The Smell of Coconut May Help Keep Mosquitoes Away, Small Study Finds

What makes a person extra repulsive to a mosquito? It might be the scent of coconut.

That was one of the more curious findings of a small study published Wednesday in the journal iScience, which looked at whether different scented soaps made people more or less attractive to mosquitoes. 

They found that the answer wasn’t as simple as use this soap, not that one. Instead, the interplay of scents between human bodies and the products they used proved to be much more complicated.

“It’s a simple question with a very complex answer,” said the lead study author, Clement Vinauger, an assistant professor of biochemistry at Virginia Tech University who studies the molecular genetics of how mosquitoes choose their prey. “What really matters is how the chemicals in the soap combine with the chemicals of the individual person.”

That could explain why coconut seemed to repel mosquitoes, while citrusy scents known to repel the pesky insects instead appeared to attract them. 

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.