Intelegem: repelentii pentru uleiuri esentiale suna excelent. Cine nu ar vrea sa foloseasca un ulei natural de plante pentru a tine la distanta gandacii? Dar, dupa ce am analizat cercetarea si am discutat cu doi experti in tantari, am pus ferm uleiurile esentiale in categoria „nu cumparati”. Pur si simplu vorbind, nu exista nici o modalitate de a sti cat de eficiente sunt sau pentru cat timp. Daca va bazati pe ele, probabil ca va indreptati spre exterior cu un fals sentiment de securitate care va poate pune intr-un risc mai mare decat daca nu ati folosi absolut nimic.
In lumina unor boli precum Zika si Lyme, consecintele unui efect de respingere ineficient pot fi cumplite, deci aveti nevoie de una in care sa aveti incredere. Fiabilitatea unui agent de respingere incepe cu aprobarea EPA – o cerinta care dovedeste ca substanta de respingere a fost testata temeinic pentru a confirma ca este sigura si ca functioneaza in conformitate cu specificul producatorului. Uleiurile esentiale nu au o astfel de supraveghere standardizata, deci sunteti practic pe cont propriu.
De ce ar trebui sa ai incredere in noi
Pentru a afla mai multe despre specificul respingerii tantarilor, am vorbit cu Laurence Zwiebel, profesor de stiinte biologice si farmacologie la Universitatea Vanderbilt. Zwiebel studiaza comportamentul insectelor de aproape 40 de ani, concentrandu-se asupra tantarilor in ultimii 25 de ani si analizand in mod specific modul in care olfactia – simtul mirosului – determina comportamentul tantarilor.
Am corespondat si cu Leslie Vosshall, profesor de neurobiologie la Universitatea Rockefeller. Vosshall studiaza insectele de 30 de ani, concentrandu-se asupra tantarilor si al respingerii in ultimii 15 ani.
Am cercetat si am scris ghiduri pentru respingerea insectelor, echipamentele de control al tantarilor, swatters-urilor si controlului furnicilor. Prin acest proces, am petrecut cel putin 300 de ore analizand produse, testand echipamentele pentru erori, citind studii dense privind eficienta repulsivului si a pesticidelor si intervievand academicieni, producatori si oameni de stiinta de la EPA.
Ce sunt uleiurile esentiale?
Uleiurile esentiale sunt substante chimice extrase din plante care sunt, conform EPA (PDF), „responsabile pentru mirosul sau aroma distincta a plantei din care provin”. Va puteti gandi la ele ca la esenta distilata a plantei. Studiile asupra repelentilor de insecte pe baza de plante, cum ar fi acest rezumat dintr-o editie din 2011 a Malaria Journal, au aratat ca unele dintre aceste uleiuri pot respinge insectele in grade diferite. Cele mai strans asociate cu respingerea sunt uleiul de citronella, uleiul de eucalipt si uleiul de catnip, dar altele includ uleiul de cuisoare, paciuli, menta si muscata. Conform unei analize, „Peste 3.000 de EO [uleiuri esentiale] de la diferite plante au fost analizate pana in prezent si aproximativ 10% dintre acestea sunt disponibile comercial ca potentiali respingatori si insecticide.
Why essential oils’ lack of EPA oversight matters
Orice insectifug care contine DEET sau picaridina trebuie sa fie supus unor teste extinse si consistente in conformitate cu liniile directoare ale EPA privind testarea performantei produsului, al caror rezultat este o eticheta obligatorie din punct de vedere legal pe sticla. Aceasta eticheta include ingredientele, timpul de protectie, informatiile privind toxicitatea si instructiunile specifice de utilizare si eliminare. Testele va ofera o intelegere clara a substantei de respingere, precum si o asigurare subiacenta ca este sigura pentru utilizare la adulti, copii sau animale. EPA clasifica uleiurile esentiale drept „pesticide cu risc minim”, asa ca nu sunt supuse acestei testari. Fara aceasta, nu puteti confirma ce contine sticla, daca este sigur pentru utilizare sau cat de eficient este. Acest lucru lasa, de asemenea, usa deschisa pentru pretentii de marketing inselatoare. Dupa cum ne-a spus Zwiebel, „Sunt foarte ingrijorat de lipsa supravegherii reglementare si de capacitatea de a dezinforma sau, in unele cazuri, a dezinforma complet consumatorii. Exista o multime de haos pe teren. “
Gradul de implicare al APE in repelentii de uleiuri esentiale este minim. Agentia solicita producatorilor sa enumere ingredientele si nivelurile de concentratie ale acestora, sa nu existe declaratii inselatoare pe sticla si ca respingatorul „nu poate sustine pretentii de a controla daunatorii rozatoarelor, insectelor sau microbilor intr-un mod care leaga daunatorii cu orice anume boala. ” Cu alte cuvinte, o eticheta cu uleiuri esentiale poate spune ca substanta respinge tantarii si capusele, dar nu pot spune ca va va proteja de Lyme, Zika sau orice alta boala transmisa de vectori. Repelentii aprobati de EPA, cum ar fi cei care contin picaridina sau DEET, pot afirma in mod clar ca ofera protectie impotriva acestor boli. Diferenta mare acolo.
Un lucru pe care foarte putine etichete cu uleiuri esentiale il indica este cat de mult va dura repelenta – o informatie cruciala daca scopul dvs. este sa va protejati de insectele afectate de boli. Chiar si inarmat cu o cunoastere a uleiurilor esentiale si o intelegere a concentrarii lor intr-un agent de respingere, inca nu exista nicio modalitate de a sti ce fel de protectie ati putea primi (sau daca primiti deloc). Zwiebel a explicat: „Aceste uleiuri esentiale pot fi mai mult sau mai putin eficiente in functie de modul in care sunt preparate, cat de pure sau nu sunt pure”. El a continuat: „Chiar nu stii ce cumperi.”
Cu o supraveghere minima a APE, etichetarea cu uleiuri esentiale nu are garantia exactitatii sau a verificarii independente, ceea ce poate duce la declaratii inselatoare, lipsa de informatii si inconsistenta. Foto: Doug Mahoney
Pentru a fi corecti fata de producatorii de uleiuri esentiale, nu exista un proces clar pentru ca acestia sa castige insigna de legitimitate a EPA ca un remediu impotriva erorilor. Aceste uleiuri nu sunt clasificate ca pesticide, deci nu merita testarea conform protocoalelor EPA, care sunt standardul unic care judeca repelenta impotriva vectorilor de boala. In mod ironic, o mare parte din atractia uleiurilor esentiale – relativa lor siguranta – este exact ceea ce ii exclude de la aderarea la marile ligi ale repellentilor aprobati de EPA si este putin probabil sa se schimbe pana cand EPA nu isi revizuieste propriile standarde. Intre timp, putem continua doar stiinta disponibila si ca cercetarea ii determina pe majoritatea expertilor sa respinga uleiurile ca repellente nesigure pentru acelasi motiv pentru care descurajam oamenii sa le foloseasca: incertitudinea.
Because there’s no idea how effective an essential-oil repellent is, they offer little more than a placebo of security, and that can have severe consequences. Vosshall explained, “People think they are being protected from biting insects and ticks with these products and they are not protected.” She continued, “If these people are in areas where ticks are spreading Lyme and other related pathogens and mosquitoes are spreading Zika, malaria, dengue, yellow fever, west nile, and chikungunya they have the potential to be bitten and infected.” She told us that under no circumstances would she ever recommend an essential-oil repellent. Zwiebel also has little confidence in their effectiveness: “I certainly don’t buy any of those products,” he told us. An article in The New England Journal of Medicine, in a similar conclusion, notes, “Alternative ‘natural’ products generally fail to live up to their reputations for greater safety and effectiveness and offer their users a false sense of security.” Last, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends picaridin, DEET, or another EPA-regulated repellent. No essential-oil repellents make the CDC’s list. (Oil of lemon eucalyptus is a plant-based EPA-approved repellent but is not an essential oil, a distinction that both the CDC and the repellent summary from the Malaria Journal make.)
Regulations aside, they don’t work that well
Even if essential oils were subject to the EPA’s efficacy-testing guidelines, all indications are that they would fall short of repellents containing picaridin and DEET. www.webstyling3000.de
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Essential oils are just not that great at repelling mosquitoes and ticks.
A major problem is the fact that essential oils are very volatile, meaning they evaporate quickly. In 2002, researchers tested seven essential-oil repellents against DEET, publishing the results in The New England Journal of Medicine. Aside from a soybean-based repellent that offered 95 minutes of protection, “all other botanical repellents we tested provided protection for a mean duration of less than 20 minutes.” A 2005 study published in the journal Phytotherapy Research compared the repellency of 38 essential oils and found that none of them, even when applied at the very high concentrations of 10 percent and 50 percent, prevented mosquito bites for up to two hours. (You can expect even less of the repellents we looked at, which had multiple oils with a concentration of roughly 1 to 4 percent.) Another study, this one published in BioMed Research International, states that “insect repellents with citronella oil as the major component need to be reapplied every 20–60 minutes.”
And even when freshly applied, they’re not as strong as picaridin or DEET. Zwiebel, the olfactory expert, explained that a mosquito interprets the world through multiple, sometimes hundreds, of chemical receptors. He likened these receptors to the giant cluster of microphones facing a politician at a podium. The majority of these receptors are tuned to odors, but others sense taste, heat, and humidity. Depending on the species, there can be a lot of them, “hundreds, in some cases.” According to Zwiebel, Anopheles gambiae, the mosquito that carries malaria, has “79 odor receptors, 34 ionotropic receptors, a host of gustatory receptors, heat receptors, humidity receptors.” Through these varied lenses, Zwiebel explained, the smell of a human “is not just one odor, it’s not just one molecule.” He continued, “There’s actually many, many molecules that activate a whole range of receptors.”
Repellents work by blocking these receptors so a mosquito or tick can’t find you. Essential oils, as Zwiebel explained, “only block a small, discrete number of receptors.” What makes things even trickier is that receptors are different even between closely related species; Zwiebel said he wasn’t convinced that an essential oil that might work for one species would work across a range of others. Repellents such as picaridin and DEET, on the other hand, block a much wider number of receptors on a more consistent basis, as research like Vosshall’s confirms. This offers repellency across many species.
Given what’s at stake with tick and mosquito bites, we recommend using a repellent with a 20 percent concentration of the active ingredient picaridin, supplemented with a permethrin-based repellent used at least on your shoes for tick protection. Both are EPA approved, and their labeling offers specific instructions on the ingredients, the application, and the duration of effectiveness. If you choose to use DEET, which we also endorse, we prefer a 25 percent concentration. After our full review of essential-oil repellents, we agree with the authors of the 2011 study from Malaria Journal, who write that with essential oils, “[t]here is a need for further standardized studies in order to better evaluate repellent compounds and develop new products that offer high repellency as well as good consumer safety.”
Essential oils we tried and would not recommend
We tried out six popular essential-oil repellents, and with all of them it was impossible to know how much repellency to expect, and for how long. Testing them also gave us insight into another potential drawback (or a positive, depending on your tastes): They have extremely strong odors. As Zwiebel put it, “you end up smelling like a rotten fruit basket.” We much prefer the nearly odorless picaridin formulas that we’ve tested. Mosquitoes aren’t the only ones who rely on olfactory cues when deciding who to hang out with.
DoTerra’s TerraShield takes ambiguous labeling to a new level. The words “bug,” “insect,” and “repellent” are oddly absent from the marketing material and the label. Instead, you can find vague references to “outdoor protection” and “environmental annoyances.” There is no indication of how much to apply, how often, or even if the substance is a repellent at all (we’ve reached out to DoTerra for comment). Customer reviews tell a different story: Nearly all of them describe its efficacy against mosquitoes and other insects, and at least one says, “I would recommend this to anyone looking for a DEET alternative.”
US Organic Anti Bug Spray, Sky Organics Organic Bug Spray, and Nantucket Spider’s Natural Deet-free Bug Repellent have all gone through independent lab testing, but there is still no official recommendation on how often each one should be applied for full coverage from mosquitoes and ticks. US Organic’s testing demonstrates a repellency lasting at least four hours, but the testing protocols are very different from the EPA’s, so it’s impossible to know how the spray would function under the same circumstances that picaridin and DEET are tested under. In other words, that “four hours” is not necessarily the same as the “four hours” indicated on an EPA-approved label. The US Organic and Sky Organics repellents both have high concentrations of soybean oil (40 percent and 23 percent, respectively), which proved to be somewhat effective in the 2002 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, but there are other studies that disagree.
The Amazon page for Mexitan’s Skedattle All Natural Anti-Bug Spray states that the formula is “16 TIMES AS EFFECTIVE as DEET bug repellents.” What does that even mean? That it lasts 16 times as long? That it blocks 16 times the number of receptors? It’s likely we’ll never know. We reached out to the company multiple times via email and did not get a response.
Shabby Chick Insect Repellent is the most interesting example of what can happen with no regulatory oversight. The repellent contains catnip oil, and the company’s product page states, “Catnip has been proven to be 10x more effective than DEET! No lie!” This is an alluring statement, but our research turned up only one study (PDF) making a similar claim—and, when put in context, it paints a very different picture. First, that study was about spatial repellency not contact repellency, so, as it states, it did “not involve any attractant or host.” Another study did evaluate the contact repellency of catnip oil and found that DEET was more effective. Second, the catnip oil was 10 times as strong as DEET in equal concentrations. We recommend a 25 percent concentration of DEET, yet the Shabby Chick labeling has no indication of how much catnip oil is in its formula. In fact, catnip oil isn’t even listed in the active ingredients. It’s one of the inert ingredients (the only active ingredient is 1 percent cedarwood oil).
In 2020 research, we came across Greenerways Organic Insect Repellent. Like the others it doesn’t have EPA certification, so there is no way to tell how effective it will be against ticks and mosquitoes.
