A recent study has shown that Mosquitoes use human body heat as a critical cue to locate their victims. This finding, published in the journal Nature, reveals that the heat emitted by the body, similar to the temperature of human skin, doubles the attraction of these insects to their target, especially when combined with carbon dioxide and human odors.
The team of researchers, led by Professor Craig Montell of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), designed an experiment that exposed mosquitoes to different combinations of stimuli in a controlled environment.
In this experiment, mosquitoes were placed in a cage divided into two zones, where both areas contained human odor and CO2, but Only one area also had infrared radiation, simulating the heat of human skin.
The results were clear: the addition of heat significantly increased the mosquitoes’ homing activity, revealing that body heat is a determining factor in locating humans.
However, the research also indicated that this heat is not effective in isolation; only in combination with other stimuli such as CO2 and human odors are mosquitoes able to locate their victims effectively.
The study’s co-principal investigator, Nicolas DeBeaubien, a postdoc at UCSB, noted that the strength of the heat signal was surprising. By getting all the parameters right, the results left no doubt: Heat is a powerful signal in mosquito biology, DeBeaubien said.
Diseases caused by mosquitoes
Mosquitoes are known to be one of the main vectors of infectious diseases worldwide, responsible for the spread of diseases such as malaria, dengue, yellow fever and Zika.
Malaria alone is responsible for more than 400,000 deaths annually, while other diseases transmitted by these insects affect millions of people each year. Therefore, understanding how these insects find humans is crucial to developing new control strategies.
The researchers also discovered that mosquitoes possess specialized heat-sensing neurons at the tips of their antennae. These neurons are equipped with a temperature-sensitive protein called TRPA1, which is essential for heat perception.
When these antennae were manipulated to block TRPA1 function, mosquitoes lost the ability to detect heat, which underlines the importance of this signal in their searching behaviour.
This finding not only has implications for better understanding mosquito behavior, but could also be leveraged in the development of better mosquito traps. Incorporating heat sources into traps could increase their effectiveness by attracting mosquitoes more efficiently.
Furthermore, the research provides a scientific explanation for why loose clothing can be an effective defense against mosquito bites. Not only does it create a physical barrier that prevents insects from reaching the skin, but it also interferes with their ability to detect body heat, thereby reducing their ability to find their victims.
Despite their tiny size, mosquitoes are responsible for more human deaths than any other animal.a fact that underscores the importance of research like this. According to DeBeaubien, advanced understanding of how mosquitoes locate humans could open up new avenues for controlling mosquito-borne diseases, potentially saving countless lives in the future.
Research into body heat as a factor in mosquitoes’ host-seeking adds a key piece to the puzzle of their complex biology and offers new hope in the fight against the diseases they transmit.
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