Orlando Salinas for foxnews writes, "Scientists may have come up with a better mousetrap when it comes to repelling mosquitoes."I don't know about you, but I'm a huge walking target when I step outdoors in warmer weather. My summer fragrance is Deep Woods Off. Bugs just love me! Especially mosquitoes but I'm also known to attract bees (mostly those pesky sweat bees), gnats, and the occasional tick. My family? Nope. Insects want nothing to do with 'em. It's just me.
I was immediately attracted to this headline. Yes! A better way to keep the skeeters at bay! I'm all for it!
US Department of Agriculture researchers at the University of Florida have identified 23 compounds that are as effective, or better, than the current standard, DEET. From wikipedia, DEET: "Diethyl-meta-toluamide, abbreviated DEET, is the most common active ingredient in insect repellents. It is intended to be applied to the skin or to clothing, and is primarily used to repel mosquitoes. In particular, DEET protects against tick bites (preventing several rickettsioses, tick-borne meningoencephalitis and other tick-borne diseases) and mosquito bites (which transmit dengue fever, West Nile virus, Eastern Equine Encephalitis, and malaria)."
The foxnews article tells us that seven of the 23 compounds "are the most promising, and are chemical cousins of a compound called piperidine, which is the same compound that gives black pepper its kick. In the lab, anyway, that mixture kept working for 73 days."
Scientists say this new compound could work wherever mosquitoes roam. They can fly as far as 30 miles over the open ocean, and they can smell people from 50 yards away.
How do scientists test these compounds for effectiveness? "Figuring out how well these compounds work means researchers have to stick their arms into plastic boxes packed with hundreds — sometimes thousands — of bloodthirsty mosquitoes, and they just get bitten."
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