How often are male mosquitoes attracted to humans?

Abstract

Many mosquito species live close to humans where females feed on human blood. While male mosquitoes do not feed on blood, it has long been recognized that males of some species can be attracted to human hosts. To investigate the frequency of male mosquito attraction to humans, we conducted a literature review and human-baited field trials, as well as laboratory experiments involving males and females of three commonAedesspecies. Our literature review indicated that male attraction to humans is limited to a small number of species, includingAe. aegyptiandAe. albopictus. In our human-baited field collections, only 4 out of 13 species captured included males. In laboratory experiments, we found that maleAe. notoscriptusandAe. vigilaxshowed no attraction to humans, while maleAe. aegyptiexhibited persistent attraction for up to 30 min. Both male and femaleAe. aegyptidisplayed similar preferences for different human subjects, suggesting that maleAe. aegyptirespond to similar cues as females. Additionally, we found that mosquito repellents applied to human skin effectively repelled male mosquitoes. These findings shed light on mosquito behaviour and have implications for mosquito control programmes, particularly those involving the release or monitoring of the male mosquito population.