DEET products are the most commonly based insect repellants and are the most effective against mosquitoes. Recent studies have shown that this happens because the little insects just don’t like the smell of this chemical. The study was released by Davis at the University of California.

Before this research people used to believe that DEET makes the mosquitoes lose their sense of smell and their ability to target a person, because the sprays based on this chemical makes them dizzy.

"We found that mosquitoes can smell DEET, and they stay away from it. DEET doesn't mask the smell of the host or jam the insect's senses. Mosquitoes don't like it, because it smells bad to them," researchers said.

The researchers also said that they set up sugar-feeding stations with no smell and also some that contained DEET. That was how they found out that the DEET repelled mosquitoes that sometimes can transmit the West Nile virus.

The DEET was first introduced in the United States in the 1940s as the most powerful chemical against mosquito’s bites. About 200 million people all around the world use repellants based on DEET as to protect themselves against these insects that could carry a lot of diseases.

The new study shows that putting DEET repellents on the skin could make the skin less attractive for mosquitoes. We should also know that only female mosquitoes suck blood for food as long as both female and male mosquitoes eat nectar.

The study was published in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on August 18.