A fragrance considered fine enough for perfume by human noses is apparently rather offensive to certain species of ticks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently reported.
Pleasant-smelling dedarwood oil is used in personal products such as perfume, soap and deodorant. Cedarwood oil also is an effective anti-fungal and insect-repellent, and researchers are finding it can be as effective as DEET at deterring ticks, the USDA reported Feb. 15.
"Ticks aren't insects, but they too are repelled by cedarwood oil," the USDA states in the report, citing recently published findings by scientists with the agency's Agricultural Research Service (ARS). Many species of ticks transmit disease when they attach to a host for a blood meal, the report states, including Lyme disease and Alpha-Gal Syndrome.
ARS researchers at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, Ill., tested cedarwood oil's ability to repel five species of hard-body ticks and compared the results to common synthetic insecticides such as DEET.
Filter paper, treated with various microgram amounts of cedarwood oil and attached to short vertical rods, repelled 80 to 94 percent of ticks that crawled up the rods and contacted the treated paper, the USDA reports, meaning the ticks "retreated, moved more slowly or dropped off the rods," the report states.
Cedarwood oil was most effective in the first 30 minutes of application, repelling 94 percent of ticks, but efficacy reduced to 80 percent after 60 minutes, the USDA reports. DEET was more effective than the oil in repelling all tick species except black-legged tick nymphs. Against them, the oil was as effective as DEET, according to the report.
"Results such as these are important considerations in formulating the oil as a repellent product," the USDA states, "that can be applied to bare skin or clothing, for example."
Cedarwood oil, derived from Eastern red cedar and other juniper tree species, is among a variety of natural products being tested as potentially safe, sustainable alternatives to traditional pesticides derived from petroleum, such as DEET, the USDA states.
Full details of the study were published in Experimental and Applied Acarology, the USDA reports.
