Why do mosquitoes buzz in our ears?
As the female flies toward a target, she beats her wings approximately 500 times per second at a frequency of 450 to 500 hertz.
The buzzing in our ear is mostly just a side-effect of the mosquito’s wings beating, say researchers. As the sound doesn’t have a long range, so we notice it most when mosquitoes are flying around your ears.
That buzzing we hear is likely from a female mosquito. That’s because male and female mosquitoes lead very different lives. The males sip on the nectar of flowers. The females need to find a blood meal after mating in order to have enough energy to produce eggs.
From a distance, female mosquitoes cue in on carbon dioxide that we exhale. The carbon dioxide stimulates the female mosquito to start host-seeking, flying back and forth to follow that concentration gradient back to the source. In other words, mosquitoes buzz around our heads because that’s where we expel the most carbon dioxide.
As she approaches, the female mosquito zeros in on body heat and the carbon dioxide plume to land on the victim. The female mosquito uses taste sensors on her feet to determine whether the human or animal, is adequate to tap for her next meal.
While some studies suggest that type O blood is the best vintage, other factors, like a person’s genetics and even diet, play a bigger role in how ‘delicious’ a person tastes. Another study found that female mosquitoes were more attracted to men who had less diverse bacteria on their skin. These blood suckers are also partial to people who wear dark colours, such as black.
As the female flies toward a target, she beats her wings approximately 500 times per second at a frequency of 450 to 500 hertz.
While this sounds like a high-pitched drone to us, it is music to male mosquitoes.
Most mosquitoes are not attracted to our heads, rather are more inclined to seek out our feet, which sport bacteria that give off mosquito-enticing aromas.
A 1996 study found that female mosquitoes from the genus Anopheles, which are responsible for transmitting the malaria parasite, were attracted to the bacteria on human feet. This bacterium, Brevibacterium linens, is the same one that gives Limburger cheese its distinctive smell. A follow-up 2013 study confirmed that mosquitoes are, in fact, attracted to Limburger cheese.
