Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit
OutOfHere | on: Associative learning turns DEET from aversive to appetitive in Aedes aegypti
I hope these mosquitoes were not released in the wild.

The simple answer would be to add a natural strongly repellent gentle oil to the DEET spray.

Foobar8568 | parent | next
A couple years back, I spray some DEET on my shoes, 5 seconds later, a tiger mosquito tried to bite me on that spot (and yes on the shoe itself, just insane to see it trying ).

They already loved that shit.

loading story #48346601
cbdevidal | parent | next
Spray made from lemon eucalyptus works[1]. Not as well as DEET, but it works.

[1] https://www.consumerreports.org/health/insect-repellent/oil-...

loading story #48347751
cbdevidal | root | parent
I don’t understand why sharing an objective study with good news would be downvoted, someone please explain?

I’m not saying you have to use it; it’s good news for people who have concerns about other chemicals. It works—less effectively, but it works.

“Repellants containing (..) oil of lemon eucalyptus have also been found to be effective.”[1]

[1] Iowa Department of Health, “Controlling Spread of West Nile Virus“ https://hhs.iowa.gov/health-prevention/providers-professiona...

OutOfHere | root | parent
I have seen the same behavior on this site. Insightful information gets downvoted to -2, and useless comments that merely "feel good" get upvoted to +8.

I think the theory is that each post identifies with a certain topic, e.g. DEET, which identifies with a cultish subset of users surrounding that topic. There is no broad academic curiosity among the cult's members, and they suppress all competing topics as to them they represent other cults.

loading story #48346542
alwa | parent | next
And remove the DEET from it, apparently… at least until it loses its appetitive charge.

Until, of course, they learn to like the replacement oil. At which point, break back out the DEET!

plmpsu | parent | next
Yeah, I would not be surprised if this learned behavior is passed on epigenetically. This is almost like gain of function research potentially.
AyyEye | parent
At that point just skip the deet.