Female Aedes aegypti, a mosquito that can transmit three diseases: zika, dengue and chikungunya
Scientists wanted to find out why insects come close to us. They’re like predators: it’s every man for himself when it comes to stinging.
A study led by researchers at MIT and the Georgia Technological Institute has helped us understand like never before how the mosquito Aedes aegypti (the mosquito) locates and attacks humans.
There was great “unlucky” at the origin of the new discoveries. Chris Zuoa university student, voluntarily entered a cabin with more than a hundred mosquitoes, while 3D infrared cameras recorded his every movement.
The experiment made it possible to gather a database with more than 20 million flight records, and brings us a new perspective on the behavior of this species, known for transmitting serious diseases, not only dengue fever, but also, for example, yellow fever.
The main objective was to understand what signals lead insects to approach people and how they adjust their trajectory when approaching.
According to researchers, mosquitoes do not act as an organized swarm nor do they follow a collective logic. Instead, It’s every man for himselfalthough they are attracted to the same stimuli.
“AND like a crowded bar“, they explain in the scientific: “Customers are not there because they followed each other to the bar, but because they were attracted by the same signals: the drinks, the music or the atmosphere”.
In the case of mosquitoes, these signs are mainly visual and chemical. The study shows that, when they detect just the silhouette of a person, mosquitoes make quick and brief approaches. When they identify the carbon dioxide released by human breathing, the pattern changes: the flights become slower, more methodical and more precise, as if they were mapping the origin of the signal. When the body shape and the chemical trail coincide, the risk of being bitten increases. At this stage, the insects begin to orbit around the victim persistently, in a behavior that researchers compare to that of predators.
For Chris Zuo, the sensation was of being surrounded by “robots”, almost as if all he needed to do was discover the algorithm that guides their movements. And it is precisely this set of rules that the team intended to identify.
The study’s conclusions could have direct application in pest control, acknowledges. Based on this mathematical model, scientists believe it is possible to develop more effective suction traps, capable of intermittently reproducing the human signals that attract mosquitoes.
