Indian scientists have found that peppermint oil can not only repel mosquitoes, but also effectively kill mosquito larvae. This shows that peppermint oil may be used as a low-cost new weapon to deal with mosquito infectious diseases such as malaria, filariasis and dengue fever.

According to the latest issue of the British magazine New Scientist, a team led by scientists from the Indian Malaria Research Center conducted an experiment to observe the effect of peppermint oil extracted from local peppermint in India on Aedes aegypti, Anopheles stephensi and Culex quinquefasciatus infected with dengue fever and filariasis.

The researchers recruited some volunteers and sprayed peppermint oil on them as "bait" for outdoor mosquitoes at night. It has been found that the use of peppermint oil can repel 85% of all kinds of mosquitoes on average.