´óÏó´«Ã½

Have you ever been bitten by a mosquito?

Maybe you've sprayed yourself with bug repellent but still they find you, leaving you with itchy and irritating bites.

Well, scientists have found out mosquitos use a cocktail of smells including body odour, heat and carbon dioxide, to sniff out humans.

Researchers discovered mosquitos pick up on smells different to most animals.

Read more about the research below.

"We found that there's a real difference in the way mosquitoes encode the odours that they encounter compared to what we've learned from other animals," said Meg Younger, assistant professor at Boston University and one of the lead authors of the study.

In most animals the neurons in the nose or antennae have a single type of receptor. But the study found for the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes it's very different - they have multiple receptors which could explain why they are so good at sniffing out humans to bite.

"This is shockingly weird," said Younger, who thought their sense of smell would be like other animals. These findings were not what they expected, but it explains why they have a stronger sense of smell.

Younger added: "Mosquitoes are highly specialized."

The creatures are designed to find us, bite us and repeat. Female mosquitos use the blood from biting us to help them reproduce because the blood is a good source of protein for them.

The insect bites can also be dangerous and depending on where the creatures live some mosquitos transmit diseases.

Scientists can now use this research to try to stop mosquitos biting and find ways to reduce the spread of disease such as malaria, dengue and yellow fever.

"One major strategy for controlling mosquitoes is to attract them to traps to remove them from the biting population...

"We could also develop repellents that target those receptors and neurons that detect human odour," said Younger.