This spring and summer are expected to be a record time for mosquitoes in Middle Tennessee. Researchers at Vanderbilt think they’ve come up with a compound that could be a better mosquito repellant.
They might not have a nose you can see, but mosquitoes have a strong sense of smell. It’s how they find their unsuspecting victims. Dr. Laurence Zweibel and his team at Vanderbilt have been looking for ways to interfere with that sense of smell. They’ve developed a series of compounds called VUAA. It turns mosquito’s senses wide open. Dr Zwiebel puts it this way.
“It’s like getting on an elevator with someone who’s put on way too much perfume. What is even attractive at a low level, becomes quite annoying and even repulsive at a very high level.”
So far, VUAA has proven quite effective in repelling mosquitoes. Dr. Zweibel’s research shows it works a thousand times better than the most common repellant, DEET. But researchers aren’t sure how toxic it is on humans. So, it could be years before VUAA becomes a commercial product.
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