Electric mosquito repellent incense is toxic to cats. Which mosquito repellent product is safest for pets？

Original Sandieji Guoke

The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and there are more and more annoying mosquitoes. Many friends who keep cats and dogs have the same confusion and trouble: will mosquito repellent products drive away their cats and dogs? What mosquito repellent products are safest for them?

Mosquito-repellent incense and electric mosquito-repellent incense: dogs can’t be cats.

Mosquito-repellent incense and electric mosquito-repellent incense are most commonly used at home, and the active ingredients of both are pyrethroids, such as permethrin, cypermethrin and deltamethrin. Its principle of killing mosquitoes is to affect the nervous system of mosquitoes. First, it induces mosquitoes to be excited, and then its nerve conduction is blocked, leading to paralysis and death.

Pyrethroids have low toxicity to humans, are difficult to be absorbed by human skin, are easily metabolized by the liver, and have low toxicity to dogs.

However, this component is highly toxic to fish, amphibians and reptiles, and it is also very toxic to cats. Cat’s liver can’t metabolize pyrethroids. If mosquito-repellent incense is lit and cats are kept in a closed environment at the same time, it may lead to cat poisoning, fever, epilepsy, ataxia and other symptoms, and may even cause cat death.

Does it mean that a cat can’t light mosquito-repellent incense? In fact, it is still possible to use the right method. You can close the doors and windows of the room first, then use mosquito-repellent incense or electric mosquito-repellent incense to repel mosquitoes, then open the doors and screens for ventilation, and let the cat in after the smell is completely dispersed, which is relatively safe.

In addition, mosquito-repellent incense has the risk of burns to cats and dogs. Bottom map: pixabay

Mosquito repellent: discuss separately

There are many kinds of mosquito repellent products on the market, and the effective components with mosquito repellent effect approved by the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Environmental Protection Agency are as follows:

DEET (/diethyltoluamide, abbreviated as Deet)

Picaridin/Icaridin

Mosquito repellent ester (IR3535)

Lemon eucalyptus oil (OLE)

P-menthane diol (PMD)

2- undecanone

These six ingredients are different in nature and characteristics, so let’s talk about them one by one.

DEET: It should be all right.

DEET, also known as DEET, DEET and DEET, is the most widely used component of mosquito repellent liquid and the most recommended component of mosquito repellent liquid for children by American Academy of Pediatrics. So I have to say more about it.

DEET does not poison mosquitoes, but works by blocking the function of odor receptor of olfactory protein of mosquitoes. Simply put, it is to make mosquitoes unable to smell people and find people.

The mosquito repellent liquid containing DEET in the supermarket usually contains about 7% to 10% DEET. The concentration mainly affects the action time. The concentration of 7% can last for about 2 hours, and the concentration of 30% can last for 6 hours. But the higher the concentration, the better.

DEET is corrosive: high concentration of DEET can dissolve plastic, nylon, chemical fiber, leather and nail polish, etc., and the smell is not very good, and it is sticky. Therefore, as long as we spray it once every once in a while, even 7% mosquito repellent can have a good effect.

So how toxic is DEET to cats and dogs? The toxicological report of DEET issued by the United States Environment Agency shows that exposure to 9% DEET spray for cats and dogs will cause symptoms of depression, irritability, excessive salivation, ataxia, seizures and muscle tremor. Among them, dogs have higher tolerance to DEET than cats.

Higher concentrations of DEET mosquito repellent are more likely to cause poisoning in cats and dogs, mainly because they like to lick and bite, which is easy to be taken by mistake. However, in the guidance issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Environment Agency, it is also mentioned that DEET can be used to repel mosquitoes for good friends of humans such as cats, dogs and horses. A small amount of exposure to low concentrations of DEET may not be a big problem.

Patrick Redding: I don’t know.

Picaridin is currently considered as the most effective mosquito repellent besides DEET. When it was first declared, its name was Picaridin, and it became Icaridin after it was approved. So, whether it’s Patrick Redding or Ekredding, it’s one thing.

Pekaridin’s mosquito repellent principle is to interfere with mosquitoes’ receptors, so that they can’t judge the position of people. Compared with DEET, Pekaridin has more advantages: no odor, no irritation, no stickiness, no corrosion to plastic nylon, and less irritation to eyes and mouth; Disadvantages are that it is more expensive and not as easy to buy as DEET.

It may also have something to do with the difficulty in getting it. Peccaridine has little toxicological research on cats and dogs, and no cases of cat and dog poisoning have been found so far.

Figure pixabay

Most of the mosquito repellent solutions we can buy contain deet and pekaretin. Products containing the remaining mosquito repellent ingredients are more difficult to buy, and there is not much discussion value.

Unreliable mosquito repellent products: forget it

"Pure Plant" Products: Different opinions.

The above-mentioned DEET mosquito repellent liquid is a very safe and effective product. Ironically, many merchants specially marked it when launching mosquito repellent products: it does not contain DEET. The products launched by these merchants often claim to be natural insect repellent ingredients, such as citronella, geranium, clove, mint, eucalyptus essential oil and so on.

In fact, there is no conclusive evidence whether these ingredients can repel mosquitoes or even harm cats and dogs. If you think "no evidence" means safety, use it; Think that "no evidence" means unsafe, then choose other mosquito repellent products.

Mosquito killer: It’s useless.

Mosquito killer claims to use phototaxis to kill mosquitoes, but many mosquitoes don’t like light at all, and the effect is very limited. In addition, if you look directly at ultraviolet light for a long time, it will do harm to people’s eyesight.

At present, some mosquito killer are said to produce carbon dioxide and smell similar to that of human body to attract mosquitoes, but it is hard to say whether this lamp can attract mosquitoes when there are living people.

In a word, although these things are harmless to cats and dogs, it is not recommended that you buy such products, which really have no mosquito repellent effect.

Mosquito repellent stickers and mosquito repellent bracelets: useless.

Mosquito repellent stickers, mosquito repellent bracelets and hand straps are also not good mosquito repellent products.

In August 2018, the staff of Beijing Consumers Association randomly purchased 50 nominally pure plant mosquito repellent products from mother-baby stores, pharmacies, outdoor stores and online channels, involving domestic and some imported mosquito repellent stickers, mosquito repellent bracelets, mosquito repellent buckles, etc.; Beijing No.1 Station for Quality Supervision and Inspection of Light Industrial Products was entrusted to test the contents of effective components in the samples. The results show that all the samples have poor mosquito repellent effect, and the actual use effect is seriously inconsistent with its product promotion. Therefore, mosquito repellent stickers and mosquito repellent bracelets are ok for cats and dogs, but not for you.

In a word, physical mosquito prevention: the most traditional mosquito nets and the electric mosquito swatter are safe and reliable for you and cats and dogs.

Finally, I would like to remind you that mosquitoes at home are mainly related to stagnant water. Check regularly whether there is stagnant water under the refrigerator, flower pots and windowsills at home. Mosquitoes can’t live without water in their infancy. Clearing the stagnant water will also clear the growing environment of mosquitoes, which can reduce the chances of mosquitoes breeding at home from the source.

Mosquito larvae in stagnant water photographed by the author

references

[1]http://www.chinacdc.cn/gwxx/201506/t20150612_115848.html

[2]https://www.epa.gov/insect-repellents/deet

[3]https://www.cdc.gov/chikungunya/pdfs/fs_mosquito_bite_prevention_travelers.pdf

[4]https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/at-play/Pages/Insect-Repellents.aspx

Zhang Jinbao, Sun Jun, Shi Jianfeng, et al. Observation on the repellent effect of DEET on ticks. Jiangsu Preventive Medicine, 2000.3(11): 62-63.

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[8]https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp185-c3.pdf

[9]Toxicology Brief: DEET Toxicosis

https://www.vetfolio.com/learn/article/toxicology-brief-deet-toxicosis

[10]Cameron Webb Are mosquito coils good or bad for our health? ：

[11]https://theconversation.com/are-mosquito-coils-good-or-bad-for-our-health-88548

[12] WHO guidelines for testing the efficacy of human skin mosquito repellent.

https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-HTM-NTD-WHOPES-2009.4

[13]Cameron Webb，The best (and worst) ways to beat mosquito bites：https://theconversation.com/the-best-and-worst-ways-to-beat-mosquito-bites-70274

[14]http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/DEETgen.html

[15]Choosing an Insect Repellent for Your Child:https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/at-play/Pages/Insect-Repellents.aspx

[16]Protect Yourself and Your Family from Mosquito Bites：

https://www.cdc.gov/mosquitoes/mosquito-bites/prevent-mosquito-bites.html

[17]N,N-Diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET) Review of Toxicological Literature ：https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/htdocs/chem_background/exsumpdf/deet_508.pdf

[18]Length of tick repellency depends on formulation of the repellent compound (icaridin = Saltidin?): tests on Ixodes persulcatus and Ixodes ricinus placed on hands and clothes ，Parasitol Res

. 2015 Aug; 114(8):3041-5. doi: 10.1007/s00436-015-4506-z. Epub 2015 May 9.

[19]Safe and Effective Insect Repellents for Kids

https://keepkidshealthy.com/tag/ir3535/

[20] Testing of mosquito repellent stickers and mosquito repellent bracelets by Beijing Consumers Association:

http://www.bj315.org/shjj/mtzz/201808/t20180828_18969.shtml

Author: Sandieji

Original title: "Electric mosquito coils are toxic to cats! Which mosquito repellent product is the safest for pets? 》

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