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Natural Bug Repellent Doesn’t Work – Try Picaridin Instead

I’ve never rounded up natural bug sprays or promoted a natural bug spray that “works for me”—and there’s a reason for that. Because they don’t. But that’s all about to change as we deep dive into an active bug spray ingredient that I’ve been curious about for a while: picaridin... Picaridin is a synthetic mosquito and tick repellant in the piperidine compound family. The piperidine family includes natural black pepper compounds piperidine, piperine, piperettine and piperanine. Research suggests that picaridin repels mosquitoes by masking a human’s scent, which mosquitoes can otherwise smell from ~170 feet away.

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Featured

 Chemical or natural: what’s the best way to repel mozzies?

Extracts from many different plants have been purported to repel mosquitoes. In many cultures, smouldering aromatic leaves have been used to repel mosquitoes with some success. But what about plant-based topical repellents? Some of the most widely available “botanical” repellents contain one or a blend of citronella, tea-tree, eucalyptus, lavender or catmint oils. Essential oils from Australian native plants are also popular. But rarely do these repellents provide the same duration of protection as DEET or picaridin-based repellents.

 Why Plant-Based Mosquito Repellents Are So Hard to Make

Bug sprays with DEET feel oily and smell gross. But turning natural plant oils into commercial products isn’t easy.

Articles of Interest

A DEET-Like Mosquito Spray That Smells Like Jasmine Or Grapes?

A team at the University of California, Riverside, appears to have finally figured out how bugs detect the insect repellent known as DEET. And the team used its discovery to identify several chemical compounds that promise to be safer and cheaper than DEET, according to the report in the journal Nature.

Catnip and grapefruit are ushering in a new era of insect repellants

Soon you may not need DEET at all.

Do 'Natural' Insect Repellents Work?

Bug sprays that rely on essential oils may seem like a tempting alternative to products that use other chemicals. But they probably won’t give you the best protection.

Efficacy of the botanical repellents geraniol, linalool, and citronella against mosquitoes

We concluded that geraniol had significantly more repellent activity than citronella or linalool in both indoor and outdoor settings.

Plant-based insect repellents: a review of their efficacy, development and testing

Plant-based repellents have been used for generations in traditional practice as a personal protection measure against host-seeking mosquitoes. Knowledge on traditional repellent plants obtained through ethnobotanical studies is a valuable resource for the development of new natural products. Recently, commercial repellent products containing plant-based ingredients have gained increasing popularity among consumers, as these are commonly perceived as “safe” in comparison to long-established synthetic repellents although this is sometimes a misconception

Repelling Bugs With The Essence Of Grapefruit

"If you've had a grapefruit, you've consumed some nootkatone," Dolan says, "or drank a Squirt, for instance." Dolan, who is leading a CDC team to develop nootkatone, says it could be put into soaps and sunscreens, so people wouldn't have to apply a separate bug repellent. But that's not all — it turns out that nootkatone could be both a repellent and an environmentally friendly pesticide. That's because it doesn't just repel bugs — it kills them.

The Effectiveness of Botanical Extracts as Repellents Against Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes

The repellent properties of plants to mosquitoes and other pest insects were well known before the use of synthetic chemicals. Traditionally, people used natural compounds to protect themselves against insect bites. Some plant species contain insecticidal and/or insect-repellent substances.

This Natural Bug Repellent Works Better Than Deet

In Consumer Reports’ entire history of testing bug sprays, harsh chemicals like N, N-diethyl-meta-toluamide, commonly known as deet, have always come out on top. But for the first time, safer, gentler products were more effective. The winning products used picaridin and oil of lemon eucalyptus as the active ingredients. Both are chemically synthesized ingredients but more similar to natural compounds than deet; they also come with fewer side effects. Best in show were Sawyer Fisherman’s Formula, which held mosquitoes and ticks at bay for eight hours, and Repel Lemon Eucalyptus, which protected against ticks for eight hours and mosquitoes for seven hours.

Why plant-based mosquito repellents are so hard to design

Even though DEET remains the most commonly used, and most powerful, mosquito repellent ever developed, scientists are actively pursuing effective products based entirely on plant oils, some tracing their roots to traditional remedies. The advantages of these plant-derived repellents are their pleasant fragrance, and nice feeling on the skin and vapor action, but only if we can coax these natural compounds to last as long as today’s commercial products.

Resources

NootkaShield

Nootkatone is one of these protective compounds from nature, found in the heartwood of Alaskan yellow cedar trees (Cupressus nootkatensis) and in grapefruit skin. Nootkatone can be extracted from these natural resources and has a fresh scent. Obtaining nootkatone from nature is cost prohibitive and not sustainable. However, Evolva is capable of producing NootkaShield, ≥99% pure nature-identical nootkatone via a more economical and reliable route when compared to extraction from natural sources. NootkaShield can be formulated into a wide variety of pest control products. At this time, samples of NootkaShield are available for research and development.