Q: How can Ecotrap® Guard manage to offer the most effective and durable mosquito patches for the lowest price in the market?A: It's simple: our small, family-owned business chooses to invest in high-quality materials and time-proven, all-natural ingredients using modest production, marketing and sales budgets. By keeping our costs low, we can pass along significant savings to you, our customer!Q: How does the Ecotrap® Mosquito Guard patch compare to other all-natural mosquito "repellent" options, such as non-transdermal stickers and bracelets containing citronella, lemon, peppermint, lemongrass, geraniol, and other essential oils?A: The Ecotrap® Mosquito Guard has at least three advantages over such products: First, vitamin B1 has many known health benefits, and our transdermal patch allows your body to access those benefits while bracelets and non-transdermal stickers containing essential oils do not. Second, by releasing excess vitamin B1 through your pores, you can create full-body mosquito protection for over 3 days with a single patch. Third, and this distinction is very important, vitamin B1 is more effective than essential oils in preventing mosquito bites. This is because essential oils aim to "repel" insects with their odor - which sometimes works, but usually does not. Human bodies naturally produce strong attractants and the amount of essential oils necessary to counteract that attraction simply cannot be contained within a little sticker, bracelet or similar device. Conversely, vitamin B1 works in preventing mosquitos from detecting your presence at all by creating a "cloaking" (rather than "repelling") effect. With vitamin B1, mosquitos are not repelled away from you, they simply do not "see" you - making it possible for you to pass through their territory unnoticed (kinda' like a Klingon warship). Q: Does the Ecotrap® Mosquito Guard patch smell bad?A: No. The Ecotrap® Mosquito Guard patch does have a metallic or "vitamin" odor,  but it is unnoticeable once applied.Q: How often does the Ecotrap® Mosquito Guard patch need to be replaced? I've tried vitamin B1 patches before and they didn't work for me.A: There are two things to consider about your past experience with mosquito patches: First, to achieve the desired "cloaking" effect, a minimum of 150mg of Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) is needed. So, it's possible the other patch brand you used did not contain a sufficient amount of the vitamin. (See the following Q&A for additional information about this.) Each Ecotrap® Mosquito Guard patch contains 300mg of Vitamin B1 (Thiamine), which is more than twice that of our competitors' patches.  Second, the Ecotrap® Mosquito Guard patch typically needs to be replaced after about 3 and a half days (84 hours) to maintain a "cloaking" effect. It is important to note that the "cloaking" effect only works while your body is releasing excess vitamin B1. Therefore, if your body needs more vitamin B1 than is provided by a single patch to create this effect, a second patch may need to be applied simultaneously and/or the patch(es) may need to be replaced more frequently.Q: Is the Ecotrap® Mosquito Guard patch truly waterproof and will it actually stay on for 84 hours? I've tried other brands and they fell off in less than a day.A: Yes, the Ecotrap® Mosquito Guard patch outperforms our competitors' in this respect for two reasons: First, we use custom-cut, durable hospital-grade adhesive cloth bandages designed to stay put even under rugged conditions.  Second, our patch provides the vitamin B1 in a separate disc located in the center of the patch rather than mixing it in with the adhesive. Patches which combine the vitamin with their adhesive typically fall off as soon as enough vitamin has been absorbed to sufficiently weaken the remaining adhesive. (Notably, mixing the vitamin into the adhesive also limits the amount of vitamin that a patch can contain. See the previous Q&A for more information about this.)Q: What's the difference between wearing an Ecotrap® Mosquito Guard patch and just taking vitamin B1 supplements?A: The transdermal nature of our Ecotrap® Mosquito Guard patch makes the vitamin B1 available to your body for absorption and release through your pores over a period of several days. This extends the "cloaking" effect created by the vitamin for a longer period of time than oral supplements since the digestive process releases the vitamin all at once and suppresses most of its "cloaking" effects by eliminating the excess vitamin through the digestive system instead of through your skin.Q: Can the Ecotrap® Mosquito Guard patch be used by children, pregnant women, and people with allergies or sensitive skin?A: Yes, and no. The Ecotrap® Mosquito Guard patch uses a hypoallergenic, hospital-grade adhesive cloth bandage and contains 300mg Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) mixed with aloe vera and lanolin. If you have known allergies to any of these ingredients, you should not use the patch. As with all products applied directly to the skin, you should consult with a doctor if you have reason to believe these ingredients may be unsuitable due to age or a known health condition. Do not apply the patch to extremely delicate or sensitive areas on your body, or near wounds, rashes, sunburns, or otherwise already irritated or damaged skin. And, be sure to apply replacement patches in a new area to avoid unnecessarily irritating your skin through extended bandaging and exposure to the patch's adhesive and concentrated vitamin disc.