From Paula Scott
So Babar the elephant was aware that tomatoes could be used as an insect repellent (24 August, p 27). I, too, have developed a fruit-based mosquito repellent, which I published with Mike Davies in our book Exotic Cooking in Greece.
Since we live in Greece, we use olive oil as the base and boil up various citrus skins and leaves in it. It has a pleasant smell and we find that it works extremely well. We would love to have others try it and give us feedback on its effectiveness.
For Paula Scott’s mosquito repellent see the extended version of this letter on our website.
Heraklion, Crete
