According to a report by Radio Netherlands Worldwide a group of Dutch scientists is currently working on an imitation aroma mixture of "smelly feet" to divert malaria mosquitoes away from the bedroom at night when most of the bites take place.
It is known that mosquitoes are attracted by feet and especially the smell from feet. Reason enough for the group of scientiest from the University of Wageningen to investigate further. They created an artificial "smelly feet" aroma mixture consisting of a mixture of fatty acids, ammonia and lactic acids and made some field experiments in Africa. The researchers placed imitation odour traps in eg trees and found out that many mosqutioes were diverted. The scientists will continue working on the project and are now focussing their work mainly on the creation of ideal “smelly sock perfume”.
I am actually not too sure if mozzies can really be fought with smelly socks or "smelly feet" aroma mixture, but every little attempt to fight malaria is a step in the right direction. Good luck, guys!
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