United States. A student locks himself in with a hundred mosquitoes for an experiment

Researchers and students at Georgia Tech University in Georgia, USA, conducted a rather unique experiment as part of a study on mosquitoes, published on March 18 in the journal Science Advances. Over three years, they analyzed the flight paths, movements, and decisions made by these insects in the presence of a human, in order to better combat their spread.

With this goal in mind, a student experienced a rather strange moment. He was locked in a room with about a hundred hungry mosquitoes trying to bite him. The young man initially spent four minutes with the mosquitoes. They all came from Georgia and none were disease vectors. Despite wearing a protective net, he was still bitten numerous times.

“Twenty million pieces of data collected”

With improved protection, he returned to the room for several hours. During the test, infrared cameras recorded the insects’ movements and collected twenty million pieces of data.

Thanks to this groundbreaking experiment, researchers were able to demonstrate that mosquitoes, who have very poor vision, primarily analyze their environment through sound, smells, and temperatures, especially targeting areas where carbon dioxide is emitted.

This information is crucial for enhancing efforts to combat this insect. Mosquitoes are indeed the most deadly species to humans, causing between 700,000 and 800,000 deaths each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).