Chicken smell repels malaria mosquitoes

It sounds like an urban legend but some research and experiments have been done. These mosquitoes bite all sorts of livestock but they don't bite chickens and they don't even like the smell of chickens.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NPR Malaria is a major health issue in Ethiopia, with about 5 million cases and 70,000 deaths a year. Humans and animals share living space in western Ethiopia, where Ignell, a professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science, was planning to do his research. But little was known about how mosquitoes interact with various animals. Do certain animals attract the insects? Do other animals repel them?... ...When the odor smelled like chickens, the team found "about 90 to 95 percent reduction in [mosquito counts]," says researcher Rickard Ignell. A similar experiment with live animals showed that suspending a caged chicken from the bedroom ceiling was nearly as effective, with about an 80 percent reduction in mosquito counts...

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