Tuesday, June 6th, 2017 by Lacey Vukovich-Short

This has been a record hot summer and it is only the beginning. With all this heat comes mosquitoes. Did you know that only female mosquitoes bite? Though they do not have teeth, that doesn’t bother them. They use they use their proboscis which is just a long mouth piece they have. Mosquitoes don’t just bite anyone though. They have a system to their madness. They base it off of the smell of your sweat and your breath. Their antennae have receptors that detect the carbon dioxide that your breath transmits. Your breath acts as a trail straight to the mosquito and lures them in. Our sweat glades produce hundreds of odors that emit right to them. When they smell one they are attracted to its like love at first….bite. For such a small species they leave a large impact.

So the next time you step out into the great outdoors… you’ll know what you’re up against.