So they’re saying that swatting at those annoying critters causes them to remember that you swatted at them, so they avoid you because they know you’ll swat again?
Makes sense. You ever think about a mosquito brain?
Click here to see a mosquito’s foot magnified 800x.
From the article “‘Pavlov’s mosquitoes’: Swatting has similar effect as insect repellent” by Gerard Gallagher for Healio, click here to read the full story:
In laboratory experiments, researchers found that mosquitoes quickly learned to associate the scent of individual humans with an unpleasant mechanical shock that simulated a vibration on their skin that occurs when humans attempt to swat a mosquito but miss. Once they learned this association, according to Jeffrey A. Riffell, PhD, associate professor of biology at the University of Washington, the mosquitoes showed an aversion to human scent akin to how they react to DEET, an effective insect repellent.
