--- title: Creating a DEET-free Mosquito Repellant That Actually Works description: A mosquito repellant technology is in the works that could make us practically invisible to mosquitos. canonical: https://time.com/3997265/deet-free-mosquito-repellant/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-13T21:07:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T10:10:18.511Z article:section: Health og:title: Creating A DEET-free Mosquito Repellant That Actually Works og:description: A mosquito repellant technology is in the works that could make us practically invisible to mosquitos. og:url: https://time.com/3997265/deet-free-mosquito-repellant/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca566c5f326ebc41/69869ee5d0b6f2ba483059f1/mosquito-human-skin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5264 og:image:height: 2961 og:image:alt: mosquito-human-skin og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Creating A DEET-free Mosquito Repellant That Actually Works twitter:description: A mosquito repellant technology is in the works that could make us practically invisible to mosquitos. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca566c5f326ebc41/69869ee5d0b6f2ba483059f1/mosquito-human-skin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Creating a DEET-free Mosquito Repellant That Actually Works > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Ryan Daly / Fortune](https://time.com/author/fortune/) ## Ryan Daly / Fortune Fortune Aug 13, 2015 9:07 PM UTC  Mosquito (Culicidae sp) feeding, close-up Mosquito (Culicidae sp) feeding, close-up Getty Images by [Ryan Daly / Fortune](https://time.com/author/fortune/) ## Ryan Daly / Fortune Fortune Aug 13, 2015 9:07 PM UTC Enjoying time outside might just get a lot better. A mosquito repellant technology is in the works that could make us practically invisible to mosquitos. No more will products that don’t fully work, or the effective, yet very toxic DEET be the only options for us to defend against mosquitos. With a growing presence of research, the dangers of mosquitoes are being more realized. As the [New York Times](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/11/high-tech-hope-for-repelling-mosquitoes/) cites, “According to the World Health Organization, mosquitoes remain the deadliest animal on the planet, carrying diseases like West Nile, chikungunya, and malaria that kill more than a million people a year.” The need for a real solution to the perennial problem of those winged vessels of disease is consistently relevant. But mosquitoes do have a positive impact on the ecosystem like providing food for animals so inclined to consume them. So while we can’t just do away with them, we can—and need to—look for a way to live with them. That’s where Kite comes in. [Kite](http://www.kitepatch.com) is “an international team that assembled to develop a new system for transforming mosquito-fighting innovations into disease-defeating products and applications.” The advances at the Kite facility boast promising results to help us live in bite-free harmony. With an [Indiegogo campaign](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kite-patch#/story) that drew in over $500,000 with 11,254 contributors in just one month, the demand and anticipation is apparent. The New York Times writes that when using a Kite patch, “no mosquitoes landed anywhere near it,” citing, “the new compound works by confusing a mosquito’s senses, hindering its ability to target us based on the carbon dioxide we exhale, and confounding its capacity to locate us up close.” While its creators remain tight-lipped about its ingredients, it is reportedly “made of fragrances and other compounds that don’t require E.P.A. approval. 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