{"title":"Why do repellents repel?","authors":"Claudio R Lazzari","doi":"10.1016/j.cois.2024.101277","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Repellents are used by humans and by animals to protect themselves from bites, and they contribute controlling the transmission of vector-borne diseases. There are numerous chemical formulations of both natural and synthetic origins, as well as electronic devices, that are commercially available worldwide alleged to provide personal protection against insect bites. Not all insect repellents are effective enough to provide real protection, nor are they considered safe for humans, animals or the environment. There is an urgent need to find novel, nontoxic and environmentally friendly alternatives. However, current efforts in this direction face a major obstacle: our understanding of how they keep away mosquitoes and other biting arthropods remains incomplete. This is also true for DEET, the ‘gold standard’ of repellents and the most widely used since its discovery in the 1940s. This article aims to guide the search for new repellents by discussing our current knowledge and future needs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11038,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in insect science","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 101277"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Current opinion in insect science","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214574524001196","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Repellents are used by humans and by animals to protect themselves from bites, and they contribute controlling the transmission of vector-borne diseases. There are numerous chemical formulations of both natural and synthetic origins, as well as electronic devices, that are commercially available worldwide alleged to provide personal protection against insect bites. Not all insect repellents are effective enough to provide real protection, nor are they considered safe for humans, animals or the environment. There is an urgent need to find novel, nontoxic and environmentally friendly alternatives. However, current efforts in this direction face a major obstacle: our understanding of how they keep away mosquitoes and other biting arthropods remains incomplete. This is also true for DEET, the ‘gold standard’ of repellents and the most widely used since its discovery in the 1940s. This article aims to guide the search for new repellents by discussing our current knowledge and future needs.
期刊介绍:
Current Opinion in Insect Science is a new systematic review journal that aims to provide specialists with a unique and educational platform to keep up–to–date with the expanding volume of information published in the field of Insect Science. As this is such a broad discipline, we have determined themed sections each of which is reviewed once a year.
The following 11 areas are covered by Current Opinion in Insect Science.
-Ecology
-Insect genomics
-Global Change Biology
-Molecular Physiology (Including Immunity)
-Pests and Resistance
-Parasites, Parasitoids and Biological Control
-Behavioural Ecology
-Development and Regulation
-Social Insects
-Neuroscience
-Vectors and Medical and Veterinary Entomology
There is also a section that changes every year to reflect hot topics in the field.
Section Editors, who are major authorities in their area, are appointed by the Editors of the journal. They divide their section into a number of topics, ensuring that the field is comprehensively covered and that all issues of current importance are emphasized. Section Editors commission articles from leading scientists on each topic that they have selected and the commissioned authors write short review articles in which they present recent developments in their subject, emphasizing the aspects that, in their opinion, are most important. In addition, they provide short annotations to the papers that they consider to be most interesting from all those published in their topic over the previous year.