AN ACIDIC byproduct made by skin bacteria may make some people more attractive to mosquitoes. Maria Elena De Obaldia at the Rockefeller University in New York and her colleagues asked eight people to wear sleeves made from nylon for 6 hours. A nylon swatch from a sleeve was then placed in one of two boxes, with the second box containing nylon worn by another of the participants. A third box held female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, attached to the other boxes via a tunnel. In various fabric combinations, the nylon worn by people with high levels of carboxylic acids in their body odour was the most attractive to the insects (Cell, doi.org/gq3dfc). Bacteria produce these acids when making the waxy substance sebum.
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