Mosquitoes Learn to Link the Smell of DEET with a Blood Meal, New Study Finds
Researchers found Aedes aegypti mosquitoes can learn to link DEET with food after four exposures, reducing the repellent’s effect.
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10 Articles
This Common Bug Spray Ingredient Might Actually Make You More Delicious to Mosquitoes
I knew it. I called it years ago, and I didn’t need to conduct any scientific research. I always knew deep down, just below my mosquito bite-laden surface, that insect repellent is just salad dressing for bugs. It doesn’t make them go away; it just makes you more delicious. That’s essentially the finding of new research detailed in the Journal of Experimental Biology, where scientists discovered mosquitoes can actually learn to associate DEET, t…
Mosquitoes learn to link the smell of DEET with a blood meal, new study finds
Mosquito repellents are key to protecting ourselves from mosquito bites and the pathogens they might carry. The most widely used active ingredient in insect repellents is N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide, commonly known as DEET.
DEET-containing sprays are used worldwide to keep unwanted insects at bay, but a new study has revealed that mosquitoes may actually find the chemical, which is intended as a repellent, attractive in laboratory conditions, the Guardian reports.
A new study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology suggests that mosquitoes can learn to be attracted to DEET, a common ingredient used in
Insect repellents play a key role in protecting against bites and dangerous infections like malaria or dengue fever. The gold standard here for more than 80 years has been the substance N, N-diet-meta-toluamide, known as DEET.
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