What attracts mosquitoes?
Carbon Dioxide
Carbon dioxide from the breath of humans and animals helps mosquitoes to find their prey. A burning candle or other fire is another source of carbon dioxide. However, CO2 alone is not enough to attract mosquitoes.
Lactic Acid
Everyone of us releases lactic acid when exercising or consuming particular foods. This chemical is used in some of mosquito traps as an attractant.
Octenol
When people and animals breathe, they exhale mixture of carbon dioxide and octenol, which is actually a type ofalcohol. Octenol is sometimes described as ‘cow’s breath in a can’, and is a remarkable lure for mosquitoes. Mosquitoes and other biting insects have extremely-sensitive receptors that can detect this chemical from almost 100 feet away.
Mosquitoes are attracted by everything from colors to carbon dioxide and body heat. The combination of carbon dioxide, octenol, and moisture that animals and humans exhale attracts mosquitoes. Your body heat that you radiate also helps them find you.Mosquitoes are also attracted to dark colors. Movement also helps them find their prey.
Mosquitoes are attracted by the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from your skin. Like a shark swimming upstream. they smell this and work their way upwind to find you. This can be fixed by using garlic in your diet or bug repellants like Deep woods off. They are also attracted to standing stagnet water to lay eggs in.
