Why Do Mosquitoes and Sandflies Bite Us?

It’s to do with their lifecycle.

Mosquitoes (and sandflies) go through four distinct phases of their lifecycles:

1. EGG

2. LARVA

3. PUPA

4. ADULT

Usually these insect go about their lives, living off sugar meals such as nectar, without giving us blood-filled skin sacks a second thought. And then breeding season comes around…

There comes a time when the lifecycles of these bugs need to be completed, and sugar meals just aren’t enough anymore.

Because, female mosquitoes need both protein and iron to produce viable eggs.

Do you know where there is an abundance of these two things? Yes, in our blood.

And so, when conditions are right for breeding, female mosquitoes go in search of some delicious red stuff.

Of course, to take a blood meal female mosquitoes need a way to recognise their target food source (us).

They do this by using their receptors to detect our:

• MOVEMENT,

• HEAT,

• CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2) RELEASE,

• AND CHEMICALS RELEASED IN OUR SWEAT AND BREATH INCLUDING LACTIC ACID AND 1-OCTEN-3-OL (MUSHROOM ALCOHOL).

Being large, relatively mobile beings that produce abundant CO2, it’s not all that hard for these hungry ladies to seek us out.

And unlike other mammals, we also don’t have any fur or camouflage abilities to prevent mosquito bites.

We are basically walking, talking mosquito beacons! In fact, female mosquitoes are so sensitive to us that they can sense a human’s exhalation from up to 50 metres away!