A new study has found that Victoria’s Secret ‘Bombshell’ perfume actually doubles as a bug repellant.
In order to find the most effective mosquito repellants, a group of scientists conducted an experiment at New Mexico State’s Molecular Vector Physiology Lab.
10 different substances were tested, including campout standbys like DEET, as well as a random choice: Victoria’s Secret perfume Bombshell.
It turns out that the perfume is almost as good as DEET.
Researcher Stacy Rodriguez included perfume in the research partly to dispel a myth about flowery perfume. In a statement, she said:
“There was some previous literature that said fruity, floral scents attracted mosquitoes, and to not wear those. It was interesting to see that the mosquitoes weren’t actually attracted to the person that was wearing the Victoria’s Secret perfume – they were repelled by it.”
Rodriguez and her colleagues describe their experiments this week in The Journal of Insect Science.
To test the repellents, they put two different species of mosquitoes in a holding chamber at the bottom of a Y-shaped tube.
One prong of the Y led to a researcher’s untreated hand, an the other led to a hand that had been coated with one of the repellents.
When the mosquitoes were unleashed from their cage, they could choose to fly toward the treated or untreated hands.
If a lot of mosquitos flew toward the treated hand, the repellent wasn’t actually repelling anything.
So the researchers counted how many mosquitoes picked the hands with treatments on them, and measured this attraction accordingly. They also took measurements over time, to see which repellent was still working after several hours.
Repellents that contained DEET were the most effective, and the more DEET they contained, the longer they lasted.
Below is a table showing the percentage of mosquitoes that were attracted to the treated hands (about 61% were attracted to the untreated hand, the control).
People wearing one of the “natural alternative” mosquito skin patches made with vitamin B actually attracted more mosquitoes than the control.
The big surprise, as Rodriguez stated, was that the Victoria’s Secret Bombshell perfume was almost as effective as the DEET- laced repellants (attracting only 17% of mosquitoes), and stays effective for 120 minutes.
Apparently, Victoria’s Secret perfume may not actually attract everyone.
So if you want to keep mosquitoes away, wear DEET – or really fruity, flowery perfume like Bombshell.
[Featured Image Credit: popsugar/Victoria’s Secret]