Mosquito Repellent Spray vs Mosquito Coil: Which Is the Better Mosquito Repellent for Your Home?

A skin repellent spray protects only you, but it goes wherever you go, for a few hours before you need to reapply it. A room spray clears a room quickly, but the effect soon fades. A mosquito coil protects a limited area around it for as long as it burns, and only outdoors or in well-ventilated spaces, never where someone is sleeping.

Sprays and coils are both easy to buy, and they work in very different ways. This guide compares how long each protects, how much space it covers, what it costs and where each one should be used. If you are new to coils, start with what a mosquito coil is.

Mosquito sprays come in two forms that do different jobs:

• Room sprays (aerosols) contain fast-acting insecticides such as cypermethrin, prallethrin or imiprothrin. They knock down or kill mosquitoes in the air within minutes, but the effect fades once the spray settles, usually within 30 minutes to two hours depending on ventilation and room size, and mosquitoes can come back in.
• Skin repellents (sprays and lotions) use an active ingredient such as DEET, picaridin, IR3535 or oil of lemon eucalyptus. They stop mosquitoes landing and biting, but only on the person who applied them. Higher concentrations protect for longer (CDC Yellow Book).

The CDC recommends EPA-registered skin repellents with one of these active ingredients, used as the label directs (CDC), and the EPA's repellent search tool shows each registered product's protection time.

A mosquito coil is a spiral of wood or charcoal powder, a binder and a small amount of a pyrethroid such as d-trans-allethrin, esbiothrin, metofluthrin or dimefluthrin. Lit at the outer tip, it smolders slowly toward the center and releases the active ingredient with its smoke. Coils come with a wood or a charcoal base, like the wood-based and charcoal-based coils we manufacture.

The repellent in the smoke keeps mosquitoes away from a limited area around the coil and knocks down those that fly in. Nobody has to put anything on their skin, and no electricity is needed. Burn time depends on the coil's size and formula, and the pack states it. For the science, see how mosquito coils work.

• Mosquito coil: as long as it burns, which is hours rather than minutes; the pack gives the burn time. Put it out before you leave or go to sleep.
• Room spray: from minutes to about two hours, until the spray clears and mosquitoes return.
• Skin repellent: a few hours or more, depending on the active ingredient and its concentration. Reapply when the label says, or if you start getting bitten, but never more often than the label allows.

For an evening on the patio, a coil or a skin repellent will outlast a room spray. For sleeping, use a bed net, or a plug-in vaporizer according to its label, never a coil: see mosquito coils vs electric vaporizers.

A skin repellent protects only the person who applied it, wherever they go. At a gathering, everyone needs their own, applied correctly, children included (see the safety section below).

A coil protects a limited area rather than one person, for example a group sitting together on a patio. For a larger outdoor area, set several coils around it, each in its own holder. A room spray treats a whole room, but only briefly.

Prices vary widely by country, brand and pack size, so compare the cost per hour of protection in your own shops:

• A coil is cheap per hour, because one coil burns for hours and covers everyone in its area.
• A room spray costs more per hour of protection, because its effect is short.
• A skin repellent is sold by the bottle, and each application covers one person for a few hours.

To use a coil, separate the pair, set one coil in a metal holder on a non-combustible surface, light the tip and blow out the flame so it smolders. Nobody has to apply anything to their skin. Stay nearby: put the coil out before you leave or go to sleep, and let the ash cool before you throw it away.

A room spray has to be sprayed again to keep working, and each spray fills the room with a mist you should not breathe in. A skin repellent has to cover all exposed skin, stay away from the eyes and mouth, and be reapplied. For children, an adult applies it (see below).

Coils and sprays both work without electricity: during power cuts, in rural areas, at campsites, on fishing boats, at market stalls and at outdoor events. Plug-in vaporizers and mats need a socket. For long trips, a few coils also weigh less than several cans of spray.

Both put insecticide into the air or onto the skin, so use each one only as its label directs:

• Room sprays release their whole dose in a burst. Don't breathe in the mist, and follow the label on airing the room; many cans also use hydrocarbon propellants that add volatile organic compounds to indoor air.
• Skin repellents: don't put them on a child's hands, eyes, mouth, cuts or irritated skin. Spray your own hands first, then apply to the child's face, and don't use oil of lemon eucalyptus or PMD on children under 3.
• Coils release the repellent gradually, but the smoke also contains fine particles, formaldehyde and other compounds (Liu et al., 2003), and closing the windows raises carbon monoxide and particle levels several-fold (Hogarh et al., 2018). Burn coils only outdoors or in well-ventilated spaces, never in a closed room or where someone is sleeping, and keep the smoke away from babies, young children, pregnant women, people with asthma, COPD or heart disease, cats and pet birds.

Whatever you choose, buy registered products and check the registration number on the pack. For the evidence on coil smoke, read are mosquito coils safe?

• On the move: walking, hiking, jogging or commuting through mosquito areas calls for a skin repellent; a coil can't follow you.
• In the daytime: the mosquitoes that spread dengue are active during the day (WHO), so a skin repellent matters by day too.
• To clear a room fast: a room spray knocks down mosquitoes that are already inside. Then keep them out with screens, and for sleeping use a bed net or a plug-in vaporizer according to its label.
• Where flames are not allowed, such as clinics: sprays, vaporizers or nets.

Many households combine them: skin repellent when going out, a coil on the patio or a well-ventilated veranda in the evening, put out before bedtime, and a bed net for sleeping.

The main differences at a glance:

• For an evening outdoors with family or friends, a coil protects everyone in a limited area for hours. Use it only outdoors or in a well-ventilated space, and put it out before anyone goes to sleep.
• On the move and in the daytime, use a skin repellent as its label directs; a room spray is only a quick fix.
• For sleeping, use a bed net or a plug-in vaporizer according to its label, never a coil.

Brands planning their own coil range can read about our OEM and private label mosquito coil manufacturing.