Myth or fact: Are mosquitoes attracted to carbon dioxide?

Surely you’re curious or at least amused by the question we’re answering today in our “Myth or Fact” series: are mosquitoes attracted to carbon dioxide? It’s an interesting piece of information to say the least that we found on the internet, and if you want to know the answer, we invite you to follow Mr. Alexandru Vladimirescu, PhD in biology and head of the medical entomology laboratory at the Cantacuzino Institute.

What are you curious about? Write us in the comments and we’ll ask the specialist for you!

Interview transcript

In order not to fall into the trap of the plethora of more or less well-documented information, today we check the claims about mosquitoes that appear on the pages of the internet. We read: sweat and carbon dioxide attract mosquitoes. A female will smell carbon dioxide from as far as 22 meters away. Mr. Vladimirescu, is this a myth or a fact?

Some of it is myth and some of it is fact. Indeed, mosquitoes are attracted to human perspiration because it is a practical complex, a cocktail of substances that are attractive to mosquitoes, and also, because we exhale, that is to say, we take carbon dioxide out of the respiratory system, it is indeed a very important attractant for mosquitoes. I have to mention that most or some of the mosquito traps have as an attractant dry ice, which by decomposition, that is to say, by converting it into carbon dioxide, works as an attractant. Now, as to distances, yes, things are certainly debatable and in the area of actual research. From what I’ve personally found in the literature, it is that the distance that can be, say, tracked or detected by a female mosquito that wants to suck blood is greater than 30 feet. That’s a translation, if I may, that we don’t use this system of measurement, we have basically 30 feet. So that would be about the distance.

Is it true, then, that the female feels carbon dioxide more strongly than the male?

No, females and males, but females in particular… Why is that? Because it’s the females that… are the only ones that actually suck blood. They need the blood, this protein-rich meal to lay their eggs. So the male that feeds only on nectar, or other sweet substances, doesn’t have the same ability. But, both the male and the female by, well, nature’s construction, have carbon dioxide sensors.