Creating a Mosquito-Repelling Scent Buffet

Researchers built a 4,300-square-foot "flight cage" in rural Zambia to study how the African malaria mosquito homes in on its human targets. Volunteers slept in tents attached to the cage to test mosquito attraction. The scientists hope that learning more about "the sensory biology of how mosquitoes track and hunt humans" could lead to better mosquito lures and repellents and, ultimately, new strategies for tackling malaria. The mosquitoes were most attracted to a participant who gave off high levels of carboxylic acids, which are produced by skin microbes and sebum, an oily residue secreted by glands in the skin.