Bacteria In Worms Make A Mosquito Repellent That Might Beat DEET
The next great insect repellent might come from a strain of bacteria that lives inside a common parasitic worm.
A study published Wednesday in Science Advances has found that a compound derived from these bacteria is three times more potent than DEET in repelling mosquitoes. More research must be done to demonstrate its safety, but this bacterial chemical could play an important role in the fight against mosquito-borne illness.
, a professor of entomology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who oversaw the study, explains that the project started in the lab of her late colleague, . She and her student Il-Hwan Kim were studying bacteria, which lives inside the tiny roundworms called nematodes. These nematodes parasitize insects in the soil, sneaking into their bodies and releasing hordes of , which soon kill the insect. Then, without the insect's immune system to contend with, the nematodes devour the carcass and multiply.
