science

15026 readers

142 users here now

A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.

rule #1: be kind

<--- rules currently under construction, see current pinned post.

2024-11-11

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

240

Scientists Discover Mosquitoes Are Using Infrared to Track Humans Down (www.sciencealert.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

24 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I thought this was discovered, like, decades ago and was only one of several detection methods that they use in combination with each other

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

First I've heard anything about direct contrast of UV light to not. I've heard CO2 and NaCl before though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

*IR light, in the interest of avoiding confusion.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I work in mosquito control, it's been generally fairly well known as far as I know. Light traps use black light bulbs as one of the methods to attract mosquitos because the lack of visible light cuts down on the number of bycatch like moths but the bulb still generates heat to attract the mosquitos, usually paired with dry ice for CO2.