Locking out ants - Synthesis and biological evaluation of some fluorinated repellents

摘要

We synthesized a series of fluorinated compounds and tested them in an easy assay for their repellent activity against the ant Myrmica rubra. Depending on their chain length and pattern of fluorination these molecules are efficient repellents for this ant. Fluorinated compounds are stronger repellents than their unfluorinated analogs. 1,1,1-Trifluorotridecan-2-one (4) is an even better repellent against M. rubra than "gold standard" N,N-diethyl-m- toluamide (DEET).