Photo courtesy of puppies8691 at Flickr.com.
For years, scientists have thought that DEET blocked the senses of mosquitoes and interfered with their ability to smell people (or, more accurately, the CO2 that we breathe out). A new study suggests mosquitoes aren’t confused by DEET, instead they just really, really don’t like the way it smells:
Collaborator Zain Syed discovered the precise neurons on the antennae of mosquitoes that detect DEET, and found they are right next to the neurons that sense 1-octen-3-ol… It also reacted, even more strongly, to compounds known as terpenoids, which help make up the distinctive aromas of eucalyptus, cloves, menthol and camphor.
This explains why some natural mosquito repellents work even better than DEET products, and it may point the way to future products that are even more effective than Eucalyptus based repellents.
Photo courtesy of tteerriitt at Flickr.com.
