According to scientists in the U.S. the reason why the insect repellent DEET works so well is because mosquitoes don't like the smell.
DEET (Diethyl-meta-toluamide) is the most common active ingredient in insect repellents and is meant to be applied to the skin or to clothing.
It is also used to protect against tick bites which transmit Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases and mosquitoes which transmit dengue fever, West Nile virus, Eastern Equine Encephalitis and malaria.
DEET was developed by the United States Army during World War II and this latest research lays waste to the theory that DEET works by blocking the insect's ability to detect lactic acid from people, which draws mosquitoes to their victims.
In new study by researchers at University of California Davis, it has been revealed that mosquitoes have a sense of smell located on their antennae and when they smell DEET they avoid it.
Dr. Walter Leal, a professor of entomology at the University of California Davis, says DEET doesn't mask the smell of the host or jam the insect's senses - mosquitoes just don't like it because it smells bad to them and they stay away from it.
For the study Dr. Leal and his team first identified a specific smelling neuron from mosquito antennae that was sensitive to DEET and also tested mosquitoes with "sugar stations" sprayed with and without DEET.
Both male and female mosquitoes eat nectar, but only the females suck blood for food but both stayed away from the DEET areas.