Mosquitos are pretty annoying everywhere, but especially when they’re buzzing around your house. It seems like everyone has their preferred surefire mosquito repellant that includes everything from bracelets to sprays and candles, but we just learned of a great, all-natural repellant that’s probably already hanging out in your pantry. While the smell of a freshly brewed cup of coffee may be the only thing that motivates you to get out of bed in the morning, it’s the exact opposite for mosquitos — yet another reason to hate the little buggers.
In short, mosquitos hate strong-smelling things, including coffee. According to Laurence Zwiebel, a chair of biological science at Vanderbilt University who spoke to The New York Times, mosquitoes rely on chemical receptors to navigate and locate prey. That’s why receptor-limiting things, such as the smoke and essential oils of citronella candles, are popular mosquito repellants — though scientists admit that these are not as effective as synthetic, chemical-based repellants like Deet. However, we highly recommend against using Deet indoors because it can be toxic if accidentally ingested. Coffee to the rescue! The more earthy and intense-smelling your coffee is, the better, so we advise against using flavored blends to deter the blood-sucking pests.
How to use coffee as a mosquito repellant
Unfortunately, brewing up a cup of coffee and sitting it out on your counter isn’t really going to be the best way to keep mosquitos at bay. For the most effective results, you’ll have to go against all your coffee brewing instincts and aim for a burnt cup of coffee (well, burnt grounds, to be more specific). The method for creating a coffee-based mosquito repellant is quite simple. To start, you’ll need to get your hands on some coffee grounds.
If you live in one of those elusive non-coffee households, do not fret, you can often get used coffee grounds for free from local coffee shops. Even some Starbucks locations have something called “Grounds For Your Garden,” where they give away free used grounds on a first come, first serve basis. Once you have your grounds in hand, you’re pretty much set. However, you do want your grounds to be completely dry before burning them. If they’re still soggy from their brew, leave them in a dry place until they’ve returned to that sand-like grit texture.
Once your grounds are dry, it’s time to burn, baby, burn. You can either do this in a shallow pan on the stove or put them in a fire-safe bowl and burn them as you would incense. It’s optional, but adding bay leaves to the fire can make the repellant even more effective. Perhaps you have some expired ones hiding out in the pantry — after all, bay leaves don’t actually last forever. If you’re not currently struggling with a mosquito problem, we still highly recommend you hold on to your spent coffee grounds. Turns out, there are a lot of ways to reuse coffee grounds, from flavoring agents to beneficial compost pile additives.
