For those of you who were curious as to how DEET-based insect repellants work, the results of a recently completed study featured in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences should be quite interesting.

A team of researchers of the University of California, Davis has found that DEET is so effective with mosquitoes because the insects simply dislike the smell. The generally accepted theory up to this point has been that DEET interfered with the insects’ sense of smell, thus affecting their ability to target prey.

According to chemical ecologist and professor of entomology, Walter Leal, mosquitoes are capable of smelling DEET and they choose to stay away from it because it "smells bad to them."

The research team used several odorless sugar-feeding stations, some of which had been sprayed with DEET. The mosquitoes, both females and males, avoided the DEET sites.

DEET, the most widely used ingredient of insect repellents, was discovered in the U.S. back in the 1940s. Although it may seem like a very long time to have a product around and information on it should be extensive, UC Davis research entomologist William Reisen said that in fact, quite little was known on the way the product works.

These results could be used to improve disease prevention; because of the way female mosquitoes feed, they can spread very serious diseases, such as the West Nile virus, St. Louis encephalitis or malaria.