PARIS, France (AFP) — Mosquitoes can learn to associate the smell of the world’s most common insect repellent with a tasty meal — and after training can even prefer to bite people who have been sprayed with it, an experimental study said Thursday.

The surprising results, which were conducted “under very specific conditions” in the lab, do not “call into question the effectiveness” of the repellent DEET, lead study author Claudio Lazzari told AFP.

Since being developed in the 1940s in the United States, the chemical compound has saved many lives from the scourge of insect bites.