Perhaps you've seen the unsigned email message that claims "Lemon Fresh Joy" dish washing detergent in a pan of water will solve all your mosquito problems. If you haven't, consider yourself lucky.Of course this doesn't work. It's a mystery that anyone would believe that it does. Proliferation of urban legends, myths, and outright lies via the Internet is giving new credence to the famous quotation attributed to P.T. Barnum (the one about neo-suckers appearing every 60 seconds).

For more on the lemon-scented dish washing detergent myth see the following web site. http://www.snopes.com/spoons/oldwives/dishsoap.htm

By the way, P.T. Barnum did not say "there's a sucker born every minute." That's another myth we've come to accept as true!

This article originally appeared in the 8/8/2003 issue.