By Clay Dillow Posted 07.13.2011 at 4:10 pm 12 Comments

Mosquito Germán Meyer

Researchers are testing a potent new tool in the fight against malaria: dirty socks. Experiments are underway in three villages to see if smelly socks can lure mosquitoes into poisoned traps as effectively as synthetic chemical baits that can be expensive and complicated to mix. If so, good old fashioned human stink could become a key tool for curbing malaria infections.

It turns out mosquitoes--the number one carrier of malaria, which kills something like 900,000 people per year--love smelly socks. Previous studies have shown that synthetic, chemically-derived bait is more attractive to mosquitoes than human bodies (up to the point the mosquitoes realize there’s not a meal in it for them), but smelly socks could be just as effective as the synthetic bait. This is the first time a study has pitted human odor and chemical bait against each other in the field, and the results could change the conventional ways authorities fight the infection in malaria-prone regions.

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Tags

Science, Clay Dillow, health, malaria, medicine, mosquitoes, sock science
The experiment is pretty straightforward: Three different villages have deployed three different kinds of traps--one with synthetic bait, one containing dirty socks worn for a day by adults, and one containing cotton pads worn inside the socks of schoolchildren for a day. Researchers will simply compare the number of mosquitoes caught and killed by each method.

That previous research showed that synthetic bait attracts four times as many mosquitoes as the human body does, and if the socks or sock pads work anywhere nearly as well they could significantly boost the number of traps a given village or community could deploy to defend residents from potential malaria threats (the sock pads are the preferred method, since people wouldn’t have to give up their socks to arm the traps). Modeling shows that the smelly sock traps--if they prove to be effective--could reduce malaria infections in a given region by 20 percent.

[WaPo]

12 Comments

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-my name here-
07/13/11 at 4:12 pm

hmm... they may yet be on to something.

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Tickparasite
07/14/11 at 8:50 am

The picture is a moth and not a mosquito. Anopheles mosquitoes (the malaria carriers) rest with their wings over their abdomen like all mosquitoes. The other dead giveaway is the spines on the legs. It's probably some sort of pyralid moth. Mosquitoes don't hold their abdomen that way either, typically it is held straight and that one is clearly curved.

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Tickparasite
07/14/11 at 8:52 am

The most obvious evidence is the presence of two pairs of wings (you can make them out by following the edge). True flies (such as mosquitoes) only have one pair (the second pair evolved to halteres.

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-my name here-
07/14/11 at 1:43 pm

@tickparasite:
I only see one pair of wings, some types of mosquitos DO have spines on their legs, and not only is the body too thin, and the antennas the wrong shape to be a moth, but some mosquitos (I've seen the myself, I know this) have abdomens that curve up.

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-my name here-
07/14/11 at 1:46 pm

and if it JUST landed, then the wings would be still out.
not to mention that, while feeding, some mosquitos hold their wings away from their body.
the picture that goes with the article doesn't have to be a malaria carrying mosquito, it just has to be a mosquito.

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Tickparasite
07/14/11 at 4:14 pm

This is definitely not a mosquito. I've worked with mosquitoes for over ten years, have a medical entomology degree and ran a mosquito control agency. I tell you it is some kind of moth.

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Tickparasite
07/14/11 at 4:23 pm

The leg spines of mosquitoes are greatly reduced or absent. These are much much too long. Look at the trailing edge. It isn't a smooth curve. The edge of a mosquito wing is. That is a second wing close to the fore wing. Many insects link them closely together with a row of bristles (frenulum). I agree that it doesn't have to be an anopheles mosquito, but it shouldn't be a moth. Most other mosquitoes do not have patterned wings (Anopheles do).

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Tickparasite
07/14/11 at 4:39 pm

Moths can have antennae like this and for the record I have a masters and Ph.D in medical entomology. I have also never seen a mosquito with an abdomen curved up like this even after emerging from the pupa. This behavior is very common in moths.

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Tickparasite
07/14/11 at 4:56 pm

I was wrong about the family of moth. It isn't a pyralid it is a plume moth (Pterophoridae). Look it up and you will agree that the picture is of a moth.

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bsand
07/14/11 at 5:06 pm

Wasn't this an episode on married with children?

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-my name here-
07/14/11 at 6:48 pm

I see. but it would seem that the coloring is still wrong.

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All4it
07/15/11 at 3:32 pm

I have found that my motorcycle helmet was a great mosquito hangout, especially after riding on a hot day.



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