Insects, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 3, 2014

Mosquito Sperm Have 'Sense of Smell'

Updated on Feb. 5, 2 p.m. ET. Mosquito sperm have a sense of smell — a surprising finding that could one day help control disease-carrying mosquitoes, researchers say. Mosquitoes use scent-detecting molecules known as odorant receptors in their antennae. These sensors help mosquitoes sniff out sources of blood as part...

Jul 20, 2016

Chickens May Help Repel Malaria-Carrying Mosquitoes

In a perhaps unexpected finding, the smell of live chickens could help in the fight against malaria, new research shows. Researchers looked at the behavior of the malaria-carrying mosquito Anopheles arabiensis in three villages in western Ethiopia, where people commonly share their living quarters with their livestock. They found that...

Oct 19, 2017

How Blood-Bloated Mosquitoes Stealthily Avoid a Swat

After a mosquito bites you and drinks its fill, how does it escape quickly and sneakily, to avoid getting smacked? To make their liftoff smoother and less noticeable to their victims, blood-bloated mosquitoes adjust their takeoff technique, researchers have discovered. Using an array of high-speed cameras and 3D-motion analysis, scientists...

Jun 7, 2018

Mosquitoes: Biology, Repellents & Bite Relief

Nothing ruins a perfect summer evening like the whine of a mosquito in search of a warm meal. There are 176 species of these annoying insects in the United States and more than 3,000 species throughout the world, according to the American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA) — enough to ruin...

Jun 25, 2018

Your Summer May Be Full of Mosquitoes

As you pack your bags for the cottage or campground this weekend, don't forget to bring light clothes with long sleeves — and a truckload or two of insect repellent. Spring has come and gone, so welcome to mosquito season. How much we enjoy summer in North America depends a...

Jun 22, 2019

Why Do Some People Always Get Bitten by Mosquitoes, While Others Don't?

Some people can sit outside all summer long and not suffer from mosquito bites. Others turn into an itchy mess despite bathing in DEET and never leaving the purple glow of the bug zapper. What gives? It's mostly about the invisible chemical landscape of the air around us. Mosquitoes take...

Oct 15, 2020

Mosquito 'tongue' neurons ignite like fireworks at taste of human blood

What does your blood taste like to a mosquito? Researchers recently discovered that the delectable flavor of human blood sends sensory neurons igniting like fireworks in a mosquito's syringe-like tongue, a piercing mouthpart called a stylet. Only female mosquitoes feed on blood, and only to nourish their developing eggs —...

May 31, 2021

Why do mosquitoes buzz in our ears?

Nothing feels more like summer than a neighborhood barbecue, especially following the dreary winter months. But the nemesis of summer gatherings remains: the droning whine of mosquitoes around our ears. So, why do these bloodsucking insects hover around our ears in the first place? And why do they produce that...

Feb 27, 2022

Should we kill every mosquito on Earth?

Throughout human history, wars, battles and conflicts are thought to have resulted in the deaths of around 1 billion people. But that’s nothing compared with the number of humans killed by mosquitoes. The journal Nature suggests that nearly half of all humans who have lived during the past 50,000 years...

May 4, 2022

How do mosquitoes sniff out humans to bite?

It's the dead of night and you're tucked away in bed, bundled up to your chin in a pitch dark room — and suddenly you hear the telltale buzzing of a mosquito zoom past your ear. Some mosquito species specialize in biting humans, and these tiny blood-suckers excel at tracking...

Oct 20, 2022

Mosquito larvae launch their heads like tiny harpoons to nab prey, video reveals

How do mosquito larvae catch their prey? By using their heads. In attacks that are too swift to be seen with the naked eye, predatory aquatic larvae, which measure about 0.75 inch (2 centimeters) long, launch their heads toward their victims like tiny harpoons, high-speed film footage reveals. In a...

Oct 21, 2022

Animal Sex: How Mosquitoes Do It

Sometimes they're mere pests, other times they're dangerous vectors of diseases, such as malaria and the Zika virus. Whatever the case, the lives of both male and female mosquitoes revolve around mating, so just how do the buzzing insects do it? Across the globe there are more than 3,000 species...

Mar 22, 2023

New invasive mosquitoes descend on Florida, raising concerns of disease

An invasive mosquito species from Central and South America has taken root in South Florida, raising concerns that the pests might spread dangerous viruses, like West Nile. The mosquito species, called Culex lactator, was first detected in Florida in 2018 by researchers affiliated with the University of Florida's Institute of...

Mar 28, 2006

How Cockroaches Decide Where to Hang Out

When it comes to making decisions, cockroaches take a Musketeer-like all for one, and one for all approach. Researchers offered 50 cockroach larvae their choice of three shelters that could each house more than 50 cockroaches. All 50 tended to crowd into the same shelter. When the shelters were swapped...

Jul 31, 2007

The Truth About Cockroaches

Cockroaches might plague your kitchen, but these widely misunderstood creatures are typically not household pests. Scientists consider only 1 percent of all cockroach species as pests. This fact and other details about the group of widely loathed insects called Blattodea are now available in the first online database of the...