Your home’s garden is the ideal place for relaxing and enjoying fresh air with your family and friends, surrounded by beautiful flowers, plants and trees. Sometimes, though, a few unpleasant guests will disturb your outdoor summer afternoon, BBQ or elegant dinner under the stars: we’re talking about mosquitos.
Candles made with the essential oil of citronella are a natural and environmentally-friendly way to avoid these pests, as long as they’re used properly.
In this guide we have gathered information and provide advice on how best to use citronella candles, a natural and sustainable choice that will protect you from insects and, at the same time, increase the beauty of your garden with enchanting candlelight.
For candles to be most effective, you need to position a large enough number of them to give allover coverage to the area of the yard you want to protect from mosquitos and other insects.
Sizes and characteristics of commercial candles vary, but as a general rule we could say that a medium-sized candle (with about a six-inch diameter), in normal conditions, with a gentle breeze and an average quantity of mosquitos, would cover an area of roughly 100 square feet. That means that to get the best coverage you need to place the candles approximately 20 feet apart. When you choose your candles, it is also important to make sure that the wick is thick enough: one that’s too thin will be more likely to blow out in a gust of wind.
Citronella candles are effective at any time of day. For several reasons, though, they are best used from sunset onwards. Mainly because during the daytime hours mosquitos are scarce as they hide from hot, dry conditions in cool, shady places. When the sun begins to go down, temperatures fall and humidity levels rise, providing ideal conditions for mosquitos, who benefit from them by going “hunting”. Not only is the protection provided by the candles more effective in the evening, but their ambient effect is also enhanced. As darkness falls, the golden, flickering light of citronella candles makes every garden beautiful and rather magical.
A characteristic of citronella candles is their pleasant citrus scent. To best enjoy, place candles at a distance from where people will be gathering around your yard. This prevents the natural aroma from coming across as too intense and pungent.
For the same reason, if you’re having an outdoor dinner or barbecue, it is best not to place the candles too close to where the food is being served or to the barbecue grill itself. That way you can enjoy the protection of the citronella without it interfering with the aromas and flavors of your food.
However you decide to arrange the candles in your yard, you should bear in mind one general rule: always place candles on the ground and at safe distances from other objects and greenery because of their open flame and the extremely hot wax they produce. Also, only move candles when they have gone out and the wax has cooled.
It is also important to know how to properly extinguish these candles. It is not advisable to do so by blowing on the flame, as the hot wax may splatter and land painfully on your skin or mark surrounding surfaces. In any case, these candles have wicks that are much more wind-resistant than classic birthday candles, so blowing them out often doesn’t work. We recommend using candle-pincers to bend the wick and extinguish the flame immediately in the molten wax. Or you can cover the flame with a container so it goes out from lack of oxygen (you can buy special candle-snuffers to do this, but a glass or small vase works well too).
Finally, we know that children and pets are naturally curious and unaware, so you need to make sure they are kept safe from the candle’s flames. Obviously, if your dog or cat gets too close to the candle-flame it may singe its whiskers and it will definitely learn not to do that again. But, better safe than sorry, right?
We hope you will find our guidelines and advice useful when preparing your next yard-party. To recap: place the citronella candles on the ground, in sufficient numbers to provide coverage across the entirety of the open space you’ll be occupying and far enough away from food and cooking areas, and light them just before sunset (or slightly earlier, if necessary and possible). Bonus advice: if your front or back yard has a driveway, placing some candles along its length is the perfect way to provide protection from the mosquitos and welcome your guests with a touch of elegance.
The heat from the candle’s flame liquefies the wax and allows the active elements of the citronella to diffuse into the air, providing maximum protection from mosquitos. Depending on the size of your candles (and their wicks), it is best to light the candles about 15-30 minutes before your guests arrive, to start dispersing any present insects.
For more information about the effectiveness of citronella candles, read our article.
Candles of different sizes and characteristics will last different lengths of time. This is another thing to consider when you are choosing them. To give you an idea, we’ll use as an example some of Citronella Graziani’s candles in Tuscan terracotta pots: a candle measuring 5½ inches in diameter and 1⅓ inches high will burn for around 4 hours, ideal for an afternoon party; the model with a 7-inch diameter and a height of 1½ inches will last 8 hours; and the larger one, 6 inches across by 2 inches high, gives 13 hours’ protection, allowing for several uses. Obviously, the wick varies in length and thickness depending on the size of the candle, to guarantee the wax melts evenly and the product is effective and efficient.
There are also larger citronella candles, usually in plastic buckets. One limitation of this longer-lasting shape, aside from the fact that it is not designed to enhance the aesthetic of your garden, is that it does not give wide-spread, even coverage of your space compared to smaller candles. We also advise against citronella oil torches: although they are picturesque, they are not effective against mosquitos because they burn the actual citronella oil and also the active ingredients that would repel insects.
We welcome you to put into practice the recommendations provided above by giving you a set of Citronella Graziani candles to use at your next event. Request it here to have it sent to your address at no cost.
We have been producing candles in Italy since 1805, where stylish parties and enjoying life in the company of loved ones are cornerstones of our tradition. That’s why with Citronella Graziani, you can be sure you have a product that will give you unique style and quality, while protecting you from mosquitos and other insects.
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