citronella oil / kerosene ?????

G,,day .

for a little while now I have been using a cheap Hurricane Lamp to give a bit of light to my back veranda area . I leave it burning all night because it can and it uses so little kero .
my bathroom is accessed from this area , hence the light .

the Question . can you make citronella kerosene to keep away mosquitos etc ????
lemon juice or anything work .
I haven't tried yet , I thought some of our resident geniuses may have the answer .

thanks .

cheers,
Kerry

 

Around here they sell it at the local DIY places like Lowes and Home Depot. I saw ebay.au has some but for $22/L thats bonkers.

 

Kerry

For that use you can add a teaspoon of 'essential' citronella oil to a litre of kero. You can buy it on the bay of evil, or you can get small bottles from the hippy shops or markets. The Bay is cheaper.

Buy 'essential' oil. It is not diluted.

Note to all: don't use in pressure lamps. It will gum up the vaporiser.

Cheers

Tony

 

thanks Tony . i figured someone would know ,
thanks for other .

and my apology again for posting in the wrong place .

cheers
Kerry

cigar man . thanks , is that New England Aus or USA ???

 

Within the EU the claim "citronella keeps bugs away" is no longer allowed for advertising.
It was proved wrong.

Btw. do not use in any wick lamp or lantern, too. It will block the wick within short time.

Erik

 

Kerry, that's the colonial one here in 'Murica.

 

There is a nice and very informative Dutch explanation of a professor "mosquitologic" on the behaviour of mosquitoes.

Essence: they only act on smell and the only repellent is eucalyptus oil.

For the brave.

 

G,,day .
out of curiosity I tried a couple of things I had , to see what would mix with kero .
eucalyptus oil did mix .
I don't yet know if it works against mosquitos
kerry

 

Kerry,

If you want to keep the beasts away from your lamp it will work but beetr : put the eucalyptus oil on your skin.

That was the core message of the dutch prof: they smell where you are, very well.

 

true .
yes for a lot of circumstances its the best way .

cheers,
kerry

 

"Btw. do not use in any wick lamp or lantern, too. It will block the wick within short time."

I have used it for years in a wick lantern.

Ken in NC

 

Here the citronella is in use:

Australia Day Camp

Claus C

 

I had forgotten that post .
thanks ,
kerry

 

I think this may be an English version of the study menu above:

https://academic.oup.com/jinsectscience/article/17/1/24/2996380

Interesting conclusions such as the inefficacy of Citronella candles but noting that Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus does work ( Which is 80% Citronellal)

I have long used a bug dope of my own making which seems effective.

It is made of equal parts Beck Oil ( Distilled from birch tar ), Citronella, Eucalyptus and Tea Tree oil.

I shall investigate the oil of Lemon Eucalyptus but I seems I was not far off the mark with my own concoction.

As far as mixing Citronella with kerosene goes, somewhere around 1-2% seems to be the advised amount on some online sources.

 

11:48 in this YT version. by the Entomoloog dr. ir. Bart Knols.
So the article is not the same (other names).

 

Interesting that they reached similar conclusions then.

 

Hi Wayland

very interesting stuff that

do you use your bug dope in your wick lamps ?

thanks
pb

 

The Bug dope is used directly on skin and clothing.

I find it as effective as DEET mixtures and smells a lot better too.

 

Ah ok

cheers

 

Citronella oil can be extracted from the common lemongrass in my location.
While it is quite effective on its own in repelling mosquitoes, using the same stuff on candles and wick lamps would not have the same effects.

I have found that burning camphor together with some common incense is highly noxious to bees. In fact, it is toxic and would even kill them if the fume is sufficiently thick and overwhelming.