How to remove mosquitoes from the car?

Something very common on summer trips is for your car to get covered in these annoying insects. If you want to know how to remove mosquitoes from the car, keep reading.

During summer, high temperatures make mosquitoes come out onto the street. Apart from keeping our nights lively by making us clap more than the choir of “El Cigala”, they are experts at camouflaging the front of our car. When we finish a trip and see the mosquito graveyard stuck across the entire front section, the question is very clear: How do I remove the mosquitoes?

There are several ways to do it, either dry or wet or, failing that, do it during the journey itself with the windscreen wipers. This last method is the least effective, since even if you empty the washer fluid tank, all you will achieve is smearing the mess even further. Therefore, the best option is to wait until you complete the journey (don’t miss our tips for driving on dual carriageways and motorways) and, without leaving it too long, clean the affected area, since the longer we wait, the harder the remains will be to remove.

Pressure washers or car wash tunnels are good places to remove mosquitoes from the car

One of the options we most often turn to is going to the nearest petrol station and using the pressure washer guns. If this is the option chosen, we should check whether there is the typical brush to remove the first surface layer. With these, it is important to scrub well on the most affected areas, which are usually the front bumper, the windscreen and the mirrors.

We recommend starting with the windscreen wipers, since it is the area where we most need visibility and if we leave it until last, we may smear the dirt we have removed from the other areas across the glass. Make sure the mosquitoes have been removed before putting down the brush, since the pressure gun does not loosen mosquitoes well.

Once you have done this, use the water gun on the hot water programme to remove any remaining mosquito residue. Make smooth movements and stay close to the area you want to focus on. However, be careful, because if you get too close, you may damage the paintwork.

If you are one of those lazy people who prefers to drive the car into the car wash tunnel, we cannot guarantee that the mosquitoes will be removed completely. Furthermore, we spend more money than we usually would on a pressure wash, bearing in mind that the large rollers of these machines tend to leave small scratches on the paint.

Use sprays and specific products

However, a very common situation in summer is that you have spent an hour washing the car and, just on the journey from the petrol station to home, a swarm of mosquitoes has decided to end its life against our car. Therefore, cleaning the whole car again is pointless.

For these irritating situations, there are some specific products that can be applied dry and can get us out of trouble. These usually come in liquid form or as an aerosol, and their prices can vary depending on their quality.

These types of products are applied directly to the area where the mosquitoes are stuck. Once we have sprayed the stained area, we must wait a few minutes for them to work, so it is important to read the instructions to know how long we should wait.

These soften the mosquitoes and insects, so once they have taken effect, we have to remove the product with a squeegee or even with a quick spray of water from a hose. These products are normally much more effective than pressure washing, although it is true that they are rare to carry in the car.

Remember the buckets and brushes at petrol stations

If we have travelled through an area normally surrounded by countryside, it is very common for the car to already look “like a map” and for us to still have a few kilometres left to reach our long-awaited destination. In this case, it is not worth cleaning the car, since on the remaining journey it will probably get dirty again in the same way.

Continuing the journey without doing anything can be dangerous, since mosquitoes can block our field of vision through the windscreen or reduce the effectiveness of the headlights. For this reason, most petrol stations have buckets and brushes for scrubbing the windscreen and headlights.

Don’t kid yourself, the result will not be perfect, since the water is usually very dirty, but it will get you by so that you can see properly. Don’t worry if there are some streaks left; you can clean them off when you arrive at your destination, since on the journey what matters most is safety.

If this topic has caught your interest and you want to explore it further, don’t miss the tips for keeping your car’s windows sparkling on our sister site, Highmotor.