Dish Washing Detergent and Mosquitoes

Perhaps you've seen the unsigned email message that claims "Lemon Fresh Joy" dish washing detergent in a pan of water will solve all your mosquito problems. If you haven't, consider yourself lucky.Of course this doesn't work. It's a mystery that anyone would believe that it does. Proliferation of urban legends, myths, and outright lies via the Internet is giving new credence to the famous quotation attributed to P.T. Barnum (the one about neo-suckers appearing every 60 seconds).

For more on the lemon-scented dish washing detergent myth see the following web site. http://www.snopes.com/spoons/oldwives/dishsoap.htm

By the way, P.T. Barnum did not say "there's a sucker born every minute." That's another myth we've come to accept as true!

This article originally appeared in the 8/8/2003 issue.

Category: 
Authors: 

Links to this article are strongly encouraged, and this article may be republished without further permission if published as written and if credit is given to the author, Horticulture and Home Pest News, and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. If this article is to be used in any other manner, permission from the author is required. This article was originally published on August 8, 2003. The information contained within may not be the most current and accurate depending on when it is accessed.