It’s bound to happen at a summer picnic, a peaceful walk in the woods or simply sitting in your backyard… a mosquito targets your blood for its next meal. You’ve been bitten. But how do mosquitoes find you?

Among several methods used to locate new hosts for blood-sucking, mosquitoes feature a keen ability to detect carbon dioxide. As we breathe out, we emit CO₂ into the air around us, which mosquitoes can sense. But how?

Scientists have been aware of the mosquito’s ability to detect our carbon dioxide expirations but the intricate underlying physiological structures enabling these capabilities have largely remained unclear.