My earliest experiences with mosquitos and black flies goes back to 1970, and dealing with these pests every year since has always involved three choices. You can tough them out with no protection, you can slather on harsh and questionable chemical repellents, or you can encase yourself in an insect hat or jacket to keep the biting flies off with a fine mesh around your face and head. None of these choices are ideal, and that’s why I was eager to try something completely different. It’s a homeopathic pill called Mozi-Q, and it claims to stop biting insects from attacking for at least two hours after chewing and swallowing the little sweet pill.

Before I tell you if this stuff works or not, let me explain that the product is not an insecticide that you eat. Mozi-Q is homeopathic, which means it’s an extremely dilute concentration of substances that affects how your body behaves. In this case the substances are specific plants – five in all. The product is fully approved by Health Canada for both children and adults.

As for results, here’s what I found: Back in mid-May I climbed onto a roof at 7am and began stripping some crunchy, 20-year old shingles. Being May in cottage country, the black flies were certainly noticeable and biting. I let them have their way with me unprotected for an hour, just to get a sense of their concentration and appetite, then I chewed a Mozi-Q. In about 20 minutes the only flies around me stayed a safe distance, with just the occasional bump into my face or ear. There were certainly no bites. The welcome effect lasted until about 2pm. By then I was nailing down new shingles, and the flies declared that I was on the menu for lunch once more. Another pill and more relief until after the new roof was down and done by 6pm.

Bottom line: Mozi-Q certainly worked for me. There were no noticeable side effects, just the welcome lack of bugs biting me. My kids noticed the same thing, and so did my naturally-skeptical wife. I’m told the product works just as well on horses.

You can learn more at www.mozi-q.com