Did you know that mosquitoes can remember how hard you swat at them?
Mosquitoes remember what you taste like and, according to a study at Virginia Tech, what you smell like. But read this before you swat at another mosquito again.
We all know that mosquitoes love to bite the same person twice. Anyone who has spent some time in a warm climate has had suspicions that mosquitoes prefer a "sweeter" kind of blood. How else would you explain the enjoyment that the insects get out of sucking on your blood?
Mosquitoes remember the taste and the smell of a person's blood, and this is how they choose who to bite.
Now, a group of researchers has revealed how mosquitoes manage to stay alive and buzzing no matter how many times you try to shoo them away.
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An experiment that involved training mosquitoes to associate certain smells with electric shocks showed that the insects can remember how hard a person swats at them, and can then adjust their behaviour and not target that swatter in future.
Whether you have "sweet blood" or you swat hard enough to keep the mosquitoes away, one thing is for sure: the relationship between us and these pesky insects will never be friendly.