Mosquitoes are common pests, and the question of what attracts them often focuses on human factors like blood type or diet. The inquiry into whether mosquitoes are drawn to honey relates to a fundamental aspect of their biology. Understanding the mosquito’s diet reveals a feeding strategy that separates their need for energy from their drive for reproduction. Their attraction to sweet substances, including honey, is a matter of survival, but it is distinct from the chemical signals that lead them to bite humans.
The Mosquito Diet: Sugar for Energy
All mosquitoes, both male and female, must consume sugar to survive and fuel their daily activities. This carbohydrate source provides the energy reserves necessary for flight, mating, and longevity. In the wild, they obtain this fuel primarily from plant nectars, fruit juices, or plant sap, which are rich in simple sugars. Without this regular sugar intake, a mosquito’s lifespan is significantly reduced.
Honey is a highly concentrated, natural form of sugar, making it an excellent and readily available energy source for a mosquito. Studies have shown that mosquitoes fed honey can exhibit increased survival rates and higher reproductive success. While this sugar meal is taken by both sexes, only the female requires a subsequent blood meal solely for obtaining the proteins necessary to develop her eggs, not for energy. The mosquito’s attraction to honey is a response to a general biological need for carbohydrates, similar to how they respond to flower nectar.
What Attracts Biting Mosquitoes
The focus on biting humans is entirely driven by the female mosquito’s need for a blood meal to complete her reproductive cycle. The signals she uses to locate a host are highly sophisticated and different from the cues she uses to find a sugar source. A female mosquito’s primary long-range attractant is carbon dioxide (CO2), which she detects from a host’s breath. She can sense the plume of CO2 from a significant distance, alerting her that a potential blood source is nearby.
As the mosquito closes the distance, she uses other host-specific chemical and physical cues. Body heat acts as a short-range thermal signal that guides her to the skin surface. Specific volatile organic compounds emitted by human skin and sweat provide the precise location for landing and feeding. These chemical signals include lactic acid, ammonia, and octenol, which are products of human metabolism and the bacteria living on the skin. These unique combinations of CO2, heat, and body odor are what make humans targets, not the presence of a sweet food like honey.
Honey as a Trap Ingredient
The idea of using honey as bait arises from its recognized attraction as a sugar source, but its effectiveness in trapping biting mosquitoes is limited. The sweetness of honey or sugar water attracts mosquitoes seeking an energy meal, primarily males and non-host-seeking females. While the resulting trap may capture mosquitoes, it fails to specifically target the host-seeking females responsible for biting and disease transmission.
The most effective do-it-yourself mosquito traps leverage the mosquito’s attraction to CO2, not just the sugar. These traps typically mix sugar, water, and yeast, which ferments the sugar to produce a steady stream of carbon dioxide. This generated CO2 is the primary mechanism that attracts the biting female, drawing her into the trap. Using honey alone as a bait lacks this crucial CO2 component, making it significantly less effective than a yeast-activated sugar solution.
Using honey as a general insect bait also carries the risk of attracting and trapping beneficial insects, such as honey bees. Since honey is not the primary attractant for a blood meal, it does not possess unique properties that make it a practical solution for mosquito control. Effective traps rely on mimicking the cues of a living host, namely CO2 and chemical odors, rather than simply offering a sweet treat.