Mosquitoes became attracted to a chemical vapour exuded from human skin. Photo / Thinkstock
With summer nearing, mosquitoes will soon be a common annoyance. So why do they like human blood?
A chemical vapour exuded from human skin became the key reason why mosquitoes turned from feeding on animals to sucking the blood of people, a study has found.
Sulcatone is an important ingredient in the distinctive human odour, and mosquitoes learnt to recognise it many thousands of years ago as
a sign that they were near a source of food, scientists have discovered.
Researchers found the present-day black-bodied mosquitoes that feed on the furry skin of forest animals do not show any preference for sulcatone, but the brown mosquitoes living in and around villages in Africa are highly attracted to the scent.
"We knew that these mosquitoes had evolved to love the way we smell," said Leslie Vosshall of Rockefeller University in New York, who led the study published in the journal Nature.
