Let’s wrap up this topic with discussing some alternatives to DEET. These compounds have shown some mosquito-repelling characteristics, and are mainly the extracted oils from certain fragrant plants. To show you what the chemical formulas for these oils look like, I’ve drawn a few of them here. I think you’ll see that there’s a certain resemblance in chemical structure to DEET? If you remember back to the days where I talked about how mosquitoes likely identify odors, you’ll recall that it takes two proteins with specific shapes to form the receptor that captures the odor molecule. So, if another molecule can fit into these same receptors used to identify something tasty, but actually doesn't trigger anything identifiable because it's a different chemical, then guess who gets "confused" and can't find dinner after all?
RSS Feed
