Friday, Jul 24, 2026 The claims desk. Receipts included. POWERED BY LENZ
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HEALTH

The Claim

Some controlled studies report no statistically significant adult mosquito mortality from citronella-based repellents.

The Short Version

The evidence provided does not adequately support the claim as stated. Most of the stronger citronella studies cited examine repellency against bites or landings, not adult mosquito death, so they cannot be used as proof of a reported null mortality effect. In the subset of cited studies that actually measured adult mortality, the reported findings generally showed significant killing rather than no significant effect.

Caveats

  • Do not treat studies that omitted adult mortality endpoints as evidence of 'no statistically significant mortality'; that is a category error.
  • Repellency and adulticidal activity are different outcomes. A product can reduce bites without being tested for, or shown to cause, adult mosquito death.
  • Some weaker or non-peer-reviewed sources in the list are not reliable for making statistical claims about controlled mortality assays.

The Receipts

  1. Effectiveness of citronella preparations in preventing mosquito bites

    PubMed

  2. Effectiveness of citronella preparations in preventing mosquito bites

    Wiley Online Library

  3. The effect of citronella oil as anti-mosquito spray

    Academia.edu

  4. EFFECT OF CITRONELLA (Cymbopogon nardus) EXTRACT ON ...

    Majalah Kesehatan PHM

  5. Comparative Efficacy of Insect Repellents against Mosquito Bites

    The New England Journal of Medicine

  6. Comparison of Repellency Effect of Mosquito Repellents for DEET, Citronella, and Fennel Oil

    Journal of Arthropod-Borne Diseases (PMC)

  7. Certain Essential Oils Found To Be Highly Effective at Killing Mosquito Larvae and Adults

    Beyond Pesticides

  8. Efficacy of the botanical repellents geraniol, linalool, and citronella against mosquitoes

    Journal of Vector Ecology (PubMed)

  9. A critical review of current laboratory methods used to evaluate mosquito repellents

    Frontiers in Insect Science

  10. Citronella – an overview

    ScienceDirect Topics

+ 10 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

Citronella-Based Repellents

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