New study: Discovered why mosquitoes like to bite on human skin

In the middle of a cold winter, many people look forward to sunny summer days, but hate annoying mosquitoes. So who will be the "favorite" object of mosquitoes? This is a question that scientists are still trying to answer.

A new study published in Nature Communications shows that Aedes aegypti, a common mosquito species, detects human breath and flies to specific colors including red, orange, black and blue.

Red is the color that attracts mosquitoes.

The researchers believe this finding will help explain how mosquitoes find a host, since human skin, regardless of overall pigmentation, sends a strong orange-red "signal" to the mosquito's eyes.

"There are three main factors that attract mosquitoes: human breath, sweat, and skin temperature. In this study, we found a fourth clue: red. This color isn't just found on clothes. your skin but can also be found on each person's skin," said Jeffrey Riffel, a professor of biology at the University of Illinois, USA, and lead author of the study.

In the experiments, the team monitored the behavior of the Aedes aegypti mosquito. They sprayed miniature test chambers with specific scents and displayed different types of visual patterns, such as colored dots or human hands.

In the event that the room doesn't have any odor triggers, the mosquitoes will essentially ignore the colored dots of the room, no matter what color it is.

After spraying carbon dioxide into the room, the mosquitoes continued to ignore the colored dot, whether it was green, blue or purple. But if the dot is red, orange, black or blue, the mosquito will fly towards it.

The researchers say that most people can see different colors at different wavelengths of light, such as 650 nanometers as red and 450 nanometers as blue.

However, researchers still don't know if mosquitoes perceive color in the same way that the human eye does. Most of the colors that mosquitoes like after smelling carbon dioxide are red, orange, and black - all of which correspond to colors with long wavelengths of light. Meanwhile, human skin will also emit a long wavelength signal in the orange-red band.

This study sheds new light on how a mosquito's sense of smell affects how mosquitoes respond to visual cues. The detection of colors that attract mosquitoes can help to design more effective mosquito repellant products.