Female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes have a preference for biting humans and can transmit dengue and yellow fever viruses via blood meals. Body odour and carbon dioxide attract mosquitoes to humans, and it has been thought that the mosquito olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) that detect such cues each express one type of chemosensory receptor. However, a new paper by Herre, Goldman et al. shows that many OSNs in Ae. aegypti mosquitoes express more than one type of chemosensory receptor, enabling some of these neurons to respond to multiple olfactory cues.

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