Researchers at Iowa State University have found that an oil that gives the catnip its odor also repels mosquitoes better than DEET, a standard repelling chemical.
Last year he same group of researchers found the same oil repels cockroaches.
The lead researchers on the project are entomologist Chris Peterson and Joel Coates. Peterson, a former post-doctoral research associate at Iowa State, now works with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Wood Product Insects Research Unit in Starkville, Miss.
Peterson put 20 mosquitoes in glass tubes, and injected a solution containing 1 percent of the catnip oil. After 10 minutes, only about four mosquitoes survived.
The reasons behind catnip’s effect is yet unknown. According to Peterson, it might act as a simple irritant, or the mosquitoes may simply not like the smell.
Although testing the oil on people or other animals is not scheduled, if the oil proves to be harmless to other animals, Peterson claims the oil is so simple to distill out of the plant, it could be done in any high school biology lab. Funding for animal and human testing is pending.
