Why Mosquitoes Can Bite Through Your Pants and Target Your Thighs

Ever wondered why mosquitoes can bite through clothing? Learn about their remarkably thin mouthparts, how they track human signals through fabric, and the most effective repellent strategies for summer.

As summer begins, many parents take advantage of the weekend to take their children to the countryside for hiking, stream tracing, and lychee picking. They thought that wearing long sleeves (sun protective clothing or ice sleeves) and long pants would keep away insects, but their arms and legs were still bitten, red and swollen, and the itching was unbearable.

With the summer vacation approaching, parents who plan to send their children to summer camps or back to the countryside must not forget to prepare for insect repellent. In this issue, let's talk about — why can mosquitoes bite people through clothing? And how to prevent it?

How Do Mosquitoes Locate Humans?

Many people think that mosquitoes find people by "smelling blood", such as believing that certain blood types are more attractive to mosquitoes, which is actually a misconception.

In fact, mosquitoes are mainly driven by the following "human signals" [1]:

Drawn by chemical signals: Mosquitoes at rest are first activated by the chemical signals emitted by humans, such as carbon dioxide, skin odor (including volatile components such as lactic acid, ammonia, etc.) and under the guidance of these signals, they seek hosts.

Landing preparation: When mosquitoes fly less than 1 meter away from the human body, they hover around, "detecting" human odors, body temperature, humidity and other information to determine the appropriate "landing point".

Summer clothing often uses fabrics that are highly breathable and easy to dissipate heat. The thickness of these fabrics is small, and the gaps are large — human sweat, odor, and heat can quickly volatilize through the fabric gaps. Mosquitoes track these signals and approach to "bite" [2].