You'd think they'd just kill the little buggers.

Faced with more than 600,000 deaths a year from malaria, scientists and their philanthropic backers have set their sights on the lowly mosquito. If we could annihilate mosquitoes, malaria would go, too, and with it dengue and other plagues.

But simple extermination by DEET is not going to work—the ecological consequences could be disastrous.

Enter mosquito disorientation, misdirection, sabotage and even torture: Researchers from the World Health Organization to the Gates Foundation are trying to confound the insects before they pass on the deadly malaria parasite. The new crop of inventions goes well beyond the reliable bed nets of yore. Think light curtains that disturb mosquitoes' nervous systems. A human-scented cologne that will make