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Chemical mixture in human skin attracts mosquitoes

Skin scent drives mosquitoes towards humans and spreads diseases. The scent from skin of human being drives the mosquitoes towards us that may be responsible for the transmission of diseases like dengue, zika, or even chikungunya. However, the accurate makeup of the smell found in humans is still unidentified.

According to research conducted, a mosquito is able to locate and land on the victim by smelling the combination of compounds like lactic acids and 2-ketoglutaric with carbon dioxide. mosquitoes locate these chemical mixtures by promoting the act of probing, which generally means the sucking of human blood. This chemical mixture usually attracts the female mosquito known as Aedes Aegypti. It is a carrier of diseases like Dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, and zika disease. It was first found in Africa but has spread in other parts of the world since, including United States.

mosquitoes in general use a wide variety of clues to identify the human blood they are victimizing to suck on. These victims have a combination of carbon dioxide, temperature, sight and humidity present in them. but a research study shows the most important factor for mosquito biting is the body odour. The lead author of the study claimed that with the help on this research it was found that mosquitos make people their target on the very basis of scent of the skin or body and not the temperature or the humidity.

Through this research, scientists were able to identify one of the chemicals which attracts the mosquitos for blood sucking. That chemical is the lactic acid present in a human body. Whereas the combination of scent is yet to be identified by the scientist through more research and deeper analysis.

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