A comparison of 9 commercial repellents was made on human volunteers against Aedes aegypti using dose-response methods. In the first series of test measuring intrinsic repellency (0 hour), Stabilene and MCK Repellent 326 were significantly inferior (p < 0.05) to Deet, dibutyl phthalate, Indalone, dimethyl phthalate, MGK Repellent II, ethyl hexanediol, and Citronyl (ranked by ED50). A second series of tests conducted to measure the persistence of these compounds showed Stabilene, MGK Repellent 326 and dibutyl phthalate were ineffective after 4 hours. Efficacy ranking by 4-hour ED50 was Indalone, Citronyl, dimethyl phthalate, ethyl hexanediol and Deet. The relative superiority of Deet in comparison to other standard repellents is discussed with references to the literature.
