A physical barrier stops a mosquito by exclusion, with zero chemistry on a child's skin and nothing released into the air of the room. This is the household guide to matching the barrier to the person: an untreated canopy or cot net for babies and toddlers, an untreated bed or travel net for pregnant women, and, for older children and adults heading to higher-risk destinations, a permethrin-treated net authorised under the EU Biocidal Products Regulation. Here is how the three choices differ, what the labels are allowed to say, and why the youngest and the pregnant sit firmly on the untreated side of the line.
The Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) is no longer a coastal curiosity in Europe. ECDC surveillance recorded it established in 369 regions across 16 European countries by 2025, up from 114 a decade earlier, and its distribution maps push further north each year. For a household with a baby, a young child, or a pregnant woman in it, the practical question has moved on from whether mosquitoes reach the bedroom to what to put between the insect and the person.
There are two honest ways to stop a mosquito reaching skin. One is to apply a tested repellent to the skin. The other is to place a physical barrier in the way, so the insect is excluded rather than the person coated. This guide is about the second approach, and specifically about the households where it is not a lifestyle preference but the recommended default: the very young, and the pregnant.
The organising idea is simple. A physical barrier works by exclusion. There is zero chemistry on the child's skin, and nothing is released into the air of the room. A net either keeps the mosquito out or it does not; it does not depend on a dose, an application interval, or an active substance breaking down over the evening. That property is what makes it the first choice for the people to whom the paediatric and regulatory bodies say do not apply repellent.
If you have thirty seconds, here is the whole guide in one line for each household. The sections below are the reasons.
- Baby or toddler: an untreated canopy over the cot, pram or bed. No skin repellent, no treated net, no plug-in device in the room.
- Pregnant woman: an untreated bed or travel net. Chemical-free by design, so there is no active-substance question to weigh at all.
- Older child or adult, higher-risk travel: a permethrin-treated net, authorised under the EU Biocidal Products Regulation, is a legitimate option where the destination warrants it.
Household one: babies and toddlers
For the youngest infants, the paediatric position is not a nuance, it is a floor. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the US CDC advise no skin-applied repellent at all before two months of age, and a mosquito net over the carrier, cot or pram instead. Oil of lemon eucalyptus (also sold as PMD) carries a stricter limit still and should not be used on children under three years. France's ANSES and Germany's BfR frame it the same way: for the smallest children, mechanical protection comes first, and the age limits on each active substance are real.
The right object for this household is an untreated canopy or cot net. It is untreated on purpose. Treating a cot net with an insecticide such as permethrin would change its regulatory class, its safety profile, and the population it is designed for. A treated net is a tool for a different job (see household three); it is not the measure for a baby's room in a European home.
Two things matter more than mesh specification here. First, the fit: the opening must be closed, and re-closed, every time, because a net that is tucked on three sides and open on the fourth is not a barrier. Second, the room: standing water in plant saucers, gutters and toy buckets within a short distance of the window is where the next generation breeds. The net is half the picture; reducing breeding sites around the house is the other half.
There is a longer version of this household's rules, written for parents of infants under six months, in the family-protection series (linked at the end).
Household two: pregnant women
Pregnancy is the household where the physical barrier's defining property does most of the work. Because an untreated net carries no active substance, there is no chemical exposure question to weigh in the first place. The protection is exclusion, not chemistry, so the decision is settled before it starts: an untreated bed net at home, and an untreated travel net if the trip warrants one.
This is not a claim that repellents are unsafe in pregnancy; national bodies set out their own guidance on specific active substances, and a pregnant traveller heading somewhere with circulating mosquito-borne disease should follow it. It is a narrower and more durable point. If the aim is to remove the active-substance question entirely, an untreated physical barrier is the only option that does so, on the skin and in the air alike. For a household that wants the simplest defensible default, that is it.
Household three: older children and adults, and where treated nets fit
Insecticide-treated nets exist and they are effective, but they are built for a specific job: protection in regions where mosquito-borne disease is endemic, and for travel to higher-risk destinations. They are a separate regulatory class. In the EU they fall under the Biocidal Products Regulation (Regulation (EU) 528/2012), and it is accurate to describe a treated net as authorised under the EU BPR. That authorisation is the meaningful label to look for on a treated net.
Two cautions keep this honest. First, WHO prequalification is a distinct track that assesses insecticidal vector-control products for global-health procurement; it is not the same thing as a consumer trust badge, and an untreated net (which has no active substance) sits outside its scope altogether. Second, a treated net belongs to older children and adults for the uses above; it is not the choice for a baby's cot or for the pregnancy household. The trust-signal explainer in the series unpacks what the treated-net labels do and do not say.
One boundary is worth stating plainly, because it is where careless copy goes wrong. The chemistry claim belongs only to the treated net. A canopy, a bedroom net, a terrace or gazebo enclosure, a travel bed net: these are untreated physical barriers. They protect by exclusion, and they carry no insecticide claim, no permethrin, no "treated" language. Describing an untreated barrier as if it were chemically active would be both wrong and, under EU rules, a misstatement of what the product is.
The one table to remember
The pattern across the three rows is the anti-chemical logic stated at the top, applied consistently: the more the person needs protection without an active substance, the more clearly a physical barrier is the answer. The treated net is the exception that proves it, reserved for the household and the destination where the trade-off is worth making, and labelled honestly when it is.
Related reading in this series
- Mosticare Editorial. The under-6-months rule: why every European parent's first mosquito decision is a physical net, not a repellent. 4 July 2026: https://mosticare.org/blog/family-protection/2026-07-04-under-6-months-zero-chemical-mosquito-protection-physical-net-guide
- Mosticare Editorial. Mosquito protection in pregnancy: why a physical barrier is the zero-chemical answer, and why the bite is still worth preventing. 20 July 2026: https://mosticare.org/blog/family-protection/2026-07-20-pregnancy-chemical-free-mosquito-protection-physical-barrier-guide
- Mosticare Editorial. Why EU BPR authorisation and WHO prequalification matter when you buy a treated mosquito net, and what those labels actually mean for your family. 4 July 2026: https://mosticare.org/blog/family-protection/2026-07-04-eu-bpr-who-prequalification-trust-signal-explainer-treated-nets
- Mosticare Editorial. What the two trust badges on a treated mosquito net product page mean, what they do not, and how a household buyer verifies each one in 60 seconds. 19 July 2026: https://mosticare.org/blog/family-protection/2026-07-19-treated-net-trust-badge-faq-eu-bpr-who-standards