Mosquito Control, Alluring Them Away from Humans

Abstract

Mosquitoes are the most harmful insects who cause 2 million illnesses, kill 28 thousand people daily [1,2]. The challenge for researchers has been to develop a bait combination that attracts female mosquitoes and keeps them away from humans. In the animal kingdom, as a matter of survival, millions of years of natural selection have been guiding species toward prey that they can successfully kill. This is true for mosquitoes. Among the 250 billion mammals and birds as potential victims, mosquitoes choose birds with a 42 °C body temperature 50% of the time, humans at 37 °C 4% of the time, and other warmer mammals (40 °C) 46% of the time. Previous research has shown that 40 °C toxic bait traps successfully attract and kill female mosquitoes [3]. A series of individual and side-by-side group experiments gradually identified the chain of events process that female mosquito use to locate hosts and meals. Upon the calls of nature, female mosquitoes sought warm-blooded animals to feed on. They first targeted accessible at or on approximate 42 °C hosts, then hosts with 40 °C, and finally those with 37 °C. In these situations, they had success rates in feeding of 50%, 46%, and 4%, respectively