Summer barbecue, or maybe just a campfire with roasting sausages and later potatoes in the ashes. This is something that holidays or vacations can’t do without. But the popular activity has one pesky pest that neither expensive sprays nor all sorts of protective wristbands work against. The common mosquito can make an evening’s rest a living hell, especially if you’re anywhere near a river, pond or stream. And these are practically everywhere in the Czech Republic.
Mosquitoes follow their noses, not the light
It is usually said that mosquitoes follow the light, but this is not entirely true. While light does attract mosquitoes, the main attraction is you, or rather your sweat. A female mosquito (the males don’t suck blood) can smell human sweat from a distance of 20 metres. This is admirable, because given the size of the mosquito, it is a similar feat to you smelling grilled meat from twenty kilometres away, but it is also extremely annoying.
This sensitive sense of smell is also the main reason why virtually no repellent or other mosquito product works. Humans usually sweat so much in the summer that their scent trail quickly covers up virtually anything commonly used against mosquitoes. To get rid of them, you’d have to come up with some mosquito alternative to a tear gas grenade. And a campfire or barbecue in a cloud of repellent is, of course, nothing pleasant.
Coffee doesn’t smell like mosquitoes
Unfortunately, we don’t have to run to chemical poisons for help, there is a much more elegant and affordable solution. You can help yourself with coffee grounds. Unfortunately, you won’t succeed with instant coffee because it won’t burn.
- Take about 50 grams of coffee grounds. If it is still damp, let it dry in the sun or, if it has set, by the fire.
- Pile the grounds in a pile in the middle of a plate or bowl and drop the hot coals in.
- While dried coffee burns quickly, the odor it gives off lingers in the air long after it burns out.
Effective and environmentally friendly pesticide
You can smell burnt coffee, of course, but unlike mosquito repellents, its smell is pleasant to people. Moreover, mosquitoes are not the only insects that are repelled by coffee or its smell. On the contrary, coffee grounds can be said to be a very effective and environmentally friendly pesticide. If you scatter unburnt coffee around your ornamental flowers or vegetables, insect pests will avoid them.