Terminix's New Mosquito Killer? Garlic Oil

Entomologist Stan Cope spent most of his career in the U.S. Navy trying to protect American troops overseas from insect-borne diseases. You get to do a lot of very interesting things in weird places, says Cope. After he retired with the rank of captain in 2012, Cope joined Terminix, where hes helped commercialize a mosquito treatment thatthe Memphis-based pest-control giant says will keep the flying bloodsuckers out of American backyards.

Terminixs Attractive Targeted Sugar Bait, unveiled today, is unusual because it doesnt contain any toxic pesticides. The active ingredient is garlic oil, which is combined with sugar from date juice, orange juice, and other sources, to attract mosquitoes. They feed on it, and then, literally, the garlic oil makes them sick enough that they dont want to then go bite a person, Cope says.

Mosquitoes are a nuisance and a potential public-health threat. Although malaria isnt a risk in the U.S., theCenters for Disease Control has recorded thousands of cases of the mosquito-borneWest Nile virus since it appeared in the U.S. in 1999. The agencyestimatesthat 3 million Americans have been infected. The Environmental Protection Agency offers anonline toolfor selecting insect repellants.

In the lab, Terminixs garlic oil takes a day or two to kill the bugs. How it works is still unclear. Cope says it could take probably two or three Ph.D. theses to untangle that. Terminix will service as much as half an acre of property with the treatment for $59 to $79 per month. Exterminators apply the bait, which looks like gel, in blocks every 10 feet or along a perimeter. To protect pollinating insects, they dont spray flowers.A garlic smell may linger for a couple hours, Cope says.

In the Navy, Cope ran a research and development project that gave a research grant to the Israeli company that developed the treatment Terminix is now selling.The treatment has been tested in Israel and in a tire dump in Florida, the type of environment with lots of standing water that breeds hordes of mosquitoes.The concept of using sugar as bait to attract mosquitoes has been around for several years, but Cope says it took years of research and fine-tuning to develop a recipe that would resist weathering. The idea that garlic will repel mosquitoes has also been around a long time, but Cope says eating garlic, even in copious amounts, wont repel bugsonly friends and neighbors.

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Terminix's New Mosquito Killer? Garlic Oil