Mosquitoes hate Victoria’s Secret Perfume Bombshell according to a team of researchers involved in a study concerning effective bug repellants. The perfume was tested by the team along with ten other substances in order to find the most efficient insect repellant. The Bombshell perfume was a random choice for the testing but was found to contain a substance called deithyltoluamide or DEET, which acts as an efficient insect repellant.
The perfume was initially included in the test by one of the University of Mexico researchers conducting the study, Stacy Rodriguez, who wanted to test a myth that floral scented perfumes usually attract insects. She has stated that previous studies have also discouraged people from choosing to use floral and fruity scents because of the same supposed reason. But while Bombshell has floral hints and is relatively sweet as far as perfumes go, it didn’t attract mosquitoes at all during the tests.
On the contrary, the perfume was found to be surprisingly efficient at repelling the insects, even compared to other repellants which contain DEET. It was almost as good at repelling mosquitoes as the actual insect repellants were, lasting more than 120 minutes and attracting only 17 percent of the mosquitoes.
The researchers at New Mexico State’s Molecular Vector Physiology Lab placed two different species of mosquitoes into a holding chamber placed at the end of a Y shaped tube set up on top of it. Researchers placed two of their hands into the chamber, one through each of the tube’s extensions. One of the hands was left untreated while the other hand was coated with one of the repellant substances tested before being placed in the tube.
When the mosquitoes were placed into the chamber it was found that they chose to fly towards both the treated and untreated hands at random. After counting the number of mosquitoes that picked the treated hands, researchers were able to determine which repellants were more effective and how long the effects of each of the tested substances lasted.
Their findings showed that repellants which contained DEET were the most efficient and lasted longer than similar products which did not contain the substance. The Bombshell perfume proved to be almost as effective as actual insect repellants that contained DEET, which came as a big surprise to the team conducting the study.
Its efficacy in repelling mosquitoes has definitely debunked the myth that floral perfumes attract insects since Bombshell is classified as a fragrance with floral and fruity hints and is quite sweet.
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