Are insect repellent plug-ins safe?
After an eleven hour journey by road and train, I arrived at Bethsaida Hermitage. It felt like coming home! I ate a healthy supper, had a quick night-time swim in the warm water then bed. I noticed the last occupants had left a plug-in device to ward off insects, but was too tired to remove it from the socket. I awoke dehydrated with a headache an hour or two later, drank some water and went back to sleep. Soon I was awake again, completely blocked up & dried out. I couldn’t think properly and didn’t associate my symptoms with the toxic plug-in still in the wall, left by the last guest.
In the morning after a fitful nights slumber I felt even worse. Taking the device out of the wall, opening the French windows facing the Arabian Sea (I sprayed the edges with my own bottle of incognito to keep mozzies out of the room), almost immediately I started to breathe clearly again. My headache evaporated shortly after a large glass of water. Knowing how toxic they can be, this was the first time I’d ever been in the room with one of these poisonous - both to man and mosquitoes - horrible plug-ins. I don’t know how anybody can get a good nights rest with one during the night.
So what’s in these vexing vitriolic vessels? There’s two variants: a solid tablet and a liquid, both are heated by a unit to release pyrethroids – pesticides that repel insects – these are banned for indoor use in the USA and are proven to affect bee reproduction and making them lazy as well. See this study for more info in entomology today. These plug-ins kill mosquitoes, so it’s understandable that they harm other organisms as well.
We sell a non-toxic natural room refresher which repels insects for a minimum of 3 weeks and up to 3 months if the lid is replaced – it’s won a Janey Lee Grace Platinum award and is on sale here: Incognito Room Refresher
For more information about Bethsaida Hermitage, an eco-friendly luxury resort that on the Arabian Sea, click here: Bethsaida Hermitage.
Howard Carter
incognito Owner and Founder