This Simple Camping Hack Can Help Keep Insects Away With A Household Item You Already Own

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Whether you're deep in the woods of an East Coast national forest or overlooking a snow-peaked mountain range, there's nothing like the perfect calm you achieve on a camping trip. But there is something that can dissipate that calm as soon as you hear it buzzing in your ear. Whether they're whizzing around your tent while you try to sleep or eating up your legs by the campfire, mosquitoes, flies, gnats, and any other winged insects can spoil even the best camping trips. Luckily, there is a genius hack you can use to bug-proof your campsite that supposedly influences even the most bloodthirsty creatures to turn up their nose at your campsite.

Aside from keeping your clothes static free, dryer sheets seem to be a convenient repellent for stubborn insects. They're affordable, can be bought in bulk, smell nice, and are apparently disgusting to mosquitoes. TikTok creators CraftGrooms shared this hack as their biggest camping tip to keep away insects. In their video, they stuffed dryer sheets in the pockets of their tent to ward off pests from their campsite, and they swear by this hack as essential for camping trips. But can dryer sheets alone really protect your camp from mosquitoes?

Dryer sheets contain linalool, an ingredient that is also found in many insect repellents. Though many campers swear by this hack, there's not much scientific evidence to support this claim. According to Hawx Pest Control, mixed results have come from scientific studies trying to determine if dryer sheets truly banish bugs from your cozy campfire. However, one study conducted by Kansas State University (via Integrated Pest Management) revealed that dryer sheets did tend to drive away fungus gnats, showing that dryer sheets can be quite effective against the small winged nuisances. 

While there's not much scientific proof to show that dryer sheets are effective at warding off bugs, there's also not much showing that they are completely useless. While linalool in dryer sheets does repel insects, the products typically contain lower concentrations of linalool than traditional bug repellents, so they may not be as effective as a can of bug spray. So this hack might work best using a brand of dryer sheet with a higher level of linalool and other repellant ingredients (CraftGrooms' TikTok recommends Bounce), and as an extra measure of reassurance to your typical bug-banishing solutions, rather than as a foolproof insect repellent tool by itself. But some comments on the TikTok reinforce their usefulness. "Yes dryer sheets are a must," wrote Shera, while Joe Houston said, "The dryer sheets are a game changer." Celeste also commented, "I used the dryer sheets after your suggestion and thank you," with a heart emoji. So it's probably worth a try on your next camping trip. A few dryer sheets is certainly lighter than a can of bug spray.