Mosquitoes Like Biting Feet Many Bacteria

News Health Articles - Mosquitoes Like Biting Feet Many Bacteria. The smell of human sweat is one attraction for mosquitoes to alight and suck their blood. But not just any smell, mosquitoes are more attracted to the smell of sweat in the feet that many of the bacteria rather than just the natural smell of sweat.

The smell of sweat naturally triggered by ammonia, which is one component that generated the sweat glands and the strong-smelling or stinging. For mosquitoes, the smell is less attractive as well as others who are also not interested in the sweat smell of ammonia.



Another case is when sweat mixes with bacteria, which makes the smell of ammonia is more sharp and stinging. Species of mosquitoes that transmit malaria that is most like the smell of sweat Anopheles-containing bacteria such as in people who rarely bathe.

A study published in the journal PLoS ONE shows that mosquitoes prefer sweat samples taken from 48 volunteers left leg. Although both smells, mosquitoes are more attracted to sweat samples rather than samples of pure ammonia.

Having studied in the laboratory, it was revealed that the samples contain sweat it, including bacteria and fungi microbes. More and more microbes contained in the sweat sample, the more mosquitoes are attracted to approximate sweat samples.

Types of microbes that are found in sweat samples of the volunteers include Leptotrichia, Delftia, Actinobacteria GP3, and Staphylococcus. However, a special type of microbes Pseudomonas and Variovorax allegedly shunned even by the Anopheles mosquito.

"We suspect that the attraction of mosquitoes to humans is influenced by microbes in the skin, which produces certain compounds and also determine the smell of sweat," said Niels Verhulst of Wageningen University who led the study as quoted from Live Science, Thursday (29/12/2011).