Scientists have studied the parasitic habits of mosquitoes to develop repellents that work well. Mosquitoes are attracted to heat, humidity, and carbon dioxide, but repellents confuse their biological radar, making them insensitive to carbon dioxide.
Female mosquitoes need to suck the blood of animals to survive. As part of efforts to develop mosquito repellents, scientists have studied the parasitic habits of mosquitoes in detail. The result is repellants that work pretty well.
If trapped in an empty cage, a swarm of mosquitoes will settle on the walls of the cage and won’t do much. However, about every hour, half of the mosquitoes will detach themselves from the wall and fly to another part of the cage. This resting half-life for mosquitoes reminds scientists of the half-life for radioactive substances, the duration after which half of the material decays.
When the cage is filled with high concentrations of carbon dioxide, the remaining half-life drops from one hour to approximately six minutes. Mosquitoes are much more active. This is because carbon dioxide is released by animals when they exhale, revealing their presence. However, this burst of activity doesn’t last forever: after a while, the mosquitoes get used to the carbon dioxide and revert to their old resting half-life.
The next phase of the experiment involved a swarm of mosquitoes in a wind tunnel with three different cylinders. One of the cylinders was hot, one was wet, and one was hot and wet. After some carbon dioxide was released into the tunnel to arouse the mosquitoes, it was found that about 93% of the mosquitoes landed on the warm, humid cylinder.
Mosquitoes were once thought to find their targets by sensing their distinct smell. This was later found to be false: Mosquitoes actually find their target based on the heat, humidity and carbon dioxide in the air. Mosquito repellents, such as dimethyl phthalate, work by confusing the biological radar of mosquitoes, making them insensitive to carbon dioxide. Repellents are pungent odors to mosquitoes that desensitize them to their prey.
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