By Corinna Wu
Ah, summer nights! The heat and humidity mingle with the sweet scent of citronella candles, the blue glow of a bug zapper, and the sticky feel of mosquito repellent. Some unfortunate people need this entire antimosquito arsenal to avoid getting eaten alive, while others hardly attract the pesky creatures at all.
Scientists have known for decades that mosquitoes are drawn to carbon dioxide, exhaled in abundance by the animals that hungry mosquitoes favor. Carbon dioxide doesn’t tell the whole story, though.