Hydrophobic solution functions as a multifaceted mosquito repellent by enhancing chemical transfer, altering object tracking, and forming aversive memory

Hydrophobic solution functions as a multifaceted mosquito repellent by enhancing chemical transfer, altering object tracking, and forming aversive memory

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Abstract Developing a safe and potent repellent of mosquitoes applicable to human skins is an effective measure against the spread of mosquito-borne diseases.Recently, we have identified that hydrophobic solutions such as low viscosity polydimethylsiloxane (L-PDMS) spread on a human skin click here prevent mosquitoes from staying on and biting it.This is likely due to the ability of L-PDMS in wetting mosquito legs and exerting a capillary force from which the mosquitoes attempt to escape.Here we show three additional functions of L-PDMS that can contribute to repel Aedes albopictus, by combining physicochemical analysis and behavioral assays in both an arm cage and a virtual flight arena.First, L-PDMS, when mixed with topical repellents and applied on a human skin, enhances the effect of topical repellents in reducing mosquito bites by efficiently transferring them to mosquito legs upon contact.

Second, L-PDMS applied to mosquito tarsi compromises visual object tracking during flight, exerting an influence outlasting the contact.Finally, L-PDMS applied to mosquito tarsi acts as an aversive reinforcer in associative learning, making mosquitoes avoid the conditioned odor.These results uncover a multifaceted moen rothbury faucet potential of L-PDMS in altering a sequence of mosquito behaviors from biting a human skin, visual object tracking following takeoff, to the response to an odor linked with L-PDMS.