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This is a powerful assay to test the efficacy of mosquito repellents and attractants. We used this assay in our 2015 paper, The Efficacy of Some Commercially Available Insect Repellents for Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) and Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae), where we discovered that Victoria Secret Bombshell perfume is a strong mosquito repellent.

In this assay, mosquitos are released into the mosquito holding chamber of the plexiglas Y-tube and have the choice of flying towards one of two chambers. The treatment chamber usually contains a human hand that can be treated with different repellants or another form of attractant. The control chamber is empty.

The data produced with these experiments enable us to calculate repellency or attractant indexes for specific treatments or products.