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Mosquito repellent could pose risks to baby salamanders

Author: Bethany Brookshire / Source: Science News for Students

a photo of a spotted salamander in the wild
Young spotted salamanders eat plenty of mosquito larvae. Waterborne bug spray could deform or kill youthful salamanders — but not the mosquitoes.

The spray you use to keep bugs from biting can end up in local waterways. From there, the chemical can make its way to baby mosquitoes and the young salamanders that eat them.

Insect repellant doesn’t do much to the larval mosquitoes. But it can harm salamanders, a new study shows.

People around the world use chemicals to protect themselves from insects and the diseases they can spread. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends using a bug spray with either of two chemicals. They are N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide (or DEET) and picaridin. Each does a good job of keeping bugs away.

The chemicals don’t stay on skin, though. They wash off and can end up in local streams and rivers. That might happen directly when people swim outdoors. More often, the chemicals wash off in the sink or shower. Then they go down the drain and survive wastewater treatment.

“We see DEET everywhere that people show up,” says William Battaglin. “In national parks, remote locations in the atmosphere, it’s very persistent.” As a hydrologist, Battaglin studies water flow and the chemicals in water. He works for the U.S. Geological Survey in Blakewood, Colo., and was not involved in the study.

DEET and picaridin could affect animals living in polluted water. Mosquitoes, for instance, lay their eggs in water. Those eggs hatch and become worm-like larvae that dangle just below the water’s surface. Other creatures, including young salamanders, dine on those larvae.

a photo of mosquito larvae floating just under the water's surface
Each of these worm-like creatures is a single mosquito larva. They breathe air from the surface as they develop.

Rafael Almeida is an ecologist, a scientist who studies how organisms and their environments interact. He works at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Almeida was curious about how…

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