Sustainable Living necessarily includes healthful living. One of the world’s biggest diseases – from which millions suffer for the duration of their lives – is malaria. If you happen to be living in a region in which mosquitos thrive, then mosquito repellents are normally a seasonal fact-of-life.
I grew up spending my summers canoe-tripping in Algonquin Park, Ontario. My nighttime experiences convinced me that the region must have taken pride in propagating a stronger, denser and more assertive breed of mosquitoes! While I wasn’t aware, at that age, of getting malaria, this catnip-based product may have given me more restful nights. Comments afterwards.
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Catnip lotion as effective as Deet
at repelling mosquitoes, study finds
Researchers testing a cheap, homegrown oil in Uganda
found what cats knew all along – it worked as well
as the artificial chemical used globally
Kat Lay Global health correspondent
The Guardian
7 Jul 2026
A homegrown catnip lotion has proven “just as effective as Deet” as a mosquito repellant in trials carried out in Uganda.
Catnip, or Nepeta cataria, is a common herb from the mint family. The chemical in the plant that causes feline euphoria – nepetalactone – also has insect-repelling properties but this has not previously been commercialised.
New tools are vital in the fight against malaria, the disease spread by mosquitoes that infects about 282 million people a year and killed 610,000 in 2024 – the majority of them young children in African countries. There are concerns about rising resistance to insecticides, as well as the frontline drugs used to treat the disease.
In a study presented at the Society for Experimental Biology conference in Florence on Tuesday, a team working between Uganda and Wales found mosquitoes seeking a blood meal were less likely to land on people wearing lotions made from catnip.
Dr Simon Scofield, a senior lecturer at Cardiff University, said:
“We found that a 6% catnip oil was just as
effective as Deet, and the 2% catnip oil was
only marginally less effective than that.
“Deet is out of the price bracket for most
rural Ugandan subsistence farmers, so
buying commercially available mosquito
repellents is just not practicable.
“We wanted to make a repellent, which
is highly efficacious, but also allows
local people to be involved in the pro-
duction cycle so that it costs a mini-
mal amount of money.”
Whether or not local cats were more likely to follow lotion wearers was not part of the research, Scofield admitted. He said …
“We did not conduct any experiments to
see if it is attractive to cats, but given that
the active ingredient [nepetalactone] has
well-known cat-attractive properties, I
would expect they would quite like it.”
In the first part of the evaluation, laboratory tests confirmed that catnip oil could be an effective insect repellent. Researchers then successfully tested the catnip repellent in the field in eastern Uganda by checking how many mosquitoes landed on volunteers’ legs over an evening.
Some volunteers used Deet (the world’s most widely used and effective insect repellent), some used a lotion with 2% concentration of catnip, others a 6% catnip lotion, while others used placebo creams.
The research also established that the lotion could be made locally by a community enterprise. So far it has been distributed for free, using grant funding, but the next phase of the project will see production increased and the lotion sold to create a sustainable income for workers. Scofield said …
“Once we know that we can sell and dis-
tribute the repellent at a low cost, that
should generate a self-sustaining system
where the money is flowing back to every-
body at each stage in the development.
“The Deet (N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide) lotion
used for comparison in the trial contains 15%
Deet and is the most widely available in Ugan-
da. Travelers from the UK visiting malaria-
endemic regions are advised to use
stronger repellents of at least 50% Deet.
Swai Kyeba, a research entomologist from the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania who was not involved in the study, said:
“New vector-control tools are necessary in
the fight against malaria, especially those
that are cheap and locally produced, to
help improve accessibility.
“However, a challenge with topical repellents
is low compliance because they require regu-
lar application. This is why they remain a com-
plementary tool in the fight against malaria.”
He urged further research on Ugandan households using currently available repellents before the catnip lotion production was scaled up.
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Googling “catnip lotion brands” surfaced several. In addition, Bianca Rosa: Offers a specialized Catnip Cream and Catnip Salve (typically 2 oz jars priced around $17) formulated with concentrated catnip extracts and natural oils like shea butter, coconut oil, and beeswax. These are sold online through platforms like Amazon and select herbal storefronts.
No brands seem wildly expensive. Have one on hand to accompany you on trips in which you may be spending a lot of time in nature, in a mosquito laden region and in their most thriving season. Adding D’s comments …
“Sometimes, nature gives us an easy solution to a nasty problem. Deet is known to be very effective but has some drawbacks: skin irritation, eye discomfort, and in rare cases neurological effects. Catnip most likely will be easier on people’s skin. It also will prevent tics from landing on your skin. Thank you, Mother Nature.”
