Why Raindrops Don't Kill Mosquitoes? (6 photos)

Most insects find it difficult to fly in the rain. Their wings get wet and their ability to fly is suddenly lost. As a result, the insects die in most cases. However, mosquitoes fly in bad weather and remain safe and sound





Why can a mosquito fly in the rain, while most other insects die immediately? Giant drops weighing as much as a car crash into the ground with a roar. They crush, break, tear. Everything around goes under water, becomes saturated with moisture - there is no hope for salvation. Is this a global flood? A natural disaster of unprecedented proportions? No. It's just rain through the eyes of insects! Every time there's precipitation, the unfortunate bugs experience a small end of the world. But there are some fearless fliers among them who can fly away in bad weather and survive! Their name is mosquitoes.



Ha, missed!

Flying in the rain is a sure suicide for bugs. The diameter of an average raindrop is from 0.5 to 6-7 mm. The body length of, say, an ordinary housefly is 7-8 mm. At a speed of 30 km/h, water particles the size of their own bodies fly into the unfortunate arthropods! In addition, raindrops are almost always several times heavier than insects. As a result, the drops break the wings and literally flatten the bugs under their weight.





Large insects can survive the rain more or less calmly: dragonflies, hornets and some types of flies. But for most, raindrops are like a meteor shower!

But not a mosquito. And this is despite the fact that an ordinary raindrop is 50 times heavier than it. For a bloodsucker, a collision with a drop is the same as a person colliding with a bus. But how is this possible?! It's all about lightness. The mosquito is lighter and smaller than many other aviators, and therefore almost never suffers from air transport accidents. Does this mean that drops do not hit it? No, the insect can simply withstand such a blow.



I love rain, you can hide your tears in it...

You see, if a standard fly or bee is going to fly in bad weather, then a drop will almost certainly hit the body and wings. Flying apart, it will transfer all the energy of its weight. The result is that the animal is injured or dies a heroic death. The mosquito has a different system: drops do not fall on its body, but on its spread legs. But the insect avoids a direct hit with the help of the Johnston organ. It helps determine the direction of air and water. So, sensing that a raindrop is about to hit its legs, the mosquito makes a dizzying barrel roll (a turn of the whole body in the air), shaking off the water. Such a blow is tangential, and the mosquito remains unharmed.



The water bombardment was ineffective. Shoot again!

Is the squeaking bloodsucker always lucky? Of course not! Sometimes the blow lands right on the body. But even then the insect has a chance to survive. Due to the huge advantage in mass, the droplet drags the mosquito along with it. In fact, it sucks the insect into itself without being destroyed or transferring any energy to it. The mosquito falls along with the raindrop for a distance equal to several lengths of its body, after which it gets out of the water captivity and flies about its business.



However, this does not mean that the squeaker does not have to take a hit. It still has to survive the overload from the sharp acceleration when the drop carries it to the ground. And the loads there are not even cosmic - Professor of Engineering and Mechanics David Hough calculated that the mosquito has to withstand an overload of 300 G while it tries to get out of the drop! Just so you understand: an overload of more than 16 G will send any person into a nosedive to the other world. But a bloodsucker wouldn't care! But you know what's ironic? Flying in the rain is much safer for a mosquito than sitting around waiting out the bad weather. If a drop catches an insect on the ground, there will be nowhere to fall. And then the arthropod's light weight will work against it - the raindrop will smear it across the surface like a juicy slap from a palm! The same thing happens when a mosquito gets hit by a drop while flying low above the ground. If it doesn't manage to get out of it before it hits the surface, it will be flattened along with it.