New Possible Bug Dopes

Recent studies have shown that not only do insects hate the smell of DEET; they also hate its taste. “DEET, the main component in popular insect repellents, has been warding off mosquitoes for about 50 years now. It works presumably through its smell, but exactly how it repels insects has remained unclear,” says Craig Montell of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. The studies that these people did did not include mosquitoes, but rather fruit flies. Fruit flies were being tested to see if they could not only smell the substance, but also taste it. The results of one of the studies showed that not only the flies with smelling receptors kept away from the DEET-laced sugar water, but also the flies without smelling receptors too. As more and more studies came, they realized that three specific taste receptors reacted to the bitter taste of DEET. Once these taste receptors were gone, the bugs were not afraid of DEET. Even though that these studies were done on fruit flies, scientists still think that the taste and smell also apply to mosquitoes, ticks, or fleas.

This article relates to science concepts because the scientists are trying to find out what makes DEET such a good repellent to insects. It involves the proteins and receptors of the insects that react to the DEET. Also, scientists are trying to find out how to improve DEET so that the new repellent can have a higher effectiveness, less toxicity, and more environmental friendliness. “The research hopefully points more and more toward a new horizon for replacements for things like DEET that will have higher effectiveness, lower toxicity and more environmental friendliness,” says molecular neuroscientist Laurence Zwiebel of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. This also relates to biology concepts because it involves the interactions between us humans and them insects.

This article was written because if scientists can fully understand what makes these repellents work so well, then it would reduce diseases around the world. “Knowing exactly how DEET and citronellal are repulsive to bugs could allow researchers to uncover better repellents that trigger the same reaction”, Montell says. This would allow doctors to come up with more repellants. Also less people would die from diseases such as malaria.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/62572/title/How_to_bug_bugs