The mosquitos inside a tennis-court-sized cage didn’t carry the malaria parasite and couldn’t get at the people sleeping in surrounding pods, but could smell them.
Mosquitos know no borders. They can bite you in Canada and Cambodia. In some countries they are a nuisance but in Ethiopia they can be deadly – carrying malaria or zika. And not all people are bit in the same way. An ambitious field trial in Zambia investigated why mosquitoes seem to find some people more appetizing than others. This study may open the way so that new repellant can be made to mask the smell that mosquitos love, protecting children and everyone from annoying and deadly bites.
In the study, researchers invited volunteers into individual sleeping pods that were connected to a giant mosquito enclosure housing the mosquito Anopheles gambiae, which transmit deadly malaria.
Infrared cameras tracked the mozzies’ movements and found they were most attracted to people whose scents were “enriched for a class of molecules called airborne carboxylic acids, and also other compounds that are produced by the bacteria that live on our skin”, says biologist and study co-author Conor McMeniman.
The lead author is Diego Giraldo from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.
Miriam Kresh from Green Prophet knows how to make natural bug bite relief
The findings could be used to develop more-effective repellents, he says, “but also potentially turn the mosquito’s sense of smell against them, by engineering synthetic blends to lure mosquitoes into traps for mass control purposes.”
Author: Karin Kloosterman
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist, innovation strategist, and founder of Green Prophet, one of the Middle East’s pioneering sustainability platforms. She has ranked in the Top 10 of Verizon innovation competitions, participated in NASA-linked challenges, and spoken worldwide on climate, food security, and future resilience. With an IoT technology patent, features in Canada’s National Post, and leadership inside teams building next-generation agricultural and planetary systems — including Mars-farming concepts — Karin operates at the intersection of storytelling, science, and systems change. She doesn’t report on the future – she helps design it. Reach out directly to [email protected]
