The Connection Between Foot Odor And Malaria

November 18, 2016

Most of us can hardly tolerate the foul stench that emanates from own socks, let alone others. Mosquitoes, on the other hand, just cannot get enough of that gnarly odor. Currently scientists are in the process of creating traps for mosquitoes in order to study the vast amount of mosquitoes present in the population that carry malaria. These traps will use dirty socks as bait. Mosquitoes are attracted to dirty socks up to four times as much as they are attracted to humans themselves. A particular Tanzanian village has their locals being bitten by malaria-carrying mosquitoes up to three hundred and fifty times per year. Scientists have chosen this location as the ideal location for trapping malaria infected mosquitoes. The traps will resemble boxes, and will be stuffed with a plethora of potently smelling socks. And all of these socks must have belonged to some random no-name at some time or another. The researchers involved in the study will also concoct a formula consisting of many different unpleasant smelling chemicals that will apparently mimic the odor that the human foot produces. These chemicals, and socks, will be placed inside of a whole lot of box shaped traps that are meant to lure mosquitoes. However, the mosquitoes will be promptly killed by a fungus that will be deliberately placed near the mosquitoes dwelling. The dead mosquitoes will then be filed away until they can be investigated further. Do you think that mosquitoes prefer the scent of your foot odor more so than the foot odor of most others?