Associative learning turns DEET from aversive to appetitive in Aedes aegypti

Re:Associative learning turns DEET from aversive to appetiti... by trhway on Sunday May 31, 2026 @03:09AM (#48343682)

that explains. I was always wondering why in Siberia (where i worked for 2 summers back then at university times) coming out from house with freshly applied DEET you're getting covered with mosquitos - i was attributing that to the especial ferociousness of the mosquitos there - yet it sounds like the smell of DEET for them in those towns may have become like a BBQ smell for us :)

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Re:Associative learning turns DEET from aversive to appetiti... by MiracleRabbit on Sunday May 31, 2026 @03:40AM (#48343806)

Freshly marinated in DEET

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Re:Associative learning turns DEET from aversive to appetiti... by HPsquared on Sunday May 31, 2026 @04:52AM (#48344088)

A bit like how capsaicin was evolved to prevent things being eaten by mammals, but... Well.. humans came along and developed a taste for it.

"Evolution! Can you give me capsaicin, to deter mammals? I want birds to spread my seeds!"

https://youtu.be/1fW2uTRdUJU

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Re:Associative learning turns DEET from aversive to appetiti... by tardedmeme on Sunday May 31, 2026 @07:17AM (#48344825)

They got the ultimate seed-spreading, since we farm them.

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Re:Associative learning turns DEET from aversive to appetiti... by raverbashing on Sunday May 31, 2026 @06:01AM (#48344395)

So maybe the solution is to apply DEET to a bug zapper

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Re:Associative learning turns DEET from aversive to appetiti... by neves on Sunday May 31, 2026 @10:31AM (#48345967)

It was fun, but not a bad idea. Are there mosquito mousetraps, or mosquitotraps?

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Re:Associative learning turns DEET from aversive to appetiti... by hattmall on Sunday May 31, 2026 @11:05AM (#48346265)

Yes, they are mostly attracted to CO2 I think. So some traps that burn propane to attract them. Others I've seen are basically a screen over a fan with a block of dry ice. They use those to collect for like an hour then weigh the mosquitos and test for diseases in a swamp.

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Re:Associative learning turns DEET from aversive to appetiti... by adynaton on Sunday May 31, 2026 @08:10AM (#48345084)

Damn, were you working at Tselinoyarsk?

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Re:Associative learning turns DEET from aversive to appetiti... by trhway on Sunday May 31, 2026 @07:16PM (#48350762)

not, yet places where i worked - Purovsk, Krasnosel'kup - 35 years ago were already having the things of the future like android driven large trucks (dead-drunk drivers with only basic lizard brain instincts operational during deep night cargo ship operations) and self-driving tracked construction equipment like cranes, etc - as they would follow deep tracks (koleya) in the unpaved roads not being able to get out of those tracks on their own, so the driver would get out and walk in the forest gathering mushrooms, etc. while the equipment would drive itself along those deep tracks. And having a wall-to-wall fight with "vahtoviks" beats the fun of any game :)

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