Bloodsucking mosquitoes use many different senses to find and bite human victims. These tiny insects can detect the smell of our skin and even the carbon dioxide (CO2) gas we exhale. According to a new study, mosquitoes are also drawn to our body’s warmth.
Body heat emits infrared radiation, a type of invisible energy wave. Scientists from the University of California, Santa Barbara, found that mosquitoes can detect this radiation from several feet away using special neurons, or nerve cells, on their antennae. By understanding how mosquitoes find us, “we can reduce the likelihood of them biting us,” says Craig Montell, who worked on the study.