The wind tunnel assay, similar to the Y-tube, can be used to test mosquito repellants and attractants in a more natural setting. In this setup, a human bait sits upwind from a three chambered mosquito taxis cage. Mosquitoes are loaded into the middle chamber and are given the choice to either fly towards the bait or away or stay where they are.
We used this assay in our 2017 paper to show the efficacy of a variety of wearable mosquito repellent devices. The data produced with wind tunnel experiments can be used to calculate repellency or attractant indexes for specific treatments or products.
