Insect Repellant

Posted on August 1, 2009 in Consumer Goods, Health & Medicine

Beautiful summer evenings often meet an abrupt end when the mosquitoes come out to eat dinner. Mosquitoes and other biting insects are nuisances and can be dangerous; spreading illnesses like malaria or encephalitis. They are also ubiquitous in warm areas near water, and can be hard to see. Often you don’t know they are there until it’s too late and you have a nice red bite beginning to swell.

These insects have an effective radar system, finding us by virtue of our body heat, smell, and moisture. Insect repellents are an effective means of inhibiting this capability. They do not kill the insects but rather they make people invisible to the insect’s radar mechanism.

The active ingredient in most insect repellents is DEET, or Diethymetatoluamide. DEET acts by inhibiting the insect’s olfactory receptor that pick up on 1-octen-3-ol, which is a particularly appealing (to the mosquito) substance found in human sweat. In addition to this inhibition, DEET is also simply an unpleasant substance to the insects.

Some new insect repellents combine their first causes with an SPF sunscreen. The FDA does not recommend this combination since repellents should be used in the smallest effective dosage, and sunscreen needs to be applied liberally to be effective. Insect repellent should be tested on a small area of skin to ensure it won’t act as an irritant. While repellent has a long record of safe use, it can cause a burning sensation on sensitive skin, particularly on the skin of the face.