One of our colleagues, the biologist from the University of California Riverside Ring Cardé, explained to us that in the 1980s, scientists were conducting “bite studies” by wearing underwear and crushing mosquitoes that landed on their bare skin. According to him, being naked helped avoid confounding variables, such as the color of a shirt fabric.
Chris and I looked at each other. Sitting naked and waiting to be preyed upon by mosquitoes? Not a chance. Instead, we designed the mesh suit that Chris initially wore in the infested room. But after seeing his bites, we needed a better solution.
Instead, Chris opted for long-sleeved clothing, washed with unscented detergent, and put on gloves and a mask. Fully protected, all he had to do was stand and wait while a cloud of mosquitoes swirled around him.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States introduced us to the Photonic Sentry, a camera capable of simultaneously tracking hundreds of flying insects in a room. It records 100 images per second with a 5mm resolution in a space the size of a large studio. In just a few hours, Chris and another doctoral student, Soohwan Kim, produced more data on mosquito flight than ever measured in human history.
