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Researchers compare 'natural' mosquito repellents to DEET
phys.org ^ | 10/28/2015 | by Josh Lancette &Provided by: Entomological Society of America

Posted on 10/28/2015 12:46:26 PM PDT by Red Badger

Every summer while preparing for long weekends at our family cabin in the north woods of Minnesota, we'd face the same dilemmas. What food should we bring? Is SPF 50 sunscreen enough protection? And, most importantly, which mosquito repellent should we buy? If we picked the wrong kind, we'd be opening ourselves up to evenings of constant swatting by the campfire and nights of uncontrollable itching. Protection from the unofficial state bird, the mosquito, was not something to take lightly.

However, while itchy limbs might be annoying, Minnesotans don't have much to worry about from mosquitoes, except for the occasional case of West Nile virus or a few other less common diseases. In other parts of the country and the world, more devastating mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and chikungunya are present, so protection from mosquitoes can be a matter of life and death. In these places, making the right decision on a mosquito repellent carries more weight than it does in Minnesota.

To help consumers decide which mosquito repellent they should buy, researchers at New Mexico State University tested 10 commercially available products for their effectiveness at repelling mosquitoes, and the results were published in the Journal of Insect Science. Three of the products (Repel 100 Insect Repellent, OFF Deep Woods Insect Repellent VIII, and Cutter Skinsations Insect Repellent) were mosquito repellents that contained DEET as the active ingredient, and four of the products (Cutter Natural Insect Repellent, EcoSmart Organic Insect Repellent, Cutter Lemon Eucalyptus Insect Repellent, and Avon Skin So Soft Bug Guard) were mosquito repellents that did not contain DEET. The other three products tested were Avon Skin So Soft Bath Oil, Victoria's Secret Bombshell perfume, and Mosquito Skin Patch, a skin patch with vitamin B1 as the active ingredient.

The products were tested against two mosquito species, the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) and the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), both known vectors of dengue fever, chikungunya, yellow fever, and other diseases.

For both species, the researchers found that mosquitoes were strongly repelled by all products containing DEET. For the other products, they found mixed results.

On Aedes aegypti, the mosquito repellents that did not contain DEET either didn't repel them at all or didn't have a repellent effect after just 30 minutes. The exception was Cutter Lemon Eucalyptus Insect Repellent, which had strong repellent effects for the duration of the 240 minute test. The bath oil and perfume effectively repelled mosquitoes for 120 minutes, but the skin patch did not seem to have any repellent effect at any time.

On Aedes albopictus, two of the non-DEET repellents significantly repelled mosquitoes throughout the duration of the study. Furthermore, unlike the resuts for Aedes aegypti, Avon Skin So Soft Bug Guard had significant repellent effects for 120 minutes. The bath oil and skin patch had no repellent effects on Aedes albopictus, but the perfume repelled mosquitoes for 120 minutes, as it did for Aedes aegypti.

"The results of this study show that not all commercially available mosquito repellents are effective in repelling mosquitoes and that efficacy is also dependent on the species of mosquito that is repelled," the authors wrote. "Overall, the results from this study confirm that DEET repellents are the most effective mosquito repellents in the market. Although, based on the results from this study, a lemon-eucalyptus oil containing p-menthane-3,8-diol (PMD) [the active ingredient in Cutter Lemon Eucalyptus Insect Repellent] has similar efficacy to DEET repellents."

Perhaps the most surprising result in the study was the effectiveness of Victoria's Secret Bombshell perfume at repelling mosquitoes.

"Our results challenge the notion that floral perfume-scented sprays, in general, attract mosquitoes," the authors wrote. "Floral fragrances may provide a masking odor resulting in low mosquito attraction rates, but over a shorter duration of time."

However, the authors do provide a caveat to this finding, noting that "the concentration of perfume we used in this test was rather high and that lower concentrations of the same fragrance might have different effects."

Explore further: A natural, alternative insect repellent to DEET

More information: Stacy D. Rodriguez et al. The Efficacy of Some Commercially Available Insect Repellents for (Diptera: Culicidae) and (Diptera: Culicidae) , Journal of Insect Science (2015). DOI: 10.1093/jisesa/iev125


TOPICS: Agriculture; Gardening; Health/Medicine; Outdoors
KEYWORDS: deet; disease; mosquito
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To: Red Badger

I make my own mosquito spray with Essential Oils, grapeseed oil and vodka.

Works like a charm, here in the sauna swamps of SE TX.


21 posted on 10/28/2015 1:04:24 PM PDT by Jane Long ("And when thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek")
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To: Red Badger

I make my own mosquito spray with Essential Oils, grapeseed oil and vodka.

Works like a charm, here in the sauna swamps of SE TX.


22 posted on 10/28/2015 1:04:28 PM PDT by Jane Long ("And when thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek")
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To: doorgunner69

Garlic helps


23 posted on 10/28/2015 1:05:43 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: doorgunner69
Sure seems like something could be ingested to make you less palatable to the damn things.

curry?

24 posted on 10/28/2015 1:05:44 PM PDT by bankwalker (In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.)
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To: Red Badger

I found that after 3-4 days in the jungle w/o a bath kept the little biters away, in fact, it kept most things away.


25 posted on 10/28/2015 1:06:07 PM PDT by coincheck (Time is Short, Salvation is for Today)
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To: Red Badger

Wouldn’t want to spray that stuff on me.


26 posted on 10/28/2015 1:08:10 PM PDT by SkyDancer ("Nobody Said I Was Perfect But Yet Here I Am")
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To: Paladin2
We've found a few of these in our backyard.

Yes thats a mosquito.

27 posted on 10/28/2015 1:09:34 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: driftdiver

I thought you might have small hands....


28 posted on 10/28/2015 1:10:22 PM PDT by Paladin2 (my non-desktop devices are no longer allowed to try to fix speling and punctuation, nor my gran-mah.)
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To: Paladin2

Not my hand but thats how big they are. The ones we found were about 1 1/4” long. Neighbor got bit, left a welt the size of a golf ball on his back.

You can hear the dang things coming, sounds like a chopper.


29 posted on 10/28/2015 1:11:36 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: SkyDancer

Just don’t smoke...............;^)


30 posted on 10/28/2015 1:11:40 PM PDT by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
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To: 21twelve

Do they hit 911 on their cell phones, then take a snap shot to post to their Facebook friends of a murderer of insects?


31 posted on 10/28/2015 1:14:31 PM PDT by zerosix (Native Sunflower)
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To: BJ1

All countries banned DDT, the most effective repellant ever developed - the cheapest and safest - banned by the US Dept of Ag as a sop to the environmentalists. Millions of children subsequently died unnecessarily.


32 posted on 10/28/2015 1:14:44 PM PDT by Louis Foxwell (This is a wake up call. Join the Sultan Knish ping list.)
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To: Paladin2

“Victoria’s Secret Bombshell perfume”, Really? Who wanted a lifetime supply of this stuff?


What’s the ad pitch on this stuff, “Smells nice and kills mosquitos”?


33 posted on 10/28/2015 1:15:33 PM PDT by Flick Lives (One should not attend even the end of the world without a good breakfast. -- Heinlein)
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To: Vigilanteman
I grew up in NW Minnesota/eastern North Dakota and am very familiar with the variety of aggressive skeeters there.

I was stationed at Grand Forks AFB for several years. When too many B-52s went down for maintenance they just enlisted a few of the local mosquitoes to fly and carry the weapons.

34 posted on 10/28/2015 1:17:14 PM PDT by OldMissileer (Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, PK. Winners of the Cold War)
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To: Red Badger

I don’t but still wouldn’t want to spray that stuff on me. Mossies swarm like individually or in groups so blasting a bunch won’t dissuade them; best to have a organic type repellent. I read that mint oil works good too.


35 posted on 10/28/2015 1:17:33 PM PDT by SkyDancer ("Nobody Said I Was Perfect But Yet Here I Am")
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To: Red Badger

Skin-so-soft does work great. I’ve used it for years on myself and my horses with great results.


36 posted on 10/28/2015 1:17:58 PM PDT by Duchess47 ("One day I will leave this world and dream myself to Reality" Crazy Horse)
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To: SkyDancer
I read that mint oil works good too.

It'll repel cats..............

37 posted on 10/28/2015 1:18:16 PM PDT by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
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To: Red Badger

Hmmm, well so much for that. My Ginger wouldn’t go for it.


38 posted on 10/28/2015 1:19:23 PM PDT by SkyDancer ("Nobody Said I Was Perfect But Yet Here I Am")
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To: Duchess47

My wife swears by SOS, but all it contains is mineral (baby) oils and fragrance. You might try plain old baby oils, much cheaper...................


39 posted on 10/28/2015 1:19:32 PM PDT by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
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To: Red Badger

“Is SPF 50 sunscreen enough protection?”

SPF 50? In Minnesota? Really????


40 posted on 10/28/2015 1:20:18 PM PDT by LaRueLaDue
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