A new scientific study has suggested that mosquitoes may be attracted to particular colours, and therefore colour could be used as a form of mosquito control.
The study was published in the journal Nature Communications and is the latest to explore mosquitoes’ attraction to different colours.
The researchers carried out a series of experiments on three disease-spreading mosquito species.
The mosquitoes were fed into a wind tunnel containing cameras, with two small coloured spots placed on the floor of the tunnel: the control and the colour (wavelength) of interest.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) was released into the wind tunnel after an hour, and while it is odourless to humans, mosquitoes can smell it and harness its scent to guide them to a source of blood.
Mosquitoes are the deadliest creatures on Earth given the diseases that they spread.
Smell, alongside vision and temperature, help them to locate a host.
The study demonstrated that one type of mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti, were most attracted to red and then black colours after CO2 was introduced.
Researchers also conducted a separate experiment in insect cages to explore the mosquitoes’ attraction to real human skin tones.
Six volunteers from different ethnic backgrounds took part in the test however the mosquitoes did not show a preference for a particular skin tone.
Only in the presence of CO2 were mosquitoes attracted to the colours found in human skin, suggesting the smell of a human may act as the initial cue.
The study ultimately suggests that wearing white, blue or green, and avoiding black, red and orange colours may help humans be less attractive to mosquitoes.
However, there is no guarantee of how effective these will be due to variation in colour preferences between species.
