shadowsource
A Flash In The Pain
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2001
- Posts
- 1,664
WHO KNEW? A New Use for Catnip:
A potential way to keep away bugs may make you very popular with your kitty. Researchers at Iowa State University reported at a meeting of the American Chemical Society last month that an oil found in catnip is 10 times as effective at repelling mosquitoes as DEET, the active ingredient in most commercial insect repellents. Using a glass tube two feet long to house the bugs, two entomologists, Chris Peterson and Joel Coats, tested whether yellow-fever mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti, stayed near nepectalone, an oil from catnip that the researchers added to one end of the tube. After 10 minutes, only 20 to 25 percent of the insects stayed at the end of the tube with the catnip compound, depending on the dose. Ten times as much DEET, by comparison, would be required for the same effect. Mr. Peterson says catnip should repel any of the 200 species of mosquitoes found in the United States. He is optimistic about animal and human tests of the natural compound as an insect repellent, and the Iowa State University Research Foundation has submitted a patent application. Snowball has always known the benefits of catnip, but human ingenuity may make it an even hotter commodity. ***
A potential way to keep away bugs may make you very popular with your kitty. Researchers at Iowa State University reported at a meeting of the American Chemical Society last month that an oil found in catnip is 10 times as effective at repelling mosquitoes as DEET, the active ingredient in most commercial insect repellents. Using a glass tube two feet long to house the bugs, two entomologists, Chris Peterson and Joel Coats, tested whether yellow-fever mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti, stayed near nepectalone, an oil from catnip that the researchers added to one end of the tube. After 10 minutes, only 20 to 25 percent of the insects stayed at the end of the tube with the catnip compound, depending on the dose. Ten times as much DEET, by comparison, would be required for the same effect. Mr. Peterson says catnip should repel any of the 200 species of mosquitoes found in the United States. He is optimistic about animal and human tests of the natural compound as an insect repellent, and the Iowa State University Research Foundation has submitted a patent application. Snowball has always known the benefits of catnip, but human ingenuity may make it an even hotter commodity. ***
