As the U.S. enters peak season for mosquitoes and a summer that could be “the worst … in memory” for disease-carrying ticks, a new bug repellent solution that may make it easier to stay protected is sitting on the shelf in a Navy lab, awaiting investment.
The polymer-based material, described by researchers as having a “gummy bear” consistency, offers a way to weave the widely used and effective DEET insect repellent into fabric or onto patches or strips to provide long-term repellency for a minimum of six months without regular maintenance or reapplication.
But the Naval Research Laboratory, where the repellent was developed, has no timeline or funding to move the concept forward.
At the Sea-Air-Space symposium near Washington, D.C., earlier this year, the lab’s commanding officer raised the “gummy bear” repellent as one of many concepts in the lab ready for a moment in the sun.
“We have way too many things on the shelf that need to be moved,” Capt. Randy Cruz said. “A passive, long-lasting insect repellent … when I think about all my Marine friends and all my Army folks in the jungle, this is gonna be fantastic.”
The technology has been in development at the lab since the early 2020s and was featured in a study published in 2024 in the Journal of Materials Chemistry B. A NRL team led by research chemist Javier Jimenez demonstrated that the resinous material remained effective for at least 30 weeks and suggested that it could be used to repel not only mosquitoes, but also flies, ticks, chiggers and other biting pests.
“Future advancements can pioneer a new lineage of insect-repelling materials that can be incorporated into devices void of direct skin contact (e.g., garments or shelters) to mitigate dermal absorption, thus eliminating the associated health hazards of aerosol sprays or topical lotions,” the team said.
But since then, it’s been largely crickets.
The technology still needs to be put through rigorous field testing and a demonstration period, according to officials, before it can ever be fielded to troops or incorporated into issued uniforms or outerwear. That all takes money, and there’s none earmarked for it at the moment.
“It’s in hibernation, waiting for funding at the moment. We’re definitely in contact with an array of different corporations to … try to see if there’s a potential for collaboration,” Jimenez told Military Times. “We’re actively trying to push this forward.”
He explained that the passive nature of the repellent might be its most appealing feature, as compliance — reapplication of bug repellent or maintenance of other defenses — was often a sticking point.
“You won’t have that stickiness of insect repellent … a lot of the oily feeling is just really agitating, which seriously leads a lot of people to noncompliance,” he said.
He suggested the same material might be developed to diffuse in a room or behind a fan blade, protecting indoor space from bugs without requiring any body-worn repellent. Additional testing could also prove an early finding that adding more bug repellents, such as the tick repellent permethrin, into the resin material actually made everything work better, he said.
“What we saw is that this incorporation of these auxiliary pesticides actually formed this sort of synergistic response in the repulsion of mosquitoes,” he said.
“We’re looking steadily into not only just designing a long-term insect repellent, which is already shown by these details, but also tuning the recipe of the insect repellents to be more effective for a broader range of insects and ideally increase the potency of diffusing protecting barrier,” he added.
For a globally deployable military force that regularly conducts training in wooded and grassy areas, these findings are pertinent. A 2024 report from the Pentagon’s Military Health System found that nearly 6,000 cases of vector-borne diseases were diagnosed over a 12-year period, with Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, both caused by ticks, leading the pack.
Jimenez said researchers are eager for the chance to learn more.
“We haven’t been really able to dive into raising the [readiness level] of this technology,” he said. “It’s always in our back pocket whenever there’s a request for a proposal.”
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