Naked flesh, warmth and light are all mozzies need to find you

Are mosquitoes costing your valuable hours sleep this summer? Photo / 123RF

Exposed flesh, warmth and light are all mosquitoes need to exploit victims for blood, a bug expert warns.

"Bugman" Rudd Kleinpaste, host of Animal Planet's Buggin with Ruud, spoke to Newstalk ZB broadcaster Jack Tame this morning.

He said the best people could do to avoid dreaded mozzies was to slather themselves in repellent and not leave stagnant water around the home - it's a breeding ground for the annoying insect.

With most of the country basking in an unusually warm summer - a mosquito paradise - Tame admitted to listeners this morning rogue mosquitoes had cost him three hours' sleep despite his best efforts to use black out curtains to avoid being spotted.

Newstalk ZB host Jack Tame. Photo / Dean Purcell

"They had no problem finding me and biting me all over," Tame said.

Mosquitoes need warm blood for egg production and automatically sense carbon dioxide coming from humans, Kleinpaste said.

"That's how warm-bodied people get their warmth - from breathing oxygen. All the mosquito has to do with their antennae is find carbon dioxide and fly up the gradient to where the carbon dioxide gets stronger."

From that point, mosquitoes will target the warmest, fleshiest part of the body so that they can get a vein to draw blood from.

Warmth, flesh and light are all mosquitoes need to track you down, Bugman Ruud Kleinpaste says.

Mosquitoes have a fine, micro surgical probe to insert into veins and a mechanism to prevent natural clotting that prevents blood loss in humans so they can get as much as necessary, he said.

"It's a pretty clever mechanism."

And the reason some people have more problems with mosquitoes than others?

"What it is, is skin bacteria that makes another smell. Colleagues of mine have worked out that smell of a certain bacteria is the stuff that they really do enjoy. That's it."

That particular bacteria - the same kind that produces Limburger cheese - is frequently found on people's feet and toes.

The "number one rule" for discouraging mosquitoes around the home was removing stagnant water and above all else, using insect repellents and citronella oil.