> A homegrown catnip lotion has proven “just as effective as Deet” as a mosquito repellant in trials carried out in Uganda.

While this is good news...a quick realty check, for those unfamiliar:

Malaria, which is transmitted by mosquito bites, kills ~16,000 Ugandans per year. That is a profoundly different social and economic situation from what mosquito repellents face in most of the world.

Also, the research is aimed straight at local, low-tech production in Uganda. Criteria like "shelf stable", "no unpleasant odor", and "doesn't stain clothing" could be very low priorities.

EDIT: Fixed mortality number, added source:

https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/country-profil...

Note the >10M annual cases. Malaria is really not a nice disease, and Uganda's population is only about 50M.

This also has domestic use too. People with small children and pets that are sensitive to things like DEET, I have two parrots and must be careful to not expose them to DEET as its very toxic to them.