Yesterday I stopped by Minnesota’s Metropolitan Mosquito Control District (MMCD) booth at our local county fair. They display live mosquito larvae swimming in a shallow pan of water. Visitors can pipette them on to a slide and view them with a microscope. Fascinating!

Thanks to the mosquito control services by MMCD (and/or developments reducing habitat) I’ve seen a dramatic decrease in these pests since moving into my home in Stillwater almost 30 years ago. However, there were plenty of ‘skeeters at the Anderson family get-together up north at Pine Terrace Resort last month. While packing for our getaway, my wife advised that to be less attractive to these flying insects I bring white or lightly colored clothes and none with any reds. Being a professional skeptic of such assertions, I immediately looked for any science to support her advice. As usual, she was right, as you can see in this 2022 publication by Nature on The olfactory gating of visual preferences to human skin and visible spectra in mosquitoes.

If you are put off by too much information, watch this LIVENOW interview of co-author Jeffrey A. Riffell—a biology professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. I like his heads-up that mosquitos learn not to bite people swatting them away and go for easier prey. In other words, if you are going for a hike in the woods, bring along someone who would rather get bitten up than look like a city slicker. Then diligently swat all mosquitos over to your trail-mate—better to look like a fool than be bitten-upped cool.

PS: I am a big fan of DEET repellants for deterring mosquitos and, equally important, ticks. I also wear a cap treated with permethrin, which is a real game changer as advised by Hiking Thru Life. Of course, in areas where mosquitos gather in visible clouds, covering up completely, starting with a head net, is the only way to go. Given the huge increase in mosquito-borne and tick-borne diseases in the United States and elsewhere, it’s best to “fight the bite”.