NYT: the chemistry of mosquitoes and human skin

For a bloodthirsty, global health threat, the African malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, has surprisingly discriminating taste. It prefers feeding on humans to other animals, is more attracted to some people than others and even then appears to have a particular predilection for feet.

“Despite being quite tiny, the African malaria mosquito has a very powerful sense of smell,” Conor McMeniman, a vector biologist at Johns Hopkins University, said. “And it also can be quite choosy.”

Scientists have spent decades trying to decode the chemistry of mosquito attraction, working to identify precisely which odors they are drawn to and why some people are mosquito magnets. To explore such questions, researchers have often released the insects into small laboratory wind tunnels stocked with used socks or sweat-coated glass beads.

But Dr. McMeniman wanted to better replicate the way that the mosquito selects its targets in the real world. “We really wanted to create a spacious sort of home away from home for the Anopheles gambiae mosquito,” he said, “where we compete multiple sources of human odor against each other to see what they like best.”