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I have heard that burning citronella candles is supposed to be good for keeping flying insects away , when camping or in the garden having a bbq.

How do you stop the wind blowing them out?

I have seen the big torch type candles, tried them a few years ago, but they blew out too.

i have sen some tealight citronella ones in poundland today too, but,

if you have to put them inside a glass lantern, doesn't this stop the scent from repelling the insects?

And do they work against wasps? we always seem to be plagued with them as son as we start bbq  when camping.

So I bought a battery operated bug zapper, looks like a tennis bat today in poundland too. any good?

they are fine in glass jars, the scent is quite strong.

Cheap version? Get a  one lb tin, like from baked beans, take the top off completely ditto label then wash and dry well. Using a nail punch a few holes round near the base of the tin...or make a fancy pattern, up to you! This allows a bit of airflow up round the tea light without blowing the flame out, is cheaper than glass containers and looks charmingly rustic, lol. You can punch two holes up near the rim and twist a bit of wire through for a handle too, btw, for hanging them up. Looks very pretty. If it's really windy put a bit of earth or some pebbles in the base before placing them on flat surfaces.

The smell is quite strong in a pleasant way so don't worry about the cirtonella vapour not being detected by insects. But you will find a couple have no sense of smell but are suicidal when it comes to flickering flames, so they'll end up dead in the wax.

M&S do 50 citronella tealights for £3 (?) at the moment. Very powerful ones too...I can smell them every time I go into the utility room, despite them being in a plastic bag.

Wasps are b*st*rds - they never give up. In our experience citronella is useless against them. OH goes into toxic shock if she is stung so it really matters. The only way we have found to deal with them is to blast them with wasp killer. We found this stuff in France last year that was so strong the wasps were just blasted away. it was about £5 a can. Never seen it here, probably too strong for our elf and safety police.

You could try this stuff

http://www.killsbugsdead.com/fop_w_h_k.asp

Alan

We had one of the 'tennis racket' type at home, it did work, and it was great fun chasing bugs around to electrocute them !!!

Quote: Originally posted by Surfspud on 14/5/2008

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I saw one of those raquets today and thought it looked great fun! We have a wasp nest in our garden. Couldn't understand the plaque then noticed one crawling in a hole in the ground followed by another then another. We have bunged the hole up and put a stone over it. A few later tried to get in but seem to have given up now. No idea when it will be safe to remove the stone or if wasps can survive for days underground.

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Best thing to do about wasps is put a couple of tablespoonfuls of jam well spread out on a paper plate about twenty feet away from where you're sitting. They'll all go there ...why bother with barbecue when you can have Tesco Value jam instead?

Thanks for all your comments. I'll be giving the candles a go, I have a glass lantern I bought this week,  for the garden, but didn't want to risk it breaking in transit for camping, I'll remember the tips about the glass jars too, I always keep a couple in the cupboard. I'll wrap some up in tea towels now to put in my kitchen box ready for Bank hol camp.

I find its the drinks the wasps dive for, worse than the food. So maybe a jar of jam, emptied onto a couple  of plates and then washed out to put the candle in will do it this year. Followed by the zapper.

We've got some of those coil things you burn (gives off a smoke) to get rid of the flying pests.

Plus we also have some oil lamps / hurricane lamps that we burn the citronella oil in!

Like these on ebay:

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5232-2978-1/1?AID=9479574&PID=1428744&mpre=http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HURRICANE-OIL-LAMP-LANTERN-FOR-CAMPING-TENT-GREENHOUSE_W0QQitemZ280224896506QQihZ018QQcategoryZ36112QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Only we got ours from The Range for £1.49 each!

Says on them for use with paraffin, but there's no probs with using citronella oil - just don't use petrol!

Chaz

Quote: Originally posted by beefysmum on 14/5/2008

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. So maybe a jar of jam, emptied onto a couple  of plates and then washed out to put the candle in will do it this year. 

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Nah, don't wash it out. Just put the candle in and watch the wasps fry.....

 

Those insect swatters that look like tennis raquets are common here and they work great ! 2 small batteries and off you go.. happy insect chasing :)