Imagine coming home after a long day of work, getting into your bed, and after 10 or so minutes of falling asleep you start to feel tiny bites and itchy spots all over your body. Bed bugs can become a quick problem in any home, and most of the time they are very difficult to get rid of.
Now imagine a simple, organic, and harmless solution that can completely stop these pests from keeping you up at night. The best part is that it doesn’t have to stop there.
Mosquitoes can be controlled with this solution just as easily, and so can ticks. Imagine keeping you and your family pets safe with a simple ingredient that can be easily produced and distributed.
Why Is Nootkatone Needed?
So what is this fantastic ingredient that can help with this pesky problem? Nootkatone! It is an ingredient that is associated with grapefruit and has the potential of becoming an amazing insect repellent that can help you gain control over mosquitoes, bed bugs, and ticks.
Nootkatone can be derived from the skin of grapefruits and nootka cypress, also known as yellow Alaskan cedar. There has been countless research done to verify the protective effect that nootkatone has against a variety of insects, and so far they are proving to be very positive. However, before nootkatone can be used in insect control products, it has to be approved by the EPA.
Progress
Although it is very clear that Nootkatone can be a very effective insect repellent, it is yet to gain approval from the EPA to be used in consumer based products. In 2015, the EPA ruled that the standards needed for bio-pesticide classification have been met by nootkatone. This ruling allows for an accelerated registration process.
According to Evolva, the company which is interested in legalizing the use of Nootkatone in insect repellent products, the registration process has been making good progress and if it continues without any interruptions, approval should be granted in 2018.
Evolva also signed an agreement with the CDC in 2016. This agreement grants them the exclusive worldwide rights to develop and use a commercialized version of nootkatone to control various virus and disease insect carriers such as ticks, bed bugs, lice, mosquitoes, and other similar biting bugs.
Alongside this agreement, Evolva also announced that the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have sponsored studies to test nootkatone against mosquitoes which were infected with the Zika virus.
Nootkatone Potential
We have read some of the research that has been conducted on nootkatone and are very impressed with the results. It seems that the insects, such as ticks and mosquitoes, really do not like Nootkatone.
In fact, one of the studies showed exactly what happens when ticks are introduced to an area on the skin that has been treated with nootkatone. The results are fantastic! The insects attempt to avoid the treated area at all costs.
We wonder if there is a potential of using nootkatone as a pesticide on localized plants and areas which are very likely to host reproduction of mosquitoes that can be infected with the Zika virus or other potentially dangerous diseases or viruses.
Unfortunately, we won’t know the answer to that question until the EPA deems nootkatone as safe, not only around humans but also in the environment.
Nootkatone Review Summary
While Evolva has discovered a wonderful ingredient that can drastically change how we control harmful pest like insects, the reality is that we need to do a lot more research to determine the effects that nootkatone will have on the human body and our environment.
Furthermore, we need to determine the level of resistance that can be developed by the insects against nootkatone. It would be a shame if it only worked for a short period of time before the insects developed complete resistance to this ingredient.
There are other potential problems that can surface if nootkatone becomes approved and is used worldwide. For example, what if this ingredient has adverse reactions on other animal species that consume the insects that are treated with nootkatone? The extent of potential environmental damages can be catastrophic.
Lastly, simply because a product is harmless to the vast majority of people shouldn’t be a green light for its mass production and distribution. Not all people are made equally. Some of us have severe allergies and sensitivities to certain ingredients. What if nootkatone is one of those ingredients?
We have high hopes for nootkatone and Evolva’s necessity to obtain regulatory approval from the EPA and, we would love to use this product in the future. However, we also expect proper research to be done and all possibilities to be ruled out before products with this ingredient are a common occurrence in every household.
