Control of animal arbovirus transmission by Culicoides biting midges vectors is almost exclusively performed using pour-on pyrethroid insecticides on ruminants. Alternative strategies to synthetic insecticides, such as repellent essential oils, should be developed. Biting midges were exposed to various essential oils (geranium, lavender, lemongrass, lemon-eucalyptus, peppermint, tea tree), other natural (Neem) or synthetic (DEET) repellents, and deltamethrin diluted in ethanol. The tests were performed by applying the products to the membrane of an artificial blood-feeding unit (Hemotek) for laboratoryreared C. nubeculosus and a sugar solution for C. obsoletus, due to unsuccessful engorgement on the feeding unit of wild caught individuals. Blood-feeding on ethanol-treated control was about 70% for C. nubeculosus. Immediately following application, DEET at 5 and 20%, lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) and geranium (Pelargonium asperum) at 5% were consistently superior to the other products at repelling C. nubeculosus from blood-feeding. Two hours after application, the blood-feeding inhibition of most of the products declined sharply. DEET and deltamethrin caused significant mortality compared to the control. For field collected C. obsoletus, engorgement on sugar solution was variable but usually ranged from 40 to 50% for the control. DEET, lemongrass and geranium repelled 100% of the biting midges from sugar feeding for one hour. Mortality was significant for DEET, deltamethrin and lemongrass. The effective dose to protection was determined for lemongrass, geranium and deltamethrin. (Texte intégral)