Scientists found that mosquitoes are attracted only to certain colors of clothing

Scientists have long been trying to determine why mosquitoes are “selective”-namely, why they bite some people and don’t touch others sitting nearby. A recent study found that hungry mosquitoes show interest in certain colors of clothing.

It has also long been known that mosquitoes are attracted to the smell of CO2 exhaled by humans. Scientists at the University of Washington tracked the reaction of female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to visual and olfactory stimuli, for which they placed color dots in a special experimental chamber, with some of them were applied CO2, and others – not.

As a result, it turned out: mosquitoes were primarily interested in red, orange, black and blue dots with the smell of CO2. Without it, points of any color did not arouse their interest. Similarly, objects of green, blue, purple and white colors, which had an odor, remained without attention.

What is the secret of the attractiveness of red and orange to insects? The fact that human skin of any race has for them an attractive red-orange hue.

To make sure of this, scientists offered mosquitoes a “choice” of cards of several colors of human skin and “bare” hand. As a result, the mosquitoes, smelling CO2, rushed to the objects. However, once the researchers filtered out the waves or “hid” the hand in a green glove, the mosquitoes completely lost interest in the object, regardless of the scent.

The final series of experiments involved genetically modified mosquitoes. It turned out that if the genes responsible for the perception of CO2 and recognition of colors with long wavelengths in them were edited, the mosquitoes did not respond to the visual stimulus, thus emphasizing the need for both factors – visual and olfactory – to start the “hunt.