In the marketplace of ideas, some great sounding products may not bring about the benefits, that are claimed. A prime example might be citronella candles and smoking coils. Citronella candles and smoking coils repel mosquitoes, but you have to stay in the smoky plume to be protected. Citronella is an essential oil a citrus plants. The smoke contains natural pesticides. Dr. Robert Novak of the University of Illinois tested these products for ABC news. The report when the smoke from the coils covered the human test subjects upper body, the mosquitoes flew around the subject leg it bit them on the uncovered legs.
Citronella candles have demonstrated some repellent effectiveness, but only in areas with limited air movement. People should not think that one citronella candle burning on the patio with any type of breeze will protect them from mosquitoes. What usually happens in these products is the chemical is released from the candle, or the coil and the protection flows downwind. The area
that's protected is relatively small. Mosquitoes may coming in from a lot of different directions, however they do seem to work well in a really small self-enclosed areas. A great idea, might be to surround yourself with citronella candles and repellent coils and let them burn.
The concept of a citronella candle, is one that uses the natural repellent qualities of the citronella oil, when burned does exactly what it's intended to do in repelling mosquitoes. For years many natural plant oils have been used to repel and in some cases kill pests. In the case of the citronella candles the repellent properties do not remain long enough in a large area to demonstrate their effective repellent properties.
The same could be said for burning coils. Many coils use a household insecticide called permethrin. Permethrin is a synthetic product used in the pest control industry. Permethrin is used on all types of insects and has tremendous repellent and killing properties. Permethrin attacks the central nervous system of insects, causing respiratory distress, and eventually the death of
the target insect. The concept of burning coils is a great idea, but again you would have to surround yourself with burning insecticide coils and sit in the cloud of smoke to have the desired effect that you wish to obtain. | 
