New ways to confuse blood-seeking mosquitoes
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - 14:30
in Biology & Nature
Female blood-feeding mosquitoes, some species of which can transmit deadly diseases such as malaria and dengue to humans, largely find their human blood meals by detecting carbon dioxide emitted when people exhale. Scientists have now identified three types of odor molecules that disrupt the carbon dioxide-sensing machinery of mosquitoes.