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Behavioural mode of action of deet: inhibition of lactic acid attraction
Author(s) -
Dogan E. B.,
Ayres J. W.,
Rossignol P. A.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
medical and veterinary entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.028
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1365-2915
pISSN - 0269-283X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2915.1999.00145.x
Subject(s) - deet , olfactometer , attraction , biology , lactic acid , aedes aegypti , host (biology) , microbiology and biotechnology , toxicology , bacteria , botany , ecology , larva , linguistics , philosophy , genetics
Summary Using the mosquito Aedes aegypti in a novel olfactometer that measures movement towards and away from a stimulus, we could not confirm that ‘deet’ is a repellent of mosquitoes. In the absence of a host, deet was an attractant and in the presence of a host, it was an inhibitor of attraction. This inhibition occurred in the gaseous phase and was therefore not the result of the physical properties of deet. We determined that l ‐lactic acid, a component of human sweat that is an attractant to mosquitoes, is the target of this inhibition, implying that lactic acid may be a bottleneck in the behavioural cascade preceding blood‐sucking.