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March 23, 2008
Bug Button
No flies on you.
From the website:
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Bug Button™
Just pin it on and bugs stay away!
Wear the Bug Button on a shirt or hat to keep bees, flies, gnats and yellow jackets from biting.
There’s no oily mess or toxic, greasy lotion/spray to deal with.
Great for gardening, hiking, picnics and all your outdoor events.
Each waterproof, natural and non-toxic button lasts up to 175 hours.
1.75" dia.
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Ten for $8.95.
March 23, 2008 at 01:01 PM | Permalink
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Comments
The idea of this thing is that it's impregnated with (citronella and other insect-repellent natural oils, citronella being the most effective. How, exactly, it's supposed to put enough of those substances into the air to make any difference whatsoever to the nearby insect population is left unexplained.
If you rub citronella-rich cream all over your skin, giving far more surface area of far more volatile oil, you can only count on it repelling bugs in the open air for maybe an hour before you need to put more on.
Likewise, citronella candles are pretty good at stopping bugs from actually hanging around next to the candle, and work quite well in enclosed spaces. But they are of little to no use for keeping bugs off a whole porch or yard, which is what people usually want them to do.
A piece of plastic impregnated with concentrated DEET would probably be a quite effective insect repellent, but would also give you a nasty rash right through your shirt. A lower concentration of DEET applied as a cream on your skin or clothing is the only scientifically proven robust and durable insect repellent. Many other insect repellers, I fear including this one, are merely placebos.
(Flea collars, impregnated with actual insecticides, are also famously ineffective even though animals wear them 24 hours a day and the insects they're trying to combat can survive only on the skin of the animals. Anything you could put on a plastic button that'd actually keep insects away would, I think, burn a smoking hole through the flesh of the wearer and then lie there on the ground glowing, waiting for its next victim.)
Posted by: Daniel Rutter | Mar 23, 2008 3:26:43 PM
