The reason why mosquitoes run towards light

A warm summer night open. Suddenly you turn on the light and a large crowd starts to gather. number of insectsas if they were attracted by this source of light. Surely this has happened to you more than once and You asked yourself the reason.

If so, you’re in luck because it seems like it’s finally there is an explanation one of the greatest mysteries of mankind throughout the centuries. And this is already in full The Roman Empire There has been talk of using light to catch these flying insects.

Studying published in early 2024 in Natural communications shed light on this behavior and came to a surprising conclusion. Insects they are not attracted under artificial light, but this confuses your orientation and therefore they behave towards her in a disorderly manner.

Researchers, by exposing insects to artificial light, noticed that these They adjusted their flight course. so that the back is facing the light source (a phenomenon known as spinal light reaction).

When these insects were exposed to sunlight, their behavior did not change. and yet they did not change their trajectorymaintaining the same flight.

In this sense, insects they need to turn their backs in the light to be able to find where is the sky and where is belowbecause while they are flying, it is not so easy to identify. What does artificial light do create confusion and for this reason they can often be seen flying in circles around street lamps or other light sources.

Fatal Journey

Continuous flights near artificial light usually lead to fatal consequences for insects. If they can’t get away from them, there’s a chance that die of exhaustionlose orientation or become easy prey for predators.

For humans, this problem of orientation is also negative, since insects They carry diseases and the risk of being bitten is higher the more there are of them.