Lemongrass or coconut fat for mosquito repellent solutions?

Comparisons of mean percentages of repellency between coconut fatty acids and DEET against biting flies (A), bed bugs (B), ticks and mosquitoes (C). An asterisk inside the bar indicates significant difference between the two treatments tested (P < 0.05, Student T-test). Error bars show standard errors of the means. N = 5–10 for A and B; N = 3–5 for C.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-32373-7

Better than DEET

Coconut fat composition

Fatty acid	Relative amounts (%)
Caprylic acid (C8:0)	6.85 ± 0.03
Capric acid (C10:0)	7.33 ± 0.02
Lauric acid (C12:0)	52.68 ± 0.11
Myristic acid (C14:0)	17.14 ± 0.04
Palmitic acid (C16:0)	8.44 ± 0.03
Stearic acid (C18:0)	1.29 ± 0.01
Oleic acid (C18:1)	6.02 ± 0.10
Linoleic acid (C18:2)	0.34 ± 0.01

(A) Percentage of blood-feeding using 48-hr starved stable flies (Stomoxy calcitrans) with treatments of coconut oil, coconut fatty acids, lauric acid and its methyl ester observed in lab behavioral assays using modified K&D boxes; as well as those from treatments of all compositional acids. (B) Comparisons of percentiles of blood feeding of 48-hr starved stable flies while treated with different combinations of the compositional fatty acids from hydrolyzed coconut oil. (C) Different letters on top of bars indicate significant differences among treatments (ANOVA, followed by Scheffe tests, P < 0.05). Error bars show standard errors of the means. N = 22–40. (D) Comparisons of the longevity of mean percentages of repellency against stable fly blood-feeding observed in the modified K&D boxes from coconut fatty acids, lauric acid and catnip oil. *Indicates significant differences found among time periods after treatments (df = 5, 109, F = 28.2, P < 0.0001); Different letters on top of bars (same color) indicate time after treatments differ significantly at P < 0.0001, df = 2, 40–50, F = 12.3–68.5.