Repellent efficacy of 20 essential oils on Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and Ixodes scapularis ticks in contact-repellency assays

Cases of mosquito- and tick-borne diseases are rising worldwide. Repellent products can protect individual users from being infected by such diseases. In a previous study, we identified five essential oils that display long-distance mosquito repellency using a Y-tube olfactometer assay. In the current study, the contact repellent efficacy of 20 active ingredients from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Minimum Risk Pesticides list were tested using Aedes aegypti and Ixodes scapularis . We utilized an arm-in-cage assay to measure complete protection time from mosquito bites for these active ingredients. To measure tick repellency, we used an EPA-recommended procedure to measure the complete protection time from tick crossings. We found that of the 20 ingredients tested, 10% v/v lotion emulsions with clove oil or cinnamon oil provided the longest protection from both mosquito bites and tick crossings. We conclude that in a 10% v/v emulsion, specific active ingredients from the EPA Minimum Risk Pesticides list can provide complete protection from mosquito bites and tick crossings for longer than one hour.