Dr. Graham Fry

So the first thing is don't wear dark clothing.

Second thing is they're attracted by smell.

And that smell is any smell.

So it's perfumes, deodorants, aftershave, shampoo, sunblock, clothes, powders, all those sort of things.

And perspiration, which is why they bite around your ankles.

They're attracted by carbon dioxide, which means when you're actually breathing out, you're breathing out carbon dioxide, which may mean you're going to get bitten at the top half of your body.

And the fourth thing is any smell can actually attract them towards you.

And the question really is, does DEET actually have smell?

If you put on far too much DEET, are you creating smell?

The way I try and describe this to patients is,

Everyone knows somebody who wears perfume, a little bit of perfume, beautiful, too much perfume.

Whoa, hey, whoa, that's awful.

And I think that may be one of the other factors which is going on here as well.

In other words, too much of their appellant may have the opposite effect to what you expect.

So you do need to be careful and get the balance right.

Absolutely.

And I don't think that's changed from just this one single paper.

So I think we just need to be careful people don't stop using it because of that and go down some other route.

Citronella, as an example, only lasts for a very short period of time, whereas the deep ones typically last for six, eight, 12, 12 hours.

So they're much, much better protection.