Just by observing the flight of these annoying little insects, we can get some clues about how they found us. The following descriptions of mosquito behavior are all extracted from an unforgettable article in a scientific magazine, which was published by anthony browne in the Journal of the American Medical Association at 1966: "When a person stands in a field with many mosquitoes in the breeze, mosquitoes will fly by him, but those mosquitoes who enter the downwind of this person will smell the smell of this person. 」
Being at the disadvantage of someone's "smell" should be quite uncomfortable, at least for us humans. But obviously, the female mosquito feels completely different: "When a man stands in a closed room, mosquitoes will fly past him and pay little attention to him. But when he lies down, mosquitoes will notice the updraft above his body, so they will run over. 」
Can mosquitoes see, hear and smell us?
The theme of this scene is male, but it's not just the gender bias in11960 s. There is evidence that men are more likely to provoke mosquitoes than women, and adults are more likely to be bitten by mosquitoes than children. However, judging from the words "emitted smell" and "updraft" described above, it seems that smell is the main reason for attracting mosquito bites, not sound or visual images. If this is the case, then the mosquito repellent should interfere with the olfactory organs of mosquitoes, making them lose the ability to identify the source of odor.
But maybe we're jumping to conclusions. Maybe our smell is really the main reason to attract mosquitoes, but mosquitoes have vision and can see us. As for our voice, there is absolutely no evidence that it has anything to do with attracting mosquitoes. Unless we deliberately imitate that annoying buzz. Even so, only male mosquitoes that can't bite will fly in and want to mate with female mosquitoes. ) For mosquitoes, vision is not only important, but may be the first way for females to notice us. The darker the object, the more interested mosquitoes are. Obviously, mosquitoes' eyes are not sensitive to color, and they can't distinguish the colors from orange to blue in the center of the rainbow. The red and purple at both ends of the visible spectrum are black to mosquitoes looking for prey, which can arouse their interest. If it is a moving black object, it is ideal, and if the object produces a "flicker" effect, such as the black object moving in front of a black and white (especially a stripe or chessboard) background, it is even better. There is an old saying: "If you dress like a referee with stripes all over your body, you'd better not go to the Woods this day ..."
But as we all know, even if we wear white clothes, we will be bitten when we go to the mosquito-infested forest, and we may even be bitten all over. Do we have a better clue to know whether there are people who can or can't attract the attention of mosquitoes besides the color of clothes?
The answer is clear. It is true that some people are particularly easy to provoke mosquitoes, while others are not favored by mosquitoes. But it is not so easy to find out the real reason. There was a famous experiment more than ten years ago: a research team in California asked 838 people to test their ability to attract mosquitoes. Participants took a mosquito cage (plastic tube with nylon net at the bottom) and covered it on their forearms for three minutes. There are only four mosquitoes in each cage, but after the first round, only 17 of these 838 people were not bitten by mosquitoes. After the second round, of the 17 people who passed the test for the first time, only 1 people passed by luck. Later, the man was tested nine times, only three times he was bitten, and the other six times he was safe and sound. I really should drink to this guy. For mosquitoes, he is really a guy who doesn't attract mosquitoes. Unfortunately, as the researchers said in the report, although they have tried their best to thoroughly study this mosquito repellent king, they still can't figure out why mosquitoes are not interested in him.
Mosquitoes not only love to bite you, but also love to bite your feet.
This is the whole situation up to today. Some people attract mosquitoes more easily than others, while others are more immune. But why is this, it is still unclear. Under normal circumstances, a person will emit about 100 kinds of chemicals. If these substances are mixed with each other in different proportions, they will send different chemical signals to mosquitoes. However, identifying these chemicals, and even knowing their proportions, is the most difficult part.
The research team studied a young man of 2 1960 years old, who did not sweat and was not interested in mosquito bites. However, not sweating is a serious physical obstacle, and the price is too high to avoid mosquito bites. But since this amazing example, some anti-mosquito studies have found that perspiration does play an important role in attracting mosquitoes. It seems that some people sweat more than others.
1In the mid-1990s, a study in Tanzania confirmed that everyone has different grades in provoking mosquitoes. Three volunteers slept in a tent in the wild for nine nights. This tent is specially designed, and there are mosquito traps at the entrance and exit. In fact, they invited me to live in these tents and made sure that they could catch a large number of mosquitoes, which could save some research funds. During the nine nights of the experiment, the experimenters exchanged tents with each other. Moreover, every time you change the tent, you should take the bedding away, so as not to leave any personal breath in the tent and interfere with the experiment. Among these three people, one obviously lacks attraction to three different strains of mosquitoes. Even if these mosquitoes enter the tent, they don't bite him very much.
But in fact, the characteristics of mosquito bites are not only different from person to person. A study in Japan found that some parts of the body are the most attractive to mosquitoes. Their conclusion is that people's feet attract mosquitoes most easily, followed by their hands and then their faces. Why this order? Nobody knows. Studies have even pointed out that drinking beer is more likely to be bitten by mosquitoes. This is also bad news for people who love to drink.
Mosquitoes love three things: body temperature, carbon dioxide and lactic acid.
Researchers have been able to confirm that some smells emitted by humans are attractive to mosquitoes, but it is not easy. According to the signal recording results of nerve cells on mosquito antenna and the picture data of antenna cells under electron microscope, it is concluded that 90% antenna cells are designed to detect chemicals in the air. Therefore, carbon dioxide, body heat and lactic acid discharged by people are very attractive to mosquitoes. Of course, it makes sense: we have calories, we exhale carbon dioxide, and sweat also contains some lactic acid. More interestingly, what clever instruments does the mosquito use to detect these three things that interest it, so as to ensure that it can detect the position of its prey efficiently and safely?