Plant-based Mosquito Repellents Getting (Rid of) A Lot of Buzz

Mosquitoes are well-known carriers for many disease-causing viruses and parasites. Over the years, widespread application of synthetic pesticides caused certain mosquito populations to develop resistance, posing a threat to infectious disease prevention and control efforts.

Some plants such as lavender have mosquito-repeling compounds that are often hard to extract. In a report from ACS annual meeting, Joel Coats, an environmental toxicologist and pesticide expert, and his team at Iowa State University showed that they not only found ways to extract natural essential oils that fight off mosquitos, but also methods to chemically modify these compounds to make environment-friendly, long-lasting repellents.

Source: ACS via Youtube