According to a study published in the scientific journal nature This Friday (4), mosquitoes usually fly towards specific colors — such as red, orange, black and cyan — and tend to ignore others, such as green, purple, blue and white.
The article explains that mosquitoes rely on odors to help distinguish things around them, and when they sense specific compounds, such as the CO2 in our breath, they are stimulated by their visual system to look for specific colors and other visual patterns associated with a potential target.
The researchers already recognized the existence of three main signs that attract mosquitoes: breathing, sweat and skin temperature. With the study, they concluded that the red color can be considered the fourth sign, because it is usually present on the skin. “Wearing clothing that avoids these colors may be another way to avoid a mosquito bite,” the authors wrote.
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But to understand if this is true, the team put some Aedes aegypti (dengue mosquitoes) in the face of different types of visual and olfactory information. In the absence of an odor stimulus, the mosquitoes ignored the colored dot at the bottom of the chamber (regardless of what color it was). After a spritz of CO2, the mosquitoes continued to ignore the dot if it was green, blue or purple, but if the dot was red, orange, black or cyan, they flew in the direction without hesitation.
When one of the researchers put his own hand inside the chamber, the mosquitoes flew towards him only after the CO2 was sprayed. Afterwards, this same researcher wore a green glove, and the mosquitoes did not fly towards him even in the face of the olfactory stimulus.
