Products
Treated or untreated: how to choose a mosquito net for a European bedroom
Most netting sold for bedrooms is a simple physical barrier, and for most European homes that is exactly what the job needs: a mesh fine enough to stop the bite, hung so there is no gap, cared for so it lasts. Treated netting adds a long-lasting insecticide treatment, authorised under the EU's Biocidal Products Regulation. Here is how to tell which one a household actually needs, and what the labels and regulations behind each really say.
Read →Your outdoor room, mosquito-free: terrace gazebo vs. fixed screen installation
A European household protecting a 4 × 4 m terrace or gazebo from Aedes albopictus and Culex pipiens in 2026 is choosing between two architectures: a fixed frame screen on every window and door, measured and installed by a tradesperson, or a free-standing untreated mesh gazebo that drops over the whole seating area. A professionally measured, custom-made, retrofitted frame screen is priced per opening, and the installed cost climbs with every window and door the household wants closed. The Mosticare Terrazza TE-UNO-U covers a complete 4 × 4 m outdoor room as a single product. The right answer depends on what the household actually wants to protect: the open window, the seating area, or both.
Read →Two of Six Consumer Mosquito Gadgets Actually Worked in a Mali Field Trial. The Rest Were Noise.
A standardised Mali field trial pitted six consumer mosquito devices against each other. Two heat-activated pyrethroid emanators cut catches by ~93% across *Aedes*, *Culex*, and *Anopheles*. Mosquito coils produced inconsistent results, sometimes increasing catches. Citronella candles and ultrasonic gadgets did nothing. The bottleneck is volatilisation rate, not dose.
Read →2-undecanone: a wild-tomato repellent ingredient on the EPA's skin-applied list
2-undecanone (methyl nonyl ketone), a compound derived from wild-tomato chemistry, is one of the active ingredients the US EPA lists for skin-applied insect repellents, alongside DEET, picaridin, IR3535 and oil of lemon eucalyptus. In the European Union, any skin repellent active reaches market through the separate, slower Biocidal Products Regulation.
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