Study summary
Laboratory Evaluation of Mosquito Repellents Against Aedes albopictus, Culex nigripalpus, and Ochlerotatus triseriatus
Barnard DR, Xue RD
Read the original paper- Study type
- Lab
- Year
- 2004
- Species tested
- Aedes albopictus, Culex nigripalpus, Ochlerotatus triseriatus
- Published in
- Journal of Medical Entomology 41(4):726–730
- Evidence strength
- Limited evidence
How it was tested
Products were applied to volunteers' forearms and checked at intervals for an estimated mean protection time, averaged across the three species.
Summary
A lab screen putting 12 commercial repellents, four synthetic and eight botanical, on the same scale against three mosquito species, useful because it tests a 25% geraniol product and DEET side by side.
Key findings
The products split cleanly into a strong tier lasting about 7.2 to 7.6 hours (10% picaridin, 2% soybean-oil Bite Blocker, 26% PMD, and 15% DEET) and a weak tier of 0.9 to 4.8 hours that included the 25% geraniol product in a mineral-oil base, 7% DEET, and 10% citronella. Notably, the high-concentration geraniol product did not beat the top DEET product, most likely because its mineral-oil base released the active poorly.
Limitations
The abstract reports only the two grouped ranges rather than verified per-product times, and sample sizes are not confirmed.