ReviewFly2015
The mysterious multi-modal repellency of DEET.
Review in Fly, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 94 citations in OpenAlex.
- Transcriptional responses of Aedes aegypti chemosensory tissues in response to volatile DEET and citronella oil.Insect molecular biology · 2026Article
- Multimodal targets of (-)-α-thujone mediating avoidance behavior of a stored-products pest, Tribolium castaneum, in response to irritant stimuli.Pest management science · 2026Article
- Article
- Evolutionarily entrenched odorant receptors for (iScience · 2026Article
- Integrated strategies for mosquito-borne disease control: a comprehensive review with emphasis on repellents and China's practices.Parasites & vectors · 2026Review
- Reducing Close Encounters with Insect Pests and Vectors: The Past, Present and Future of Insect Repellents.Insects · 2026Review
- Article
- In the arm-in-cage test, topical repellents activate mosquitoes to disengage upon contact instead of repelling them at distance.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Mosquitoes do not Like Bitter.Journal of chemical ecology · 2024Article
- A critical review of current laboratory methods used to evaluate mosquito repellents.Frontiers in insect science · 2024Review
- Arthropod repellent interactions with olfactory receptors and ionotropic receptors analyzed by molecular modeling.Current research in insect science · 2024Article
- Combinatorial encoding of odors in the mosquito antennal lobe.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Poly(oxyethylene)/Poly(oxypropylene) butyl ether prolongs the repellent effect of N,N-diethyl-3-toluamide on the skin.PloS one · 2023Article
- Avoidance of thiazoline compound depends on multiple sensory pathways mediated by TrpA1 and ORs inFrontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2023Article
- TRPA1-mediated repellency behavior in the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Carbon dioxide and blood-feeding shift visual cue tracking during navigation inBiology letters · 2022Article
- Mosquito Repellents: Efficacy Tests of Commercial Skin-Applied Products in China.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- In Search of Synergistic Insect Repellents: Modeling of Muscarinic GPCR Interactions with Classical and Bitopic Photoactive Ligands.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
DEET is the most effective insect repellent available and has been widely used for more than half a century. Here, I review what is known about the olfactory and contact mechanisms of DEET repellency. For mosquitoes, DEET has at least two molecular targets: Odorant Receptors (ORs) mediate the effect of DEET at a distance, while unknown chemoreceptors mediate repellency upon contact. Additionally, the ionotropic receptor Ir40a has recently been identified as a putative DEET chemosensor in Drosophila. The mechanism of how DEET manipulates these molecular targets to induce insect avoidance in the vapor phase is also contested. Two hypotheses are the most likely: DEET activates an innate olfactory neural circuit leading to avoidance of hosts (smell and avoid hypothesis) or DEET has no behavioral effect on its own, but instead acts cooperatively with host odors to drive repellency (confusant hypothesis). Resolving this mystery will inform the search for a new generation of insect repellents.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.