A new study, published by (newatlas) website, revealed that some colors attract hungry mosquitoes, while others repel them, a discovery that can be used to design new traps or repellents.
The researchers found that mosquitoes fly towards any point if it is red, orange, black or sky blue, compared to other colors.
The researchers observed that mosquitoes tended to these colors if they smelled carbon dioxide, and if there was no carbon dioxide, these insects largely ignored the colored dots, regardless of their colour.
However, mosquitoes showed less interest in green, blue, white or purple dots, even if they were set up for CO2 hunting.
The lead author of the study said, Jeffrey Revell: “Mosquitoes seem to use scents to help them distinguish what’s nearby, and when they smell a specific odor, like carbon dioxide, from our breath, that scent stimulates the eyes to look for and go to specific colors and other visual patterns.”
Why do red and orange attract mosquitoes in particular? The study team says that human skin, regardless of shade or coloration, gives a strong orange-red signal to the eyes of mosquitoes, prompting them to attack them.
In follow-up tests, the researchers used cards of different colors from human skin or a bare hand, and again found that insects would not fly toward them unless they first smelled carbon dioxide.
And if the hand was wearing a green glove, the insects returned to ignore it, even with the carbon dioxide.