Looks like DEET, the most common active ingredient in repellents, now has a contending rival-and you would never have expected it! A new research shows that Victoria's Secret perfume 'Bombshell' keeps the blood sucking insects at bay.
The new study, led by Stacy Rodriguez of New Mexico State's Molecular Vector Physiology Lab, has made the surprising discovery after looking into different types of mosquito repellents. Contrary to previous researches suggesting that sweet and floral smells attract mosquitoes, 'Bombshell' (which is actually classified as having fruity, floral notes) has been proven to be a strong repellent with effects lasting longer than 120 minutes.
The study recently published in the Journal of Insect Science included a sweet perfume with nine more commercially available repellents to prove whether mosquitoes are really attracted to sweet and flowery fragrances. Some of the repellents involved in the study and contained DEET were Repel 100 Insect Repellent, OFF Deep Woods Insect Repellent VIII and Cutter Skinsations.
To test these repellents, the scientists put two different types of mosquitoes -the yellow fever and Asian tiger mosquito. Both of these species are known to transmit diseases such as dengue fever, yellow fever and chikingunya. The researchers put the Yellow fever and Asian tiger mosquitoes in a holding chamber at the bottom of a Y-shaped tube.
One side of the tube led to an untreated hand and the other side coated with a repellent. Mosquitoes were released and observed which hand they would fly to. As expected, DEET repellents were the most effective, while the other products produced varying results-the non-DEET repellents, except for Cutter Lemon Eucalyptus Insect Repellent, had little to no effect on the yellow fever mosquito. Those containing citronella were not also efficient.
Moreover, 'Bombshell' proved to be almost as effective as DEET-based repellents. It attracted 17% of mosquitoes and stayed effective for around 2 hours.
