Mosquitoes: How We Smell Is Why They Bite
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Posted on July 15, 2012 with No Comments
Now that the summer season is in full swing, many of us will be hosting picnics and barbecues and socializing outside. Chances are, we’ll also have some unwanted guests in the form of mosquitoes.
mosquitoes have an extraordinary sense of smell. A big part of their brains are devoted to this sense. Only female mosquitoes feed on blood meals and they use the blood to produce eggs. And female mosquitoes find their blood meals through the use of smell.
For example, Culex mosquitoes, which transmit West Nile and other life-threatening illnesses, are able to detect even minute concentrations of nonanal, a chemical substance given off by humans. They detect nonanal through receptor neurons on their antennae. Birds are the main hosts of mosquitoes and they also give off nonanal. Birds are the main source of the West Nile virus and when mosquitoes move on to feast on humans and other species, they transmit the virus to them.
An understanding of the olfactory behavior of mosquitoes that leads them to feed on humans can play an important role in developing more effective methods of mosquito and disease control.
If you are noticing more mosquito’s in your yard than usual, contact JP McHale Pest Management

Category: Mosquitoes, West Nile Virus








