Question: Can we kill mosquitoes or should we not kill any creatures?

Jayapataka Swami: In Srila Prabhupada’s room in Kolkata, he had a velvet curtain. So he said that the velvet curtain was attracting mosquitoes. Then some devotee said that we could kill the mosquitoes. So he said nonsense! You put a curtain to attract it and then kill it! So, if we are attacked by mosquitoes, then we can, in self-defense, kill it. Or we can use neem oil, citronella oil to repel the mosquitoes. Apparently the neem oil makes the mosquitoes celibate brahmacaris! So the mosquitoes, the females take the blood to ripen the eggs. So the neem oil changes that. I was reading that citronella oil, lemon grass oil each of them have different things. One oil, like citronella oil or something, it bewilders the mosquito, they cannot smell blood. It gives them a stuffy nose! Ha! Ha! So like that different repellents work in different ways. So I purchase three four oils, neem oil, citronella oil, lemon grass oil, make my own super repellent! Put all over the body. So, you can use some repellent oils so that you don’t have to kill the mosquitoes. But since the mosquitoes carry very heavy diseases like dengue, malaria, somehow, protecting yourselves from these diseases, it is allowed. But we would prefer a more non-violent way of doing it.
12-MARCH-2020 KOLKATTA, INDIA