Irresistibly attracted to smell, body heat and exhaled CO2
According to the study, insects use several senses to find hosts and eat. For example, Anopheles gambiae, the dreaded family that causes malaria, has three types of receptors: odorant, taste, and protein or ionotropic in scholarly language. The olfactory receptors – the best known – would be those that allow the mosquito to distinguish man from animal. Taste receptors detect the carbon dioxide we exhale. Clarification: mosquitoes have nothing to do with bad breath (editor’s note). As for protein receptors, they react to acids and amines present on human skin. The acidity of our dermis might partially explain why some people are more attractive to mosquitoes than others.
We already knew that these damn critters were detecting us, from several tens of meters around, thanks to our body temperature. Thus, pregnant women and feverish people are prey of choice.
