Mosquitos escape death by swatting by “surfing” on the airwave generated by the blow directed at them, researchers at Wageningen university have found.

Researchers filmed 500 attempts to swat a mosquito using high-speed photography and AI to make their discovery.

Analysis of the footage showed that mosquitos first actively detect an oncoming attack, swerve and then let themselves be removed from danger by catching the (air) wave, head researcher Antoine Cribellier said.

Cribellier earlier showed that using a perforated swatter compared to an un-perforated one is twice as likely to end in the demise of the mosquito.

“But this time we concentrated on the details of the escape route used by mosquitoes when they are attacked, sometimes in complete darkness,” Cribellier said.