Mosquitoes See Red (Literally) when They Smell Human Breath

A hungry mosquito can sense the carbon dioxide a person exhales from 100 feet away, and a new study reveals that the gas triggers the insect’s visual system to pinpoint human skin tones.

Observing mosquitoes is hard; they dart through the air in quick, chaotic patterns. Researchers typically examine them in small boxes, but that “doesn’t recapitulate their natural behaviors,” Riffell says. To simulate a more realistic environment, Riffell’s team built a seven-foot-long mosquito wind tunnel that could control wind speed, odors and visual stimuli with exquisite precision.

“Given that mosquitoes do not have a separate red-sensitive receptor,” says Almut Kelber, a sensory biologist at Sweden’s Lund University who was not involved in the research, it seems likely “that orange, red and black are all seen as dark and that the choice is not for ‘red’ but for ‘not green or blue.’

So, you are telling me that I've got to hold my breath for the mosquito to see blue?

Scientists needed a study to figure out that mosquitoes like blood.

WEAR YOUR MASKS, PEOPLE

CO2 sh1t science, n. 2317

I predicted this when i was 9, i wonder why.

Fascinating, but now please correlate this into HOW DO WE KEEP THEM FROM BITING US TIA :)

So interesting…makes me wonder if wearing mostly blue, green and white clothing when you’re out and about in the summer can actually help keep mosquitoes at bay.

No wonder they stopped bothering me when my hair turned white.

And they need it a study to figure ot that mosquitoes like blood.

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