New Research Shows Which Colors Attract Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes track odors, locate hosts, and find mates visually. A recent paper published by researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle reveals that mosquitoes are more attracted to certain colors than others.

Researchers used a real-time 3D tracking system and wind tunnel that allows careful control of the olfactory and visual environment to quantify the behavior of more than 1.3 million mosquito trajectories. They found that carbon dioxide (such as that exhaled by humans) induces a strong attraction to specific spectral bands, including those that humans perceive as cyan, orange, and red. But Mosquitoes didn’t care as much for dots that were green, blue, white or purple even if they were stimulated by carbon dioxide.

Although these were behaviors observed in a lab setting and only by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, they can offer us a clue on which color shirts are more attractive to mosquitoes. The safest to wear seem to be dark blue, purple, white and green.