Stinky feet can make you more attractive… to a hungry mosquito, that is! 

Take cover because the invasion has begun.  Bloodsuckers are lurking everywhere for a chance to take a bite of you.

Explore the science of what’s eating you with Attack of the Bloodsuckers!, a new, skin-crawling exhibit opening Sept. 24, 2011 – Jan. 22, 2012 at the Children’s Museum of Houston (CMH). 

You’re invited to discover the biological wonders of sanguinivores (creatures that eat blood) through encounters with live species and interactive exhibits.

• Look at live loathsome leeches and their mouths.
• Feel a giant tick “grow” on you.
• Get in the diver’s seat and cruise the skies in search of dinner in the “mosquito cockpit.”
• Pull off your socks and test your bug-appealing foot odor.
• Get itchy and knotty with the life-size game of "Twitcher" — a buggy variation on Twister™!

Attack of the Bloodsuckers! zooms in on the famished critters that raid your personal space when you’re not looking.  It offers fascinating facts about creatures most of us never take a second look at, even if we do take a second swat.  The exhibit also provides you with helpful hints for avoiding these sometimes annoying creatures.  Simple precautions like keeping your yard free of standing water where mosquitoes breed, and checking yourself carefully for deer ticks before they can transmit Lyme disease, go a long way toward keeping you comfortable and safe.

"Some of these insects are known disease vectors, and their increasing populations are a public health concern — as a community resource, we want to address that," said exhibit educator Kallie Benes.  “But don’t let that keep you from admiring the amazing anatomy of the mosquito, or what makes a tick "tick.”  We’re really more interested in the science, rather than the fear-factor, of what’s eating you, “said Benes.

We all need food to survive, and animals that eat blood are no different.  In fact, most of them manage to leave their prey alive — which is more than most of us can say!  With about 20 grams of protein in every drop, human blood is high-energy fuel for the animals who’ve adapted to eating it—and they have adapted in some pretty amazing ways: Our regional black fly, for example, uses its scissor-like jaws to create a wound in the skin, then licks up the resulting pool of blood.  Ticks, also native to our area, can swell up to 600 times their original size!

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