The success of distinguishing blood meal sources of Anopheles gambiae Giles through deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) profiling was investigated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification at the TC-11 and VWA human short tandem repeats (STR) loci. Blood meal size and locus had no significant effect on the success of amplifying human DNA from blood meals digested for 0, 8, 16, 24 and 32 h (P = 0.85 and 0.26 respectively). However, logistic regression found a significant negative relationship between time since ingestion and the success probability of obtaining positive PCR products among meals digested for between 8 and 32 h (P = 0.001). Approximately 80% of fresh blood meals were successfully profiled. After 8 h, the proportion of blood meals that could be successfully profiled decreased slowly with time after ingestion, dropping to below 50% after approximately 15 h. There was no significant difference in the success of amplifying human DNA from blood meals of mosquitoes killed at time 0 and 8 h after ingestion (P = 0.272).