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How Do Mosquitoes Find Us?
It is a hot summer day and in the evening you move to the lawn in a beautiful park. You relax with a nice song playing in your mp3 and your favorite novel in your hands. Suddenly you exclaim “Ouch!” You look down at your arm and there’s a swelling mosquito bite. Moments later you face yet another similar agonizing bite. What are these pesky insects? Why do they bite you? How did they find you? The word "mosquito" is Spanish for "little fly," and its use dates back to about 1583 in North America (Europeans referred to mosquitoes as "gnats"). Mosquitoes are similar to flies in that they have two wings, but unlike flies, their wings have scales, their legs are long and the females have a long mouth part for piercing through skin. Mosquitoes are insects that have been around for over 30 million years! And evolution along those millions of years has made mosquitoes experts at zeroing on their target preys. A mosquito has numerous sensors designed to track its prey. They have chemical, visual and heat sensors assisting them to find us. Carbon dioxide and lactic acid is detected by these insects from up to 100 feet (36 meters) away! As we give away these gases as part of our normal breathing, we attract their attention. Certain chemicals in sweat also seem to attract mosquitoes (people who don't sweat much don't get nearly as many mosquito bites). It’s found that if you are wearing clothing that contrasts with the background, and if you move while wearing that clothing, mosquitoes can see you and close in on you. Mosquitoes can detect heat and hence warm-blooded mammals and birds become their easy targets. There are over 2,700 species of mosquitoes in the world, and there are 13 mosquito genera that live in the USA alone. Among them, most mosquitoes belong to three genera: Aedes, Anopheles and Culex. Science is still working to provide definitive answers to explain why some people are "bitten" more than others. Actually, mosquitoes don't bite at all, but, they suck blood out of their victim. It has been found that mosquitoes are attracted to the odor of carbon dioxide and we all exhale carbon dioxide making us their favorite victims. Yet explaining why some people are "bitten" more than others is still an undone task. Three early theories involving gender were proposed and then discarded – theories which claimed women were attacked by mosquitoes more than men. A theory on blood types of the prey being a factor in varying attraction rates too was later discredited At the Insectarium in the Cincinnati Zoo, it was found that regular intake of some substances (such as yeast), which ultimately moves out through skin pores, changes our smell and has proven effective in preventing mosquito "bites". Other studies suggested that aromatic substances in perfumes, soap residues, facial make-up, deodorants, and other compounds on the skin resulted in someone becoming more or less attractive to mosquitoes. According to the American Mosquito Control Association of Mount Laurel, New Jersey there are over 400 such "magnetic-compounds". In 2001, the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia, conducted a study of mosquito bites in identical and non-identical twins and they concluded that 85 per cent of human-mosquito "attractiveness" is genetic in origin. According a report in the BBSRC Business, in an experiment, mosquitoes were placed in a Y-shaped tube and were given the choice of moving up through one of the two branches. The air flowing down one branch was laced with odor from the volunteer's hands. The other was without this odor. The results claimed that differential attractiveness was present and it was due to compounds in unattractive individuals which switched off attraction either by acting as repellents or by masking the attractant components of human odor. This theory differs from that of other research groups who have suggested that unattractive individuals do not have the attractive components. The researchers are now testing the veracity of these theories using whole body odors from volunteers in their experiments. No matter what it might be that pulls this insect toward us, let’s hope future biotechnologists discover a way to bring in a huge relief to the human race and somehow change the deep desire that mosquitoes have for human blood.
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