As I understand it, DEET just prevents biting as they don't like the taste of it, and they taste with their feet. Thus, it doesn't do much to prevent initial attraction.
A couple years back, I spray some DEET on my shoes, 5 seconds later, a tiger mosquito tried to bite me on that spot (and yes on the shoe itself, just insane to see it trying ).
that explains. I was always wondering why in Siberia
(where i worked for 2 summers back then at university times) coming out from house with freshly applied DEET you're getting covered with mosquitos - i was attributing that to the especial ferociousness of the mosquitos there - yet it sounds like the smell of DEET for them in those towns may have become like a BBQ smell for us :)
In plain English, they made mosquitos like repellent.
Tldr: Repelln’t.
Could this already be happening out in the wild?
I use a lot of bug spray and I am still swarmed sometimes.
As I understand it, DEET just prevents biting as they don't like the taste of it, and they taste with their feet. Thus, it doesn't do much to prevent initial attraction.
Edit: thought I'd include a link to a study about this as it's not well known. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)...
2 replies →
I hope these mosquitoes were not released in the wild.
The simple answer would be to add a natural strongly repellent gentle oil to the DEET spray.
There are no natural oils that have been proven to stay effective, or are effective as DEET.
Go ahead, hose yourself down with Lemon oil, citronella, oil, or lemon eucalyptus oil. They simply do not work.
A couple years back, I spray some DEET on my shoes, 5 seconds later, a tiger mosquito tried to bite me on that spot (and yes on the shoe itself, just insane to see it trying ).
They already loved that shit.
And remove the DEET from it, apparently… at least until it loses its appetitive charge.
Until, of course, they learn to like the replacement oil. At which point, break back out the DEET!
Spray made from lemon eucalyptus works[1]. Not as well as DEET, but it works.
[1] https://www.consumerreports.org/health/insect-repellent/oil-...
I don’t understand why sharing an objective study with good news would be downvoted, someone please explain?
I’m not saying you have to use it; it’s good news for people who have concerns about other chemicals. It works—less effectively, but it works.
“Repellants containing (..) oil of lemon eucalyptus have also been found to be effective.”[1]
[1] Iowa Department of Health, “Controlling Spread of West Nile Virus“ https://hhs.iowa.gov/health-prevention/providers-professiona...
1 reply →
Yeah, I would not be surprised if this learned behavior is passed on epigenetically. This is almost like gain of function research potentially.
At that point just skip the deet.
that explains. I was always wondering why in Siberia (where i worked for 2 summers back then at university times) coming out from house with freshly applied DEET you're getting covered with mosquitos - i was attributing that to the especial ferociousness of the mosquitos there - yet it sounds like the smell of DEET for them in those towns may have become like a BBQ smell for us :)
A bit like how capsaicin was evolved to prevent things being eaten by mammals, but... Well.. humans came along and developed a taste for it.
"Evolution! Can you give me capsaicin, to deter mammals? I want birds to spread my seeds!"
https://youtu.be/1fW2uTRdUJU
They got the ultimate seed-spreading, since we farm them.
Freshly marinated in DEET
Damn, were you working at Tselinoyarsk?
So maybe the solution is to apply DEET to a bug zapper
It was fun, but not a bad idea. Are there mosquito mousetraps, or mosquitotraps?
1 reply →
[dead]
[flagged]
It's OK, we still have picaridin
Picaridin is the better choice as well. DEET is gross stuff that ruins many materials used for outdoor clothes and gear
1 reply →
DEET should ruin things less if you stick to 35-40%. There is practically no benefit in going higher anyway. Those using 100% are asking for damage.
Picaridin gives me worsened tinnitus, so I can't use it unless maybe I slowly try to condition myself to it over a week. DEET doesn't.