Why do mosquitoes buzz?
MINNEAPOLIS — The sounds of summer wouldn't be complete without the familiar tune of mosquitoes buzzing.
But did you ever wonder: Why do mosquitoes buzz? Good Question.
"The buzzing we hear is the sound of their wing beats," said Alex Carlson with the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District. "When they get close to us, you can hear that high-frequency pitch of their wings flapping really, really fast."
Female mosquitoes, the ones that bite us, are larger than males. Therefore, they don't have to flap their wings as fast and produce a lower-pitched sound.
"The female species have an 'A' pitch for the frequency of their wings. I don't know if that's true for all the species but for some of the most common I think," Carlson said.
They buzz around our heads because they're attracted to the carbon dioxide we breathe out.
"They're attracted to bright colors so we always say long, light, loose. So they like bright or dark colors and then they can detect your body temperature, so people with higher body temperatures can attract more mosquitoes," Carlson said.
Carlson says they use the buzzing to mate and find each other.
"A recent study was done that showed when the mosquitoes of the male and the female get closer together, they actually start to match frequencies," Carlson said.
It's a romantic duet that can be hard to appreciate when they're out for blood.
Carlson says traps are being developed that can identify mosquitoes based on their buzz frequencies. That can help with research and disease mitigation.