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Chemical dispersants were supposed to make it easier for undersea bacteria to digest the oil that poured into the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon blowout.

But scientists who've been studying the aftermath of the 2010 disaster now say the controversial chemicals were a bust: Instead of eating the dispersed hydrocarbons, oil-munching microbes appear uninterested when crude and dispersants are mixed together.

A type of bacteria that normally would be first in line at the hydrocarbon buffet — and which surged when exposed to oil alone — "clearly declined in the presence of dispersants," a new study found. And another microbe actually ate the dispersants, University of Georgia oceanographer Samantha Joye said.

"Instead of making a community that was more efficient at oil degradation, the dispersant created a community that was really efficient at degrading dispersant, but not very efficient at degrading oil," said Joye, who leads a research group examining the effects of the oil spill on the Gulf.

The latest research by Joye and her colleagues was published this week [pnas.org] in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a leading peer-reviewed scientific journal. The authors recommend moving cautiously before spraying dispersants — which are toxic on their own, and appear to be more toxic when combined with oil — onto the next spill.