Mosquitoes and B1 patches

[chams]

I've read recently of a new product of which I can't find too many scientific papers and that raises my suspicions.
Has anyone read any studies about vitamin B1 and its insect repellent properties?
My other question is about how well B1 would be absorbed into the blood stream from a dermal patch (much like the nicotine ones).
The manufacturers claim a 24-36 hour effectiveness.
Some comments that I have read claim that it might work for places like the US and Canada, but that it amounts to dangerous practice in a country where you may want to prevent malaria or other nasty mosquito bound vectors.

Any thoughts, studies, links?

Here is one such manufacturer if you are interested in reading the claims:

http://insectdefendpatch.com/

I'm not affiliated in any way with these people. I'm a born and bred Canuck who isn't bothered much by black flies and mosquitoes, but my wife will get golf ball sized swelling from a single bite. She's British. She can't help it.

 

[AToE]

Well speaking of being Canadian, and this product, this was actually featured on an episode of Dragon's Den one time (no idea if same company). It apparently works very well, and they were also selling the exact same product with different packaging as an anti-hangover patch, as B1 is fantastic for that purpose as well.

 

[chams]

Well speaking of being Canadian, and this product, this was actually featured on an episode of Dragon's Den one time (no idea if same company). It apparently works very well, and they were also selling the exact same product with different packaging as an anti-hangover patch, as B1 is fantastic for that purpose as well.

I was wondering about blinded trials though. I've read a lot of anecdotes.
Q-Ray bracelets are on TV as well and have lots of testimonials.

 

[AToE]

I was wondering about blinded trials though. I've read a lot of anecdotes.
Q-Ray bracelets are on TV as well and have lots of testimonials.

Ha, fair enough! I have a friend who actually wears one of those Q-Ray bracelets too... I just can't seem to reach him. Oh well, the placebo effect can be very powerful too, so maybe it does him some good in that way.

 

[chams]

Ha, fair enough! I have a friend who actually wears one of those Q-Ray bracelets too... I just can't seem to reach him. Oh well, the placebo effect can be very powerful too, so maybe it does him some good in that way.

Agreed. But I can't see placebo working too well with bug bites, unless it just lets the bitee complain less, which could be fine too. ;D

 

[Riverat]

Just a quick Google, no studies presented themselves that support B1 but there has to be some reason some of us are ignored by bugs while folks next to us are eaten alive.

New England Journal of Medicine

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa011699#t=articleMethods

 

[chams]

Just a quick Google, no studies presented themselves that support B1 but there has to be some reason some of us are ignored by bugs while folks next to us are eaten alive.

New England Journal of Medicine

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa011699#t=articleMethods

Thanks for the link.
DEET is well known and fairly toxic. It works though...
I used to just burn what we called a smudge fire while fishing...green cedar smoking in a bucket...
I was just curious about this thiamine business.

 

[Riverat]

Yea when I was a kid farming in the Everglades we kept a fire smouldering even in the heat of summer (I swear it's hotter up here outside of Savanah!) and any place there are mosquitoes around the south, there's usualy Wax Myrtle (called it skeeter bush as a kid) that when crushed up and rubed on is a bit better than nothing.

 

[Chevette Girl]

Just a quick Google, no studies presented themselves that support B1 but there has to be some reason some of us are ignored by bugs while folks next to us are eaten alive.

Yeah, I like going walking in bug season with my husband, if he's there, they leave me alone! Thankfully neither of us have a major reaction, but I do have one friend who has an anaphalactic reaction if he gets too many bites. He's on allergy shots for mosquitos...

I'd also heard that eating lots of garlic helped repel bugs too... but that could have been my mom's way of trying to get me to eat her cooking

 

[chams]

According to Riverat's link to the New England Journal of Medicine, ingested foods including garlic and B1 had no measured efficacy in that study...
I haven't read the methodology though.

 

[Riverat]

I wonder about that too, garlic, onions, raw food in general, heck I keep a jar of pickled garlic in the fridge, and I am one of the last picks of bugs down at the river....maybe a coincidence?

 

[chams]

I wonder about that too, garlic, onions, raw food in general, heck I keep a jar of pickled garlic in the fridge, and I am one of the last picks of bugs down at the river....maybe a coincidence?

With that list, I'm pretty sure you'll be one of the last picks at the dance.

But seriously, there could be a good study done on why some people are more likely to attract biting insects. I know I'm fairly lucky in that regard. Some claim blood types are responsible but I'm skeptical.

 

[Midnight Sun]

I have a friend who claims that cayenne pepper in large quantities drives off the mosquitoes. He pops 3-5 cayenne pepper pills per day over the course of the summer. I tried it for a short time, it only gave me stomach ache.

One of the attractants for bugs, mosquitoes in particular, is carbon dioxide. Mosquito Magnet traps are very popular in Alaska and use CO2 as the main attractant. Cheaper knock-offs may use CO2 as the only attractant and tend work pretty well also.