Repelling Bugs With The Essence Of Grapefruit

If you have the fortune of living in a hot country, you will probably be grateful of this news.

It seems that people these days are not wearing repellents as much.

"They don't like the odor they have, they don't like the greasy feel they give. And a lot of people are just concerned about putting man-made chemicals on their skin."

He then goes on to talk about a chemical called nootkatone, which is found in Alaska yellow cedar trees and citrus fruit.

Dolan says nootkatone "is nongreasy, dries very quickly, and it has a very pleasant, citrus-y grapefruit odor to it."

He recently demonstrated its effectiveness as a mosquito repellent, rubbing some on his hand and then sticking it into a cage containing 50 hungry mosquitoes. When he holds the treated hand near mosquitoes, they try to get away in the opposite direction as fast as they can.

Even after five minutes, Dolan has no bites on his nootkatone-treated hand.

It will also work against other biting insects such as ticks and lice

But that's not all — it turns out that nootkatone could be both a repellent and an environmentally friendly pesticide. That's because it doesn't just repel bugs — it kills them.

Repelling malaria and getting one of your five a day, not a bad discovery really.

Repelling Bugs With The Essence Of Grapefruit