Scientists have found that mosquitoes are attracted only by certain colors of clothing

Scientists have long been trying to establish the reasons for the “selectivity” of mosquitoes — namely, why they bite some people and do not touch others sitting nearby. In the course of recent studies, it turned out that hungry mosquitoes show interest in certain colors of clothing.

It has also been known for a long time that mosquitoes are attracted by 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 color dots were placed in a special experimental chamber, while CO2 was applied to some of them, and not to others.

As a result, it turned out that mosquitoes were primarily interested in red, orange, black and blue dots with the smell of CO2. Without it, dots of any color did not arouse their interest. Similarly, objects of green, blue, purple and white colors that had a smell were ignored.

What is the secret of attractiveness for insects of red and orange colors? According to scientists, human skin of any race emits a bright red-orange radiation attractive to mosquitoes.

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

The final series of experiments involved genetically modified mosquitoes. It turned out that if the genes responsible for the perception of CO2 and the recognition of colors with long waves were edited, the mosquitoes did not respond to the visual stimulus, thereby emphasizing the need for both factors — visual and olfactory — to start “hunting”.