 minutes of lights-out, though I often fall asleep and just let it run until it's out of charge. You could do this in your bedroom, put it as far away from you as possible, before you start dealing with bug nets, and see if the combination of drains, vent cover, and zapper solve the problem.
posted by Lyn Never at 7:13 AM on May 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

I lived in a malarial zone in a town with a lot of mosquitoes for several months. Bed nets would have been the best thing to get (we did not, but that was foolish in retrospect). But a few things we learned to do:

Close the windows and doors (any unscreened entries) at least an hour before dusk.
Point a fan at the bed/our faces at night. We kept a fan right on the nightstand at night.

If you have mosquitos in the house (as we did), then the fan is really the best thing. They won't land on you when the air is blowing around your face -- I know this because sometimes we'd have power outages at night and the fans would turn off, and it was terrible.

Since you just moved in, if you don't have windows open, it seems likely that the mosquitoes are inside the house already. I'd try to get on top of this as quickly as possible. Once we were in the house for a while, we'd find mosquitos living among towels and such in wardrobes when we moved that stuff during the day. It was pretty awful.

I had a few nights where I put anti-mosquito stuff (the nasty stuff) on my face before bed, and we also treated the window treatments to try to keep them out. A bed night would have been better.
posted by bluedaisy at 11:37 AM on May 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

We lived in a ground floor apartment with a leaky radiator that caused a huge mosquito population explosion. We got a bed net. Sometimes when I'd wake up in the morning and look over at my partner there would be half a dozen mosquitos just hanging out on the outside of the net, right above his face. Ugh. I don't know what we would have done without the net.
posted by oneirodynia at 7:15 PM on May 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

i use this spray once a day in my apartment and it works great.
posted by emmling at 8:40 PM on May 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks everyone! I had another night of buzzing and bites last night, so I picked this up from the drug store. I'll report back on whether it works, and if it doesn't, I'll order one of the sprays suggested by emmling and Sar.
posted by my log does not judge at 4:22 AM on May 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: OK: I bought the plug-in repellant because I figured it would save me from doing a daily spray, and while it didn't give off a noticeable smell, you could tell that there was something wrong with the air in the room - i.e. you wanted leave, or at least open a window or a door. I have now switched to the daily spray, and so far so good - should've listened to the experts!
posted by my log does not judge at 9:21 PM on May 17, 2023