Scientists have discovered that malaria-carrying mosquitoes are deterred by the smell of certain animals, particularly chickens.
Working in Ethiopia, researchers found that the Anopheles arabiensis mosquito strongly preferred human to animal blood. And while it fed randomly on cattle, goats and sheep, it avoided chickens.
Habte Tekie – Addis Ababa University
They feed on humans and other domestic animals, but not on chicken, because the mosquito antennae did not respond.
Person sleeping under untreated bed nets inside the house, the light trap attached to the chicken didn’t catch the malaria mosquitoes, while the light trap in which human beings slept overnight collected quite a significant number of malarial mosquito.
Key words and phrases
repel
keep something away (for example: insects/water) by being unattractive or unpleasant to it
something/someone repels you
you find something/someone disgusting or unpleasant and want to stay away from it/them
deter
prevent/discourage someone from doing something by making it difficult or unpleasant for them to do it
a pun
a funny way of using a word so that more than one meaning is suggested
steer clear of
to avoid someone or something
To do
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