Some Colors Attract Mosquitoes More

Especially with the coming of summer mosquitoesWith the warming of the weather, it may turn into a nightmare for all of us and cause us to think twice about whether to open the window at night in the summer heat. But the more mosquitoes you become, the more likely you are to become a target, according to a new study. in your hands it could be.

According to a new study published in Nature Communications, mosquitoes can use their human victims as they wear them. to colors chooses accordingly. This means that in the same way that bees and insects are more attracted to more vibrantly colored flowers, the clothes we wear can make us more frequent targets of mosquitoes.

Some colors attract more mosquitoes

According to the study published on Friday, mosquitoes, which are the nightmares of the summer months, are more likely to turn to certain colors after smelling a human and scanning the environment; some colors are does not prefer.

Jeffrey Riffell, senior author of the study, a biologist at the University of Washington, said: “Imagine being on a sidewalk and smelling pie dough and cinnamon. This is a sign that there is a bakery nearby, ” explains, and after the mosquitoes smell human, similar to this situation, they seek the source He states that he has started scanning the surrounding visual elements for

Fragrance and colors work together

By examining the response of mosquitoes to various shades of color in the environment, which is exposed to the carbon dioxide we breathe in with each breath we breathe, the research team first placed the female Aedes aegypti species, known for transmitting dengue, yellow fever, chikungunta and Zika viruses, in small rooms. Observing how the mosquitoes reacted to colored stimuli when there was no odor at the beginning, the team could not achieve such a result, and this time the same process was introduced to the environment. adding carbon dioxide they repeated.

After the addition of carbon dioxide, mosquitoes red, orange, black and to cyan The team observed that it showed a lot of interest; mosquitoes green, purple, blue and to white He noticed that he didn’t show any interest. Testing this by placing a gloved hand in a cage and a green gloved hand in a cage, the team observed that the mosquitoes never really approached the green gloved hand.

The wavelengths of colors that attract mosquitoes are similar to the wavelengths emitted by human skin.

On the other hand, the way mosquitoes perceive colors may be a little different than we think. Just as we humans cannot perceive carbon dioxide the way they do, the way insects see colors differs from that of humans. different it could be. But the results of the study show that colors that we should all avoid if we don’t want to become the target of mosquitoes have one objective thing in common: longer wavelengths in the visible spectrum.

This is for us bad news means; because human skin, whatever color it is, emits long wavelengths similar to shades of red and orange. In other words, the color and shades of red that mosquitoes target themselves are not only in the clothes we wear, but also in all of us. in his skin There is also.

On the other hand, the researchers found that female mosquitoes would respond to carbon dioxide if such a trait was present in their genetics. ‘color-blind’ says it might. In short, this means that no matter what color of clothing you wear, what you wear does not make much sense for a mutant female mosquito that cannot see the long wavelengths that attract the attention of an ordinary mosquito. does not mean.