Safe, Effective "Natural" Insect Repellent - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), June, 2000

PEST CONTROL

After 15 years of tests on more than 3,900 compounds, Jerry Butler, an entomologist with the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Gainesville, has developed a safe, natural insect repellent that can protect people against everything from mosquitoes and ticks to tiny no-see-ums. "It's the first effective alternative to products containing DEET [N,N-diethylmeta-toluamide], the most widely used active ingredient in insect repellents now on the market. After relying on DEET-based products for more than 40 years, this is a breakthrough that should revolutionize the market." The new repellent is a "green" product because it is an oil extracted from plants that have a natural ability to protect themselves against feeding insects.

The active ingredient in Butler's herbal repellent is geraniol, derived from lemon grass and other plants. The repellent has been labeled "generally regarded as safe" by the Environmental Protection Agency. Applied to the skin, it provides almost four hours of protection against a wide range of insects that bite, including flies, mosquitoes, fire ants, ticks, and midges, often called no-see-ums.

Safety concerns over DEET prompted Butler's search for natural, nonchemical alternatives. Toxicity problems, particularly for children and some adults, have forced manufacturers to reduce the amount of DEET in various products to seven percent from 100% during the past 15 years. However, higher rates of DEET (31.58%) are still used in military applications. As levels in consumer products have gone down, the effectiveness and longevity of DEET-based products also have been reduced. Currently, there are more than 60 DEET-based repellents on the market.

Butler points out that DEET is effective against mosquitoes for four to eight hours, but is not as effective against ticks, fire ants, and biting flies. A separate insecticide is needed to control ticks, and it can be applied only to clothing--not to skin. He says his natural repellent can be applied directly to skin as a treatment against ticks. This reduces their chances of biting and feeding long enough to transmit disease. Lyme disease is carried by the common black-legged tick, while the lonestar tick (with a bright star on it) transmits a disease called granulocytic ehrlichiosis. Rocky Mountain spotted fever is transmitted by the American dog tick.