Scientists have Convinced Mosquitoes into not bitting Skin Bacteria

Mosquitoes are more than a summertime nuisance in many areas of the world especially Africa. They can transmit dangerous diseases like yellow fever and malaria when they siphon off your blood. Most methods of control rely on harsh chemical agents, but researchers from Texas A&M University have been working on a way to repel the pests using the bacteria on your skin.

There are billions of bacteria that call your skin home, and they’re all talking to each other. The way in which individual bacterial cells communicate is called quorum sensing. It involves the production of compounds that are detected by other bacteria and can cause behaviors on a community level (when the concentration is high enough). For example, quorum sensing can trigger the formation of biofilms or activation bioluminescence.

This was just one type of bacteria, and the skin is crawling with them. It’s not plausible to modify all of them, but masking these key molecules might be possible. So, maybe one day mosquito control will rely heavily on quorum sensing molecules to protect people.