Hairy ears of male mosquitoes help them find the ladies. Can we disrupt their hearing?
If the guy skeeters can't hear the buzz of females ... no mating, no new generation. The results of a study on mosquito hearing could lead to a different kind of population control tool.
Bzzzz... Do you hear that? That's the sound of a mosquito nearby, its wings fluttering rapidly, generating the sound waves that reach your ears and send signals to your brain.
When you hear that distinctive buzz you know it's time to move, swat, spray or else get bit by the nasty bugger. But when another mosquito hears that buzz, it means something totally different – that it's mating time.
It might be hard to believe, but those tiny mosquitoes have complex and powerful ears. Males can use their ears to tune into the specific frequency of females in a swarm and locate them to mate.
Scientists have known that mosquitoes are attracted to sound for but didn't fully understand
