Mosquito repellent activities of citrus fruit peels

Abstract

Mosquitoes are accountable for the spread of numerous diseases like malaria, Dengue, Zika, Yellow fever, Chikungunya etc. among human beings. The best way to limit mosquito contact is to use personal protection and insect repellents. The majority of chemical repellents however, is unhealthy for people and can have negative effects on their skin in addition to other health-related issues. As a remedy, mosquito repellents from natural sources may not create any such kind of harm and could be a better alternative to synthetic repellents. Hence, natural repellents are preferable to chemical ones. Therefore, this study was designed to utilize an olfactometer to examine mosquito vector behaviour in response to fresh citrus fruit peel extracts. The statistical analysis showed that there were significant differences in mosquito repellency of three citrus peel extracts against the four mosquito species tested (F = 3.1668, df- 3, p