The stench of human feet is being used to fight the mosquito-borne disease, Malaria.
In a recent study published in PLoS One, researchers found that mosquitoes infected with the tropical disease were more attracted to human odours from a dirty sock than those that didn’t carry malaria.
Dr. James Logan, head researcher of the study at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine believes the new finding may help create traps to target malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
With only 1 per cent of the mosquito population being malaria-infected, using traps that only target the infected mosquitoes could result in fewer insects becoming resistant to insecticides.
Mosquitoes have a highly developed sense of smell and researchers are keen to understanding the insects’ behaviours to use them to combat the deadly disease, Malaria.
