I should plant some catnip around my house... more cats, less mosquitos? Win win

The trial compared the catnip lotion against 15% DEET, so it's unknown how it compares against stronger formulas. However this is quite promising and I hope further studies are conducted globally! Catnip, as a member of the mint family, is quite a fast-growing, hardy plant, and could easily replace DEET for both home and commercial products if it continues to prove effective.

Repels mosquitos. Pumas, panthers, leopards, etc...not so much.

Funny enough, that's a leading theory of why attraction to and the desire to roll around in catnip by felines was selected for.

We found that lotions containing both concentrations of catnip essential oil were highly effective at preventing mosquito landing, with 6% catnip oil performing as well as 15% DEET.

With one drawback.

https://i.ibb.co/hhhzw19/bills-ugh.gif

In a study presented at the Society for Experimental Biology conference in Florence on Tuesday, a team working between Uganda and Wales found mosquitoes seeking a blood meal were less likely to land on people wearing lotions made from catnip.

Dr Simon Scofield, a senior lecturer at Cardiff University, said: “We found that a 6% catnip oil was just as effective as Deet, and the 2% catnip oil was only marginally less effective than that.

Do you get to keep all the cats that follow you home?