Overview
- The study, published Thursday in the Journal of Experimental Biology, trained lab-bred Aedes aegypti to associate the smell of DEET with a food reward using repeated Pavlovian-style conditioning.
- After several training rounds, more than 60 percent of trained mosquitoes attempted to feed when exposed to DEET odor alone and preferred a DEET-treated hand over an untreated one in choice tests.
- Researchers replicated the result using both blood and sugar rewards, showing the learned attraction is a behavioral change in how mosquitoes interpret chemical cues, not a single-food effect.
- Authors and outside experts stress the experiments were done under tightly controlled lab conditions with long-established lab strains and mesh barriers, so the real-world relevance to wild mosquitoes and typical DEET use remains uncertain.
- Public-health guidance unchanged: DEET is still the gold-standard repellent, and the study underlines the value of following label directions on concentration and reapplication while prompting follow-up work on memory duration, other species, and field tests.