A few of us have discussed mosquitoes through these blogs over the last few
weeks. I happened to stumble upon this
news article online today when looking for my next blog topic. A few weeks
ago I posted about how pesky mosquitoes are and how there are new studies
showing that our skin may produce repelling compounds. These compounds are
masked, however, by the attracting compounds found in our sweat that mosquitoes
happen to love. The old post also mentioned that scientists have shown these
repelling compounds have been used in cosmetics and perfumes.
Well, now scientists are saying that grape scented compounds may just
repel mosquitoes. How great is this?!?! Personally, I love Juicy Couture
perfumes, and one of them just so happens to have a grape-like undertone to the
scent. So maybe if I just always wear this one perfume mosquitoes will leave me
alone. Right? Eh, maybe not.. These
scientists are saying that the mosquito repellent just so happens to smell like
grapes, not that the grape-scent itself is the repellent. Darn! At least new
repellents created from these compounds may not smell like the icky repellent
we all grew up using.
These compounds that are under development into commercial insect
repellents have also been noted to being safer than DEET products (as
previously discussed in Lori’s blog last week). Scientists are working on
targeting plant or animal produced compounds such as those discussed in this
article to develop these repellents.
Clearly I should invest in perfumes with grapes, because mosquitoes are attracted to me! Hopefully this stuff works because the current products that they have stink and are sticky and so uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteI know!! I'd rather just not use repellants. Idk which is the lesser of two evils: sticky repellant or mosquitoes!
DeleteI always enjoy reading your blogs. I was so excited about the grape thing! They should really look into trying to scent the replant, that stuff smells. In my blog post this week (Malaria affecting zoo penguins) I learned that the London Zoo uses lavender and lavender oil inside the penguins pens as a mosquito replant! Hm. Not too sure how well this works, but at least lavender smells nice.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your enjoy my blogs! I always try to keep them interesting. I've actually heard that several plants and plant oils are good for keeping mosquitoes away. Lavender and lemongrass are the two I see the most, but I think there are many that are effective.
DeleteThe bug spray does smell horrible but to me grape like substances are just as bad or worst to me. Darn it, guess I have to suck it up and use the least horrible smelling one. Have they looked into non scented sprays?
ReplyDeleteWell, there are currently nonscented sprays on the market, and there's one in particular that I've used that really doesn't have a scent (since nonscented doesn't always mean not scented). These products use DEET, however, which is really not all that safe, as Lori wrote in a recent blog. This study is focusing primarily on developing a more natural repellant. These compounds just happen to smell like grapes.. So I'm thinking they probably aren't the cough syrup-y fake grape smell, but perhaps legitimate grape-like scents.
DeleteI could handle that type of scent
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